"
ALONZO LEWIS: _Freedom's Amulet_, Dec. 6, 1848.

_Example VI.--"Greek Funeral Chant."--First four of sixty-four Lines._

"A wail | was heard | around | the bed, | the death | -bed of
| the young;
Amidst | her tears, | the Fu | _-neral Chant_ | a mourn | -ful moth
| -er sung.
'I-an | -this dost | thou sleep?-- | Thou sleepst!-- | but this
| is not | the rest,
The breath | -ing, warm, | and ros | -y calm, | I've pil | -low'd on
| my breast!'"
FELICIA HEMANS: _Poetical Works_, Vol. ii, p. 37.

Everett observes, "The _Iliad_ was translated into this measure by CHAPMAN,
and the _AEneid_ by PHAER."--_Eng. Versif._, p. 68. Prior, who has a ballad
of one hundred and eighty such lines, intimates in a note the great
antiquity of the verse. Measures of this length, though not very uncommon,
are much less frequently used than shorter ones. A practice has long
prevailed of dividing this kind of verse into alternate lines of four and
of three feet, thus:--

"To such | as fear | thy ho | -ly name,
myself | I close | -ly join;
To all | who their | obe | -dient wills
to thy | commands | resign."
_Psalms with Com. Prayer: Psalm_ cxix, 63.

This, according to the critics, is the most soft and pleasing of our lyric
measures. With the slight change of setting a capital at the head of each
line, it becomes the regular ballad-metre of our language. Being also
adapted to hymns, as well as to lighter songs, and, more particularly, to
quaint details of no great length, this stanza, or a similar one more
ornamented with rhymes, is found in many choice pieces of English poetry.
The following are a few popular examples:--

"When all | thy mer | -cies, O | my God!
My ris | -ing soul | surveys,
Transport | -ed with | the view | I'm lost
In won | -der, love, | and praise."
_Addison's Hymn of Gratitude_.

"John Gil | -pin was | a cit | -izen
Of cred | -it and | renown,
A train | -band cap | -tain eke | was he
Of fam | -ous Lon | -don town."
_Cowper's Poems_, Vol. i, p. 275.

"God pros | -per long | our no | -ble king,
Our lives | and safe | -ties all;
A wo | -ful hunt | -ing onc