A Manual of Elocution

From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud,
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

"We, which do believe, have entered into rest!"
Aye, now! though round our souls are wildly rolling
The waves of care and trouble, mountain high;
Though funeral bells o'er our dead hopes are tolling-
And clouds and darkness mark our earthly sky;

The soul hath many an 66 upper room
" of sadness
Where, "in the midst" appears her risen Lord,
Whose presence turns the bitterest grief to gladness,
By one low-spoken, yet Almighty word-

"Peace!" All unheeded is the tempest sweeping
Around the spirit- for within the doors
The Master stands to give us joy for weeping,
And shed upon our hearts love's choicest stores.
"We enter into rest." The Sabbath keeping"

May be begun in hearts afar from home,
E'en though our eyes may be well used to weeping,
Though in the wilderness our feet may roam.

Unseen by human eyes, the light is beaming,
Its pure and quiet radiance on our way,
From out the opened heavens upon us streaming,
And turning for us darkness into day.

"We have believed"

we trust the word unfailing,

And here and now, "do enter into rest; "We have believed" -no foe our peace assailing, Can break the soul's repose on Jesus' breast.

READING OF POETRY.

Poetry,-"the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge."

Wordsworth.

"intellect colored by the feelings."-Prof. Wilson.
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotion."

Wordsworth.

"Thoughts that voluntary move

Harmonious numbers."-Milton.

"The suggestion, by means of the imagination, of noble grounds for noble emotions."

Ruskin.

Poetry,-"the utterance of a passion for truth, beauty, and power, embodying and illustrating its convictions by imagination and fancy, and modulating its language on the principle of variety in uniformity."-Leigh Hunt.

Poetry," the eldest voice of time, the undying melody of the heart; poetry- the language of the spirit, the inward sense of history, of eloquence, of fiction, and of philosophy, united to the harmony of sound."-H. Giles.

A poetical line or verse consists of a certain number of accented and unaccented syllables, arranged according to fixed rules. It was originally called verse, (from the Latin verto, to turn,) because when we have finished one line, we turn back to commence the other; as,

"To suffer well is well to serve."- Whittier.

Versification is the harmonious arrangement of a certain number and variety of accented and unaccented syllables, according to particular laws.

Poetical feet are divisions of a line of poetry, each consisting of two or three syllables, regularly accented. They are called feet, because it is by their aid that the voice steps through the verse in a measured pace.

The feet of two syllables are the

Iambus (~~), accented on the second syllable; as, con-tēnt.
Trochee (-), accented on the first syllable; as, pārt-ing.
Spondee (--), with both syllables long; as, A-mēn.

Pyrrhic (~~), with both syllables short; as pĭ-ly — in hap-pily.

The feet of three syllables are the

Anapest (-), accented on the third syllable; as, non-con-cur. Dactyl (~~), accented on the first syllable; as, lõve-li-nēss. Amphibrach (~~), accented on the second syllable; as, re-lūct

ǎnt.

Tribrach (~~), with all short; as, | it-ă-blě | in illimitable. Amphimacer (-~-), with the first and third long; as, | winding

sheet.

Bacchus (--), with the second and third long; as, | the dūll sky.

Antibacchus (--~}, with the first and second long: as, | dēerstealing. |

Molossus (---), all long; as, | Stitch! stitch! stitch! |

"Trōchee trips from | lõng to | short;

From long to long in solemn sort.

Iambics march | from shōrt | to lōng |

Amphibrachys hastes with | ǎ stātely | stride.

First and last | being lōng | middle shōrt | amphĭmā | cer,

Strikes his thun | dēring hōofs | like ǎ prōud | high-bred Rā | cer."
METRICAL FEET.- Coleridge.

Rhyme is the correspondence in sound of the last accented syllable of one line of poetry, with that of the last accented syllable of another; as,

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers, and he bears a laden breast, Full of sad experience moving toward the stillness of his rest.”

Tennyson.

A Stanza is a combination of several verses varying in number according to the poet's fancy, and constituting a regular division of a poem or song; as,

"Rejoice in hope! The day and night

Are one with God, and one with them

Who see by faith the cloudy hem

Of Judgment fringed with Mercy's light."— Whittier.

Blank Verse is the expression of poetical thoughts in regular numbers, but without rhyme, each verse being composed of five iambic feet; thus,

Is littleness; that he who feels contempt
For any living thing, hath faculties

Which he has never used; that thought with him,
Is in its infancy. The man whose eye

Is ever on himself doth look on one,

The least of Nature's works,-one who might move
The wise man to that scorn which wisdom holds
Unlawful ever. Oh! be wiser thou;

Instructed that true knowledge leads to love,
True dignity abides with him alone

Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,
Can still suspect, and still revere himself,
In lowliness of heart."-Wordsworth.

Scanning is the dividing of verse into feet, in order to ascertain whether the number and arrangement of the syllables are according to the laws of versification. A line in which a syllable is wanting is said to be catalectic; one which is complete, acatalectic; one in which there is a redundant syllable, hypercatalectic, or hypermeter.

The Iambus, Trochee, Anapæst, and Dactyl are the principal feet. Only of these may a poem be wholly or in great part formed. According as each may prevail in a poem, the verse is called Iambic, Trochaic, Anapæstic, or Dactylic.

as,

A line that consists wholly of but one kind of foot is called pure;

"They also serve | who ōn | lỹ stand | ănd wait | .

- Milton.

Verses not consisting exclusively of one kind of foot are called mixed; as,

expānds? | "— Robert Browning.

A line consisting of one foot is called Monometer; as

| “Wōrk! wōrk! wōrk!|"— Hood.

Of two feet, Dimeter; as,

"Släcken not sail yet |

At inlet or island; |

Straight for the | beacon steer, |