Chapter I: Definitions

STANZA, RHYME, VARIETIES OF RHYME

§ =214.= The strophe in ancient poetry, and the stanza in mediaeval and modern analogues and derivatives of that poetic form, are combinations of single lines into a unity of which the lines are the parts. The word _strophe_[180] in its literal sense means a turning, and originally denoted the return of the song to the melody with which it began. The melody, which is a series of musical sounds arranged in accordance with the laws of rhythm and modulation, has in poetry its counterpart in a parallel series of significant sounds or words arranged according to the laws of rhythm; and the melodic termination of the musical series has its analogue in the logical completion of the thought. But within the stanza itself again there are well-marked resting places, divisions closely connected with the periods or sentences of which the stanza is made up. The periods are built up of rhythmical sequences which are combinations of single feet, dominated by a rhythmical main accent. In shorter lines the end of the rhythmical sequence as a rule coincides with the end of the verse; but if the line is of some length it generally contains two or even more rhythmical sequences.[181] The essential constituents of the stanza are the lines; and the structure of the stanzas connected together to make up a poem is in classical as well as in mediaeval and modern poetry subject to the rule that the lines of each stanza of the poem must resemble those of the other stanzas in number, length (i.e. the number of feet or measures), rhythmical structure, and arrangement. (This rule, however, is not without exceptions in modern poetry.) In the versification of the ancients it was sufficient for the construction of a strophic poem that its verses should be combined in a certain number of groups which resembled each other in these respects. In modern poetry, also, such an arrangement of the verses may be sufficient for the construction of stanzas; but this is only exceptionally the case, and, as a rule, only in imitation of the classic metrical forms (cf. §§ 212-13). The stanza, as it is found in the mediaeval and modern poetry of the nations of western Europe, exhibits an additional structural element of the greatest importance, viz. the connexion of the single lines of the stanza by end-rhyme; and with regard to this a rule analogous to the previously mentioned law regarding the equality in number and nature of verses forming a stanza holds good, viz. that the arrangement of the rhymes which link the verses together to form stanzas, must be the same in all the stanzas of a poem.

§ =215.= Of the three chief kinds of rhyme, in its widest sense (mentioned § 10), i.e. alliteration, assonance, and end-rhyme, only the last need be taken into consideration here. There are, indeed, some poems in Old English in which end-rhyme is used consciously and intentionally (see §§ 40-1), but it was never used in that period for the construction of stanzas. This took place first in Middle English under the influence and after the model of the Low Latin and the Romanic lyrics.

The influence of the Low Latin lyrical and hymnodic poetry on the Old English stanzas is easily explicable from the position of the Latin language as the international tongue of the church and of learning during the Middle Ages. The influence of the lyrical forms of Provence and of Northern France on Middle English poetry was rendered possible by various circumstances. In the first place, during the crusades the nations of Western Europe frequently came into close contact with each other. A more important factor, however, was the Norman Conquest, in consequence of which the Norman-French language during a considerable time predominated in the British Isles and acted as a channel of communication of literature with the continent. One historical event deserves in this connexion special mention--the marriage in the year 1152 of Henry, Duke of Normandy (who came to the throne of England in 1154), and Eleonore of Poitou, widow of Louis VII of France; in her train Bernard de Ventadorn, the troubadour, came to England, whither many other poets and minstrels soon followed him, both in the reign of Henry and of his successor Richard Coeur de Lion, who himself composed songs in the Provençal and in the French language. The effect of the spread of songs like these in Provençal and French in England was to give a stimulus and add new forms to the native lyrical poetry which was gradually reviving. At first indeed the somewhat complicated strophic forms of the Provençal and Northern French lyrics did not greatly appeal to English tastes, and were little adapted to the less flexible character of the English tongue. Hence many of the more elaborate rhyme-systems of Provençal and Northern French lyrical versification were not imitated at all in English; others were reproduced only in a modified and often very original form; and only the simpler forms, which occurred mostly in Low Latin poetry as well, were imitated somewhat early and with little or no modification.

§ =216.= The end-rhyme, which is so important a factor in the formation of stanzas, has many varieties, which may be classified in three ways:

A. According to the =number= of the rhyming syllables.

B. According to the =quality= of these syllables.

C. According to the =position of the rhyme= in relation to the line and the stanza.

Intimately connected with this last point is the use of rhyme as an element in the structure of the stanza.

