In the previous article we determined what makes verse different from prose; a regular order of strong and weak syllables, which is called rhythm.

This order, or rhythm, is not always the same as in the lines we have examined. There are several other ways of ar­ranging the weak and strong syllables, which we shall take up later. This one, however, is the most common. A remarkably large proportion of the poetry of our language is written in it. It is called the iambic rhythm, and each group or pair composed of a weak syllable followed by a strong one is called an iambic foot or an iambus.

The iambic rhythm is used for long and short lines alike. Count the number of strong syllables in each of the lines we are examining. You find five, do you not? Since each strong syllable with the weak preceding it, makes a foot, each of these is a line of five feet, called a pentameter line. You will observe that the swing of the line is rather slow because of its length. It is suited to serious poems particularly, though sometimes used for lighter ones. Shakespeare's plays, in the main, "Paradise Lost," "The Idylls of the King," most of the longer poems of Pope, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth and Browning, and all son­nets are made up of iambic pentameter lines
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While regularity is necessary to rhythm, absolute regularity grows monotonous, and certain variations are permissible. Notice this:


Note that the first foot is reversed, the accent coming on the first syllable, not the second; this not only gives variety, but emphasizes the first word, thus catching our attention at once. The same change may be made in any other foot in the line save the last.

An extra weak syllable may be introduced occasionally, giv­ing a lighter, more tripping swing to the line, as is this: The ear'-li-est pipe' of half-a-wak'-en'-ed birds'.

A line is given strength by its words being strong in sound and meaning, and by the thoughts ending with the line; yet a succession of such lines is tiresome, and a change is effected by sometimes ending a line with a word which, though accented, is rather unimportant, and which carries the thought and sound smoothly into the next line, thus:


Now count the feet in the following lines, and watch the order of syllables:


The rhythm is still iambic, you will find. But the number of feet varies from two to six. The first, the four foot, or tetrameter, line, is much used in narrative poems, as its shorter swing lends itself to descriptions of action. The line of three feet, or trimeter, is used more for short, light verses, and fre­quently is combined with the four and five foot lines; a long poem in trimeter is too jerky to be pleasant, as a rule. The same things may be said of the two-foot, or dimeter line. These short lines are used effectively in humorous poems. The line of six iambic feet is seldom used, as its length makes it clumsy, Save in certain combinations with shorter lines.

All the variations noticed in five-foot lines are used in the shorter ones, and it is also common to drop the first syllable of a line entirely, with this effect:


Do you not find that the strong precedes the weak in regular sequence, reversing the order in the iambic line? This is called the trochaic rhythm, each foot being a trochee or trochaic foot. Like the iambic it is used for long and short lines, although more frequently for short than long ones, as it is rather lighter in effect than the iambic, and so better suited for lyrics than Cor long and serious poems. This light effect is given chiefly by the weak syllable ending the line.

The trochaic rhythm is varied by the occasional use of an extra unaccented syllable within the line, and by combinations with the iambic rhythm.
 A little study of Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" shows one the exquisite effects to be gained by these combinations.

A third order of strong and weak syllables is found in the following:


In these lines it is clear that two weak syllables follow each strong one, save at the end of the line. These feet of three syllables instead of two give an entirely different swing to the line. This is the dactylic rhythm, and each foot is a dactyl. Two unaccented syllables at the end of the line, however, make a very weak ending; hence dactylic lines, especially when of more than two feet, usually end with a trochaic or iambic foot, or, as in the lines quoted, with one strong syllable. In the Greek and Latin, dactylic lines of six feet, called dactylic hexameters, were used for long poems, such as the "Iliad" and "Aeneid." In these hexameters the final foot of a line has two long syllables, and is called a spondee. The spondee is seldom found in English poetry because it is not natural in our language to give two suc­ceeding syllables an equal stress
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The dactylic hexameter, however, has been imitated in Eng­lish, notably "Evangeline," though the spondees are usually re­placed by strong trochaic feet, such as hem'-lock and star'-light.

These lines of Hood's are good examples of the use of dactylic rhythm in short lines: