This is the metre Columbian. The soft-flowing trochees and dactyls, Blended with fragments spondaic, and here and there an iambus, Syllables often sixteen, or more or less, as it happens, Difficult always to scan, and depending greatly on accent, Being a close imitation, in English, of Latin hexameters — Fluent in sound and avoiding the stiffness of blank verse, Having the grandeur and flow of America's mountains and rivers, Such as no bard could achieve in a mean little island like England; Oft, at the end of a line, the sentence dividing abruptly Breaks, and in accents mellifluous, follows the thoughts of the author. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...REUBEN JAMES by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE BOY BRITTAN [FEBRUARY 8, 1862] by BYRON FORCEYTHE WILLSON THE LUTE OBEYS by THOMAS WYATT SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 3. BEAUTY UNLOOKED FOR by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 33 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH THE INDIAN SUMMER by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |