2d.

Next in succession we find a new stanza, which, like the last, our author thinks might be an agreeable one to naturalize in English poetry. The stanza has six lines; the last three are like the first three, and each set has two lines (Glyconic) alike, and then a shorter line, (Pherecratean.) The movement in each line properly begins with the choriambus, which is the characteristic foot. The two syllables that precede this foot, are what is called a

and the syllables respectively represented by crotchets and quavers, or minims and crotchets. As the English lines which we have given in imitation, aim at nothing more than to afford an exact copy of the rhythm, we hope they will not be regarded as pretending to any thing better than nonsense, in the way of translation. To make the imitation perfectly exact, the syllables must naturally unite into the same groups. To show this union we insert hyphens. "How calmly," for instance, is pronounced in English as a single word, as much as "beatus," (vide Walker's

Grammar of Elocution, and Guest on the accent of construction.) "No-noise" corresponds to "procul" not only in syllabication and quantity, but also in having on the first syllable an accent separate from the musical or metrical ictus. "How," as a syllable, is either long or short, and by a well known rule the situation in which it occurs admits either a

short or a long quantity; "or," coming before a consonant at the beginning of the next word, is in fact long by position, but this likewise is a situation in which, by the same rule, a long syllable is admissi ble.

"Bright ǎscéndĕth the fêstăl dawn.”

This is merely, however, an instance of a license in English versification which we have already explained: the last syllable of "ascends" is so long as to fill out the time. In this poem the last two lines have, in each half, the choriambus placed first, which, as we have just seen, makes the meter the same as the mixed choriambic.

Of the poem on page 213, the first stanza is Eupolidean and the second Cratinean. These meters likewise, Dr. Percival suggests, might perhaps be adopted with advantage in English versification. They differ from each other merely in the place of the choriambus which is their characteristic foot. We shall follow our poet's suggestion, and divide each line into two. Eupolidean :

Deep In my soul from heaven it peals,

Borne as from some celestial sphere."

It will be noticed that the shorter line of the Cratinean is like that of the Eupolidean. In the last example, the last line has three syllables (a dactyl) for its base. This produces an irregularity in the line, which is still farther increased by the word some, which is not well adapted for receiving the ictus.

The choriambus is again the characteristic foot of the next me ter, the Epionic, (polyschematist.) This also seems to our author an available form for English poetry.

“ What joy ăt ếvăn to hear thee,

Sweet voice of tendĕrest lōve !
Hōw blést, ǎlóne to bě nẽar thẽe,

Thōu soft and sorrowing dōve!"

The meter called asynartete (p. 215) is compounded of rhythms having opposite movements, the first from long to short, and the second from short to long. The first is dactylic and the second iambic. It will be well to divide the lines. This peculiar structure, it will be observed, produces a very spirited effect.

"Merrily mérrily rings

The joyous shout of harvest home, Merrily mérrily springs

The homeward bárk thro' dashing foam."

On page 216, we are presented with an imitation of the galliambic, in a poem of great splendor and magnificence. Its rhythm is entirely new in our language, and, as it seems to us, in admirable harmony with the tumultuous agitation of the language and imagery. It is indeed less rebounding (to use an expression of Müller) than in ancient specimens, yet it possesses

this quality in a degree which will cause it to make a singular and startling impression on our ears, which are unaccustomed to meters designed like so many of the an. cient, to produce by rhythm alone, strong, startling, and agitating effects. It was in this meter that the frantic priests of the mother of the gods, with accompanying drums and cymbals, chanted the destruction of the maddened Atys.* We have already in the first part of this article, extracted a stanza from this fine poem, "With loud burst as of thunder," &c. and think that every one must feel the peculiar character of its rhythm. An exact description of the structure of the galliambic verse, considered as composed of two Anacreontic lines, the foot of which is the ionicus a minori, would be too intricate for an article like We will merely observe, to prevent a natural mistake, that the choriambus is not one of the feet, according to the true scansion. The following is the divided formula for the first and third lines of each of the three first stanzas.

the present.

"The clouds roll from the mountains;t

The storm sweeps o'er the plain;”t The next line has the following rhythm, which is essentially the same as the preceding, being changed by what was called anaclasis. These two formulæ will explain all the lines of the first three stanzas.

Our younger readers will find it interesting to refer to Lockhart's "Valerius," for a wild song on the death of Atys, which the author puts into the mouths of these Corybantes.

It will be observed, that both these hemistichs differ from the formula in having at the beginning but one short syllable instead of two or a long one. Perhaps also it is not strictly correct for us to place the mark for metrical ictus over the last syllable of "mountains," yet the true rhythm of this species of verse requires it.

Weep not your king ye Rómáns! For he now is ǎ gód above." The Saturnian meter, which is supposed to have been that of the old Roman ballads, is exhibited in a poem which affords a curious exemplification of the rugged energy which must have characterized those rude songs. The native Roman meters, as is well known, were founded rather on accent than on quantity, and Dr. Percival has written this imitation in a meter which can only be read with the spirit and energy of a strong rhythm that is merely accentual.

"A shout, a shout for Cocles,

Brave among the bravest!
For he the bridge defended,

And fearless swam the river."

Under the head of "Sapphic," we are presented with a short poem of exquisite beauty, which has for its subject the picture of the infant Christ asleep, while reposing on a cross. The Sapphic verse has often been attempted in English, and indeed may be considered one of our established meters. That popular collection, the Christian Lyre, contains a hymn to the tune of the old Sapphic ode on Bunker's Hill. English imitations of this meter, however, have been faulty in being The long quanmerely accentual. tities have not been rightly dis

tributed. Our author having, as he hints in his remarks, taken especial pains with the long quantities, has made his lines smooth and flow. ing. Two of the stanzas illustrate the Greek form without the cæsura, and the other two the Horatian, which has a cæsura after the fifth syllable.

Greek:

“Ōne so yōung and lōvely, so full of beauty, Grandeur and glōry."

Horatian, with the lines divided:
"Yet that look rěvēals,

In its pensive sweetness,
Deep and hōly love,

That will after lead him Forth to heal and säve,* And to higher being Kindly ǎllüre us."-p. 219. The "Alcaic" poem (p. 219) will afford to English readers a good exemplification of the energy and variety found within the narrow limits of this favorite meter with Horace, yet it can scarcely be considered as having precisely the same rhythm, since the cæsura, except in the first line of the second stanza, is after the fourth instead of the fifth syllable. This prevents the abrupt commencement which characterizes the second hemistich. A careful

examination will indeed show that this alteration increases the energy of both portions of the line, but does not the whole thus become too

energetic? Does not the ancient model more than make up by repose, for what it loses in energy. In the ancient model too, the symmetry of the stanza is more perfect. This symmetry depends very much on the fact, that the rhythm of the third line, with its trochaic ending, is the same as that of the first portion of each of the two

*This hemistich, like the extract from the Greek form, has the long quantity disposed as by the ancients-the second syllable being short and the next three long. The other two apparently have the se cond long and the fourth short, yet making the whole time the same.

first lines, while the fourth line, with its abrupt beginning, has the rhythm of the last portion of the two first.* It will be unnecessary to give an extract. No mere English reader can fail of the rhythm, and classical students are familiar with the scansion of the Latin model.

The first specimen of the "Asclepiadean" will be found to be correct in grammatical construction, and to give a regular course of thought if read with the omission of the short line of each stanza. When thus read the poem illustrates the meter of the first ode of Horace. If read as it stands, it is in the meter and stanza of the fifth ode of the first book. The second line of

the second stanza seems faulty. It is most naturally scanned by complete dactyls. The second line also of the third stanza has a dactylic base, which it would have been well to the case of this meter also, it is unavoid. For "only," read but. In necessary to furnish extracts or a description, for the reason just given. The language and sentiments of the poem are in the highest degree energetic and noble; but it may be doubted, whether the Asclepiadean rhythm must not in our strongly accented language necessarily be tumultuous.

The Asclepiadean numbered second, is a poem of great sweetness and beauty, reminding us of Collins's Ode to Evening. Its rhythm, howmuch of the abrupt and disagreeaever, (that of Horace, 1: 12,) has ble rebound to which we have just alluded. As this proceeds from the coincidence of accent and ictus in this strong choriambic meter, and as the choriambic belong to the class of dactylic rhythms, perhaps still farther practice and study would bring on, in a person of our author's qualifications, the habit of giving to the long quantities, and particularly to

* Vide Maller's Hist. Lit. of Greece, Vol. I, p. 171.

that at the end of the choriambus, syllables which end with vowels or liquid consonants and thus admit of an easy flow in the reading, and also the habit of inserting accents out of place, which we have seen add so much to the beauty of the hexameters in this volume. The great attention that Horace paid to the arrangement of his accents as well as his quantities, renders it probable that some degree at least of the same structure is absolutely necessary to this species of verse.

Perhaps we owe an apology for the length to which this article has extended. But we are free to confess a feeling of pride in the genius and scholarship of our countryman. The naturalization of the light and tripping ottava rima by Mr. Frere and Lord Byron, was hailed as an enlargement of the resources of our tongue; yet we consider that a still greater development of its riches has been effected by Dr. Percival in these experiments. The influence of quantity in our versification has indeed of late been acknowledged to some extent, but its systematic and regulated employment has never be fore been attempted in harmony with the genius of our language. This essay of our author opens a new field in our rich and powerful language, and will no doubt lead to more extensive discoveries. The "Classic Melodies" are divided into two parts, the first of which was published two years before the issuing of the present volume. The second part seems to our ear to exhibit a decided superiority over the first in ease and felicity, and we hope that our studious poet will continue to recreate himself with these trials. Those who have observed some of his fugitive pieces in local newspapers, are aware of his extraordinary talents as a translator. How great would be the gratification of receiving from his pen a series of translations from the classic poets, which should give in their versification a

lively idea of the rhythms of the originals. We can not indeed hope that our consonantal dialect can ever equal the vocalic fluency of the Greek and Latin, or that the stronger and more complicated rhythms of the ancient versification can be imitated without an inferiority in ease and sweetness. We fear likewise that the union of accent with quantity must necessarily make some of them declamatory. Still, these first attempts of Dr. Percival show that much may be done, and though the labor of breaking in and training the mind to movements in poetry so widely different from those of our times, must be far greater than that of imitating the meters of modern languages, those of the German for instance, yet the geological researches of our author show an aptitude and fondness for labor, that encourage us to hope, not only that he will continue occasionally to amuse himself with such essays, but that he will perhaps impose them upon himself as a task. Guest has tried his hand upon the English hexameter, in a translation of a passage of some length from the first book of the Iliad, and succeeded in managing the measure perhaps better than any of his countrymen. He suggests the utility of the meter for translations. Homer has, in whole or in part, been rendered into English in the fourteen-syllable meter, the tensyllable, that of blank verse, the octosyllabic of Sir Walter Scott, and into" English Trochaics." Neither of these forms of versification has done justice to the magnificent Grecian. Dr. Percival's genius having through his whole poetical career been so signally displayed in the most splendid objective poetry, in mastery over language, and in vigor and sweetness of versification, is he not unquestionably qualified to execute a translation of the greatest of epic poets, which shall be superior to any of the attempts which have hitherto been made in English?