p. xxviii
The first, called Boädicea, is in Trochaic Tetrameter,
which properly consists of eight trochees, but consider-
able variations are admitted, of which our Laureate has
availed himself, by frequently introducing a dactyl in
the sixth foot, and occasionally closing his line with a
catalectic syllable :-
1
|
"Roar'd as when the | rolling | breakers | boom and | blanch on
the precipices,
Yell'd as when the winds of winter tear an oak on a promontory,
So the silent colony hearing her tumultuous adversaries."