A verse is a line arranged in poetic form.

NOTE.-The word "verse" has four uses: 1. A poetic line. A short division of any composition. 3. A poem. 4. A stanza. The last use is considered incorrect, but it is almost universal among the masses, and, as the meaning of a word comes from the masses generally, it may be expected that the technical meaning of verse will disappear in its second meaning.

Poetic Feet.-A standard poetic foot contains two or three syllables, one of which is long, and is named according to the arrangement of its long and short syllables.

The accented syllables are considered long (), and the unaccented ones short (~). There are four standard feet in English verse, as follows:

Regular Feet.

Iambus

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The

way was long, the wind was cold.”

Trochee

Anapest
Dactyl

“Tell me not in mournful numbers."

"I am monarch of all I survey."

"Hark to the bird's morning echo of happiness."

All English poetry is founded on one or another of these standard feet, and there is no poem in the language consisting entirely of the irregular feet that are used to break the monotony of the standard measure.

In the following examples the irregular feet are shown as they occur in connection with the regular feet.

Broken Feet.-Broken (or parts of) feet are often used to great

In

advantage, but only a single syllable is used in this way. many cases the understood words would make the foot perfect.

Break is imperative. Do thou is grammatically understood. When supplied, it makes the measure regular, but spoils the verse.

"Dawn on our | darkness and | lend us thine | aid."

"The storm was long, and in wild | commotion

It swept into mountains the billowy ocean."

In the first extract a long syllable ends the line. In the last extract a short syllable is used. Both are broken feet.

In a few cases some writers admit a foot having four syllables, giving the four the same metric time as three.

"The Assyrian came down | like the wolf | on the fold."

Generally, however, if not always, this irregularity comes under what is called poetic license, which allows poets to unite two syllables in a single utterance, or to make two syllables of one.

"The sacred bower of that | renowned bard."

Bower is here pronounced bow'r, and ed in renowned is made a separate syllable.

"On every side | with shadowy squadrons deep

And hosts infuriate shake | the shuddering ground."

Here the last two syllables of every, shadowy, infuriate, and shuddering are to be sounded as one syllable, or the first syllable should be sounded so rapidly as to seem a part of the second. Sometimes the meter will help to give the exact meaning by

showing the accented words, and at other times the accented words will show the meter.* The two should be studied together.

Poetic Movement.-There is a certain movement in poetic forms, a peculiar flow of words, a regular irregularity of sounds, that attracts nearly every one, so that a poem in an unknown language, properly read, pleases, something like sweet music; but to be pleased with music and to appreciate it are two very different things. To "like to read poetry," and to have even the slightest appreciation of exalted sentiment, may be as different as are poetry and prose.

To be a true lover of poetry one must be a poet in his innermost nature; and to study poetry, or to read it fairly well, one must enter into the mood of the poet himself.

Varieties of Poetry. The principal divisions, or classes, of poetic composition are the Epic, the Lyric, and the Dramatic. The ballad belongs to Epic poetry. The Lyric includes the varieties of song, the hymn, the anthem, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet. Drama embraces tragedy and comedy. Didactic and satirical compositions form a class by themselves, but are sometimes excluded from the ranks of poetry. The Epic form is the highest type, since it includes the Drama with narration. The characters are made to speak and to act with sustained interest.

The gifts and qualities essential to the greatest poets are, in their order: first, imagination, combined with action and character; next, feeling and thought; fancy, the next; and wit, the last. Thought alone does not make a poet. The mere conclusions of the understanding are only intellectual facts. Feeling, being a sort of thought without the process of thinking, may be the basis of a low class of poetry, which may please the beginner, but is discarded as he grows into a knowledge of and a love for the higher forms of poetic thought.

*The terms Short Meter, Long Meter, Common Meter, etc., as used in hymn-books, indicate the number of lambic feet found in the lines of lyric poetry, to be sung to music corresponding in accent and syllables.

1. A boy about ten years old was pushing a cart heavily loaded with pieces of board and lath taken from some demolished structure,-an every-day sight in most of our cities. Tired and exhausted, he halted under a shade tree. His feet were bruised

and sore, his clothes were in rags, and his face was pinched and looked years older than it should.

2. What must be the thoughts of such a child as he looks out upon the world,-the fine houses, the rich dresses, the rolling carriages, the happy faces of those who have never known what it is to be poor!

3. Do such thoughts harden the heart and make it wicked, or do they bring a feeling of loneliness and wretchedness,-a wonder if the rich man's heaven is not so far from the poor man's heaven that he will never catch sight of the pinched faces there?

4. The boy lay down on the grass, and in five minutes was sound asleep. His bare feet just