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Here 'many a' is what I have explained to be a bastard trochee, and to
be understood should be accented with inverted crescents. It is
objectionable solely on account of its position as the opening foot of
a trochaic rhythm. Memory, similarly accented is also a bastard
trochee, but unobjectionable, although by no means demanded.
The further illustration of this point will enable me to take an
important step.
One of our finest poets, Mr. Christopher Pearse Cranch, begins a
very beautiful poem thus:
Many are the thoughts that come to me
In my lonely musing;
And they drift so strange and swift
There's no time for choosing
Which to follow; for to leave
Any, seems a losing.
"A losing" to Mr. Cranch, of course- but this en passant. It will be
seen here that the intention is trochaic;- although we do not see this
intention by the opening foot as we should do, or even by the
opening line. Reading the whole stanza, however, we perceive the
trochaic rhythm as the general design, and so after some reflection,
we divide the first line thus:
Many are the / thoughts that / come to / me.
Thus scanned, the line will seem musical. It is highly so. And it is
because there is no end to instances of just such lines of
apparently incomprehensible music, that Coleridge thought proper to
invent his nonsensical system of what he calls "scanning by
accents"- as if "scanning by accents" were anything more than a
phrase.
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