stitution of a trochee for an iambus:--

"I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | e q |e e e |
Not so much hon oring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be,
But thou thereon didst only breathe
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee."

Of all the great poets, but few have been such masters of the art of
making musical verse as Spenser. The following stanza is from "The
Faerie Queene;" and the delicate changes from one foot to another are
so skillfully made that one has to look twice before he finds them.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^
"A little lowly hermitage it was,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Down in a dale, hard by a forest's side,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Far from resort of people that did pass
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
In travel to and fro; a little wide
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
There was a holy chapel edified,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Wherein a hermit duly wont to say
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
His holy things each morn and eventide;
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Thereby a crystal stream did gently play,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway."

First and Last Foot.

From the lines on "The Burial of Sir John Moore," another fact about
metres may be derived. The second and fourth lines apparently have one
too many syllables. _This may occur when the accent is upon the last
syllable of the foot;_ that is, when the foot is an iambus or an
anapest.

Again, the last foot of each line may be one syllable short. _This may
occur when the accent is on the first syllable of a foot;_ that is,
when the foot is trochaic or dactylic. The scheme is like this:

| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
"Tell me not in mournful numbers
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q r |
Life is but an empty dream."

The last foot of a verse of poetry, then, may have more or fewer
syllables than the regular number; still the foot takes up the regular
time and cannot be deemed unrhythmical.

The first foot of a line, too, may contain an extra syllable; a