* Verse, from the Latin vertere, to turn, is so called on account of
the turning or re-commencement of the series of feet. Thus a verse
strictly speaking is a line. In this sense, however, I have
preferred using the latter word alone; employing the former in the
general acceptation given it in the heading of this paper.
Lines being once introduced, the necessity of distinctly defining
these lines to the ear (as yet written verse does not exist), would
lead to a scrutiny of their capabilities at their terminations- and
now would spring up the idea of equality in sound between the final
syllables- in other words, of rhyme. First, it would be used only in
the iambic, anapaestic, and spondaic rhythms (granting that the latter
had not been thrown aside long since, on account of its tameness),
because in these rhythms the concluding syllable being long, could
best sustain the necessary protraction of the voice. No great while
could elapse, however, before the effect, found pleasant as well as
useful, would be applied to the two remaining rhythms. But as the
chief force of rhyme must lie in the accented syllable, the attempt to
create rhyme at all in these two remaining rhythms, the trochaic and
dactylic, would necessarily result in double and triple rhymes, such
as beauty with duty (trochaic), and beautiful with dutiful (dactylic).
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