About the trochee used for an iambus, as we see in the beginning
of the line,
Whether thou choose Cervantes' serious air,
there is little that need be said. It brings me to the general
proposition that, in all rhythms, the prevalent or distinctive feet
may be varied at will and nearly at random, by the occasional
introduction of feet- that is to say, feet the sum of whose syllabic
times is equal to the sum of the syllabic times of the distinctive
feet. Thus, the trochee, whether is equal, in the sum of the times
of its syllables, to the iambus, thou choose, in the sum of the
times of its syllables; each foot being in time equal to three short
syllables. Good versifiers who happen to be also good poets,
contrive to relieve the monotony of a series of feet by the use of
equivalent feet only at rare intervals, and at such points of their
subject as seem in accordance with the startling character of the
variation. Nothing of this care is seen in the line quoted above-
although Pope has some fine instances of the duplicate effect. Where
vehemence is to be strongly expressed, I am not sure that we should be
wrong in venturing on two consecutive equivalent feet- although I
cannot say that I have ever known the adventure made, except in the
following passage, which occurs in "Al Aaraaf," a boyish poem
written by myself when a boy.
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