In illustration of what is here advanced I cannot do better than
quote a poem:
Pease porridge hot pease porridge cold
Pease porridge in the pot- nine days old.
Now those of my readers who have never heard this poem pronounced
according to the nursery conventionality, will find its rhythm as
obscure as an explanatory note; while those who have heard it will
divide it thus, declare it musical, and wonder how there can be any
doubt about it.
Pease / porridge / hot / pease / porridge / cold /
Pease / porridge / in the / pot / nine / days / old. /
The chief thing in the way of this species of rhythm, is the necessity
which it imposes upon the poet of travelling in constant company
with his compositions, so as to be ready at a moment's notice, to
avail himself of a well-understood poetical license- that of reading
aloud one's own doggerel.
In Mr. Cranch's line,
Many are the / thoughts that / come to / me,
the general error of which I speak is, of course, very partially
exemplified, and the purpose for which, chiefly, I cite it, lies yet
further on in our topic.
The two divisions (thoughts that) and (come to) are ordinary
trochees. The first division (many are the) would be thus accented
by the Greek Prosodies (many are the), and would be called by them
astrologos.
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