The first
one was, therefore, thus divided:
Know ye the / land where the / cypress and / myrtle. /
The concluding foot was a mystery; but the Prosodies said
something about the dactylic "measure" calling now and then for a
double rhyme; and the court of inquiry were content to rest in the
double rhyme, without exactly perceiving what a double rhyme had to do
with the question of an irregular foot. Quitting the first line, the
second was thus scanned:
are emblems / of deeds that / are done in / their clime. /
It was immediately seen, however, that this would not do- it was at
war with the whole emphasis of the reading. It could not be supposed
that Byron, or any one in his senses, intended to place stress upon
such monosyllables as "are," "of," and "their," nor could "their
clime," collated with "to crime," in the corresponding line below,
be fairly twisted into anything like a "double rhyme," so as to
bring everything within the category of the Grammars. But farther
these Grammars spoke not. The inquirers, therefore, in spite of
their sense of harmony in the lines, when considered without reference
to scansion, fell upon the idea that the "Are" was a blunder- an
excess for which the poet should be sent to Coventry- and, striking it
out, they scanned the remainder of the line as follows:
-emblems of / deeds that are / done in their / clime.
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