A. With regard to the number of the syllables, rhymes are divided into three classes, viz.:

1. The =monosyllabic= or =single rhyme= (also called =masculine=), e.g. _hand: land_, _face: grace_.

2. The =disyllabic= or =double rhyme= (also called =feminine=), as _ever: never_, _brother: mother_, _treasure: measure_, _suppression: transgression_; or _owe me: know me_ Shakesp. Ven. and Ad. 523-5; _bereft me: left me_ ib. 439-41. The terms _masculine_ and _feminine_ originated with the Provençal poets and metrists, who were the first among the people of Western Europe to theorize on the structure of the verses which they employed, and introduced these terms in reference to the forms of the Provençal adjective, which were monosyllabic or accented on the last syllable in the masculine, and disyllabic or accented on the last syllable but one in the feminine: _bos-bona_, _amatz-amada_.

3. The =trisyllabic, triple=, or =tumbling rhyme=, called _gleitender_ (i.e. gliding) _Reim_ in German. Of this variety of rhyme, which is less common than the two others, examples are _gymnastical: ecclesiastical_ Byron, Beppo, 3; _quality: liberality_ ib. 30; _láugh of them: hálf of them_ ib. 98. Rhymes like this last, which are made up of more words than two, might, like those given above under the disyllables, such as _owe me: know me_, also form a separate sub-species as =compound rhymes=, as they resemble the broken rhymes (cf. § 217, B. 3) and have, like these, mostly a burlesque effect.

§ =217.= B. According to the second principle of classification, by the quality of the rhyming syllables, the species of rhyme are as follows:

1. The =rich rhyme= (in French _rime riche_), i.e. two words completely alike in sound but unlike in meaning rhyming with each other. Of this three special cases are possible:

_a._ Two simple words rhyming with each other, as _londe_ (inf.)_: londe_ (noun) K. Horn, 753-4; _armes_ (arms)_: armes_ (weapons) Chaucer, Compleynt of Mars, ll. 76-7; _steepe_ (adj.)_: steepe_ (inf.) Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 39; _sent_ (perf.)_: sent_ (_=scent_, noun) ib. 43; _can_ (noun); _can_ (verb) ib. I. iv. 22, &c. In the earlier Modern English poetry we find many rhymes of this class between words that are alike or similar in sound, but of different spelling, as _night: knight_, _foul: fowl_, _gilt: guilt_, _hart: heart_, &c. (cf. Ellis, 'Shakespere's Puns' in _Early Engl. Pron._ iii. 920, iv. 1018).

_b._ A simple and a compound word rhyming together, as _leue: bileue_ K. Horn, 741-2; _like: sellike_ Sir Tristr. 1222-4; _ymake: make_ Wright's Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 27, ll. 16-18; _apart: part_ Spenser, F. Q. I. ii. 21, _hold: behold_ ib. I. iii. 40; here also identity of sound and difference of spelling is possible, as _renew: knew_ ib. I. iii. 25.

_c._ Two compound words rhyming together, as _recorde: accorde_ Chaucer, C. T. Prol. 828-9; _affirmed: confirmed_ Wyatt, p. 98; _expeld: compeld_ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 5.

2. The =identical rhyme=. This is, properly speaking, no rhyme at all, but only a repetition of the same word intended as a substitute for rhyme; and therefore was and is avoided by careful and skilful poets; _sette: sette_ K. Horn, 757-8; _other: other_ Wyatt, p. 45; _down: down_ ib. p. 194; _sight: sight_ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 45, &c.

3. The =broken rhyme= has two sub-species:

_a._ In the first of these one part of the rhyme is composed of two or three words (unlike the rhymes spoken of under A. 3, consisting of two words each), e.g. _time: bi me_ K. Horn, 533-4; _scolis: fole is_, Chaucer, Troil. i. 634-5; _tyrant: high rent_ Moore, Fudge Fam., Letter iv; _wide as: Midas_ ib.; _well a day: melody_ ib. x; _Verona: known a_ Byron, Beppo, 17; _sad knee: Ariadne_ ib. 28; _endure a: seccatura_ ib. 31; _estrangement: change meant_ ib. 53; _quote is: notice_ ib. 48; _exhibit 'em: libitum_ ib. 70; _Julia: truly a: newly a_ Byron, Don Juan, ii. 208.

_b._ In the second sub-species the rhyme to a common word is formed by the first part only of a longer word, the remainder standing at the beginning of the following line. This sort of rhyme seems to be unknown in Middle English literature; modern poets, however, use it not unfrequently in burlesque, as well as the previously mentioned sub-species, e.g. _kind: blind-_(_ness_) Pope, Satire iii. 67; _forget-_(_ful_)_: debt_ ib. iv. 13; _beg: egge-_(_shells_) ib. iv. 104; _nice hence-_(_forward_)_: licence_ Byron, Don Juan, i. 120; Thackeray, Ballads, p. 133:

_Winter and summer, night and morn,
I languish at this table dark;
My office window has a corn-
er looks into St. James's Park._

4. The =double rhyme=. This is always trisyllabic like that mentioned under A. 3; but there is a difference between them, in that the two closing syllables of the gliding rhyme stand outside the regular rhythm of the verse; while the first and the third syllable of the double rhyme bear the second last and last arsis of the verse.

_For dóuteth nóthinge, mýn inténción
Nis nót to yów of reprehénción._
Chaucer, Troil. i. 683-4.

This sort of rhyme does on the whole not very often occur in Modern English poetry, and even in Middle English literature we ought to regard it as accidental. The same is the case with another (more frequent) species, namely,

5. The =extended rhyme=, in which an unaccented syllable preceding the rhyme proper, or an unaccented word in thesis, forms part of the rhyme, e.g. _biforne: iborne_ Chaucer, Troil. ii. 296-8; _in joye: in Troye_ ib. i. 118-19; _to quyken: to stiken_ ib. 295-7; _the Past: me last_ Byron, Ch. Harold, ii. 96; _the limb: the brim_ ib. iii. 8, &c.

6. The =unaccented rhyme=, an imperfect kind of rhyme, because only the unaccented syllables of disyllabic or polysyllabic words, mostly of Germanic origin and accentuation, rhyme together, and not their accented syllables as the ordinary rule would demand, e.g. _láweles, lóreless, námeless_; _wrécful_, _wróngful_, _sínful_ Song of the Magna Charta, ll. 30-2, 66-8; many rhymes of this kind occur in the alliterative-rhyming long line combined into stanzas.[182] In Modern English we find this kind of rhyme pretty often in Wyatt[183]; e.g.:

_Consider well thy ground and thy beginning;
And gives the moon her horns, and her eclipsing._
p. 56.

_With horrible fear, as one that greatly dreadeth
A wrongful death, and justice alway seeketh._
p. 149.

Such rhymes in dactylic feet, as in the following verses by Moore (_Beauty and Song_ ll. 1-4),

_Dówn in yon súmmer vale,
Whére the rill flóws,
Thús said the Níghtingale
Tó his loved Róse_,

are not harsh, because in this case the unaccented syllable which bears the rhyme is separated from the accented syllable by a thesis. A variety of the unaccented rhyme is called the =accented-unaccented=; examples have been quoted before in the chapter treating of the alliterative-rhyming long line (§§ 61, 62). In the same place some other verses of the above-quoted song of Moore are given, showing the admissibility of rhymes between gliding or trisyllabic and masculine rhyming-syllables or -words (_mélodý: thée_, _Róse bè: thée_). In these cases the subordinate accent of the third syllable in _mélody_ or the word _bè_ in the equally long _Róse bè_ is strong enough to make a rhyme with _thee_ possible, although this last word has a strong syntactical and rhythmical accent. As a rule such accented-unaccented rhymes, in which masculine endings rhyme with feminine endings, are very harsh, as is often the case in Wyatt's poems (cf. Alscher, pp. 123-6), e.g.

_So chánced mé that évery pássión
Wherebý if thát I láugh at ány séason._ p. 7.

§ =218.= C. According to the third principle of classification, by the position of the rhyming syllable, the varieties of rhyme are as follows:

1. The =sectional rhyme=, so called because it consists of two rhyming words within one section or hemistich.[184] This kind of rhyme occurs now and then even in Old English poetry, but it is usually unintentional (cf. §§ 40-2), e.g. _sǣla and mǣla_; _þæt is sōð metod_ Beow. 1611; in Middle English literature it is frequent, as in Barbour's Bruce: _and till Ingland agayne is gayne_ i. 144, iii. 185; _That eftyr him dar na man ga_ iii. 166. In Modern English poetry this kind of rhyme is more frequent, and often intentionally used for artistic effect:

_Then up with your cup, | till you stagger in speech,
And match me this catch, | though you swagger and screech,
Ah, drink till you wink, | my merry men, each._
Walter Scott, Song from Kenilworth.

2. Very closely related to this is the =inverse rhyme= (as Guest called it), which occurs when the last accented syllable of the first hemistich of a verse rhymes with the first accented syllable of the second hemistich:

_These steps both reach | and teach thee shall
To come by thrift | to shift withall._ Tusser.

This kind of rhyme is generally met with in the popular national long line of four stresses. Guest gives a much wider range to it. But when it occurs in other kinds of verse, as in the iambic verse of four or five feet, it is not to be looked upon as an intentional rhyme, but only as a consonance caused by rhetorical repetition (the examples are quoted by Guest):

_And art thou gone and gone for ever?_ Burns.

_I followed fast, but faster did he fly._
Shak. Mids. III. ii. 416.

3. The =Leonine[185] rhyme= or =middle rhyme=, which recurs throughout the Old English _Rhyming Poem_, and is occasionally used in other Old English poems. This rhyme connects the two hemistichs of an alliterative line with each other by end-rhyme and, at the same time, causes the gradual breaking up of it into two short lines; we find it in certain parts of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, in Layamon, in the _Proverbs of Alfred_, and other poems, e.g.: _his sedes to_ sowen, _his medes to_ mowen Prov. 93-4; _þus we uerden_ þere, _and for þi beoþ nu_ here Lay. 1879-80. See §§ 49, 57-58, 78 for examples from Middle and Modern English literature of this kind of rhyme (called by the French _rimes plates_) as well as of the following kind, when used in even-beat metres.

4. The =interlaced rhyme= (_rime entrelacée_), by means of which two long-lined rhyming couplets are connected a second time in corresponding places (before the caesura) by another rhyme, so that they seem to be broken up into four short verses of alternate or cross-rhyme (_a b a b_), e.g. in the latter part of Robert Mannyng's _Rhyming Chronicle_ (from p. 69 of Hearne's edition), or in the second version of _Saynt Katerine_ (cf. the quotations, §§ 77, 78, 150). When, however, long verses without interlaced rhyme are broken up only by the arrangement of the writer or printer into short lines, we have

5. The =intermittent rhyme=, whose formula is _a b c b_ (cf. p. 196). Both sorts of rhyme may also be used, of course, in other kinds of verse, shorter or longer; as a rule, however, the intermittent rhyme is employed for shorter, the alternate or cross-rhyme for longer verses, as, for example, those of five feet.

6. The =enclosing rhyme=, corresponding to the formula _a b b a_, e.g. in _spray, still, fill, May_, as in the quartets of the sonnet formed after the Italian model (cf. below, Book II, chap. ix). This sort of rhyme does not often occur in Middle English poetry; but we find it later, e.g. in the tail or veer of a variety of stanza used by Dunbar and Kennedy in their _Flyting Poem_.

7. The =tail-rhyme= (in French called _rime couée_, in German _Schweifreim_), the formula of which is _a a b c c b_. (For a specimen see § 79.)

This arrangement of rhymes originated from two long lines of the same structure, formed into a couplet by end-rhyme, each of the lines being divided into three sections (whence the name _versus tripertiti caudati_). This couplet, the formula of which was _- a - a - b || - c - c - b_, is, in the form in which it actually appears broken up into a stanza of six short lines, viz. two longer couplets _a a_, _c c_, and a pair of shorter lines rhyming together as _b b_, the order of rhymes being _a a b c c b_. (For remarks on the origin of this stanza see § 240.)

§ =219.= As to the quality of the rhyme, purity or exactness, of course, is and always has been a chief requirement. It is, however, well known that the need for this exactness is frequently disregarded not only in Old and Middle English poetry (cf. e.g. the Old English assonances meant for rhymes, § 40, or the often very defective rhymes of Layamon, § 45) but even in Modern English poetry. Many instructive examples of defective rhymes from Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, and Dryden are given by A.J. Ellis, _On Early Engl. Pronunciation_, iii. 858-74, 953-66, iv. 1033-9.

From these collections of instances we see how a class of imperfect rhymes came into existence in consequence of the change in the pronunciation of certain vowels, from which it resulted that many pairs of words that originally rhymed together, more or less perfectly, ceased to be rhymes at all to the ear, although, as the spelling remained unaltered, they retained in their written form a delusive appearance of correspondence. These 'eye-rhymes', as they are called, play an important part in English poetry, being frequently admitted by later poets, who continue to rhyme together words such as _eye: majesty_ Pope, Temple of Fame, 202-3; _crowns: owns_ ib. 242-3; _own'd: found_ id. Wife of Bath, 32-3, notwithstanding the fact that the vowel of the two words, which at first formed perfect rhymes, had long before been diphthongized or otherwise changed while the other word still kept its original vowel-sound.

NOTES:

[180] The word stanza is explained by Skeat, _Conc. Etym. Dict._, as
follows:

'STANZA. Ital. stanza, O. Ital. _stantia_, "a lodging, chamber,
dwelling, also _stance_ or staffe of verses;" Florio. So
called from the stop or _pause_ at the end of it.--Low Lat.
_stantia_, an abode.--Lat. _stant-_, stem of pres. pt. of
_stare_.'

[181] Cf. §§ 8, 223-7.

[182] Cf. §§ 60-2 and the author's 'Metrische Randglossen, II.',
_Engl. Stud._, x, pp. 196-200.

[183] Cf. _Sir Thomas Wyatt_, von R. Alscher, Wien, 1886 pp. 119-23.

[184] By the German metrists it is called _Binnenreim_, or
_Innenreim_.

[185] So called from a poet Leo of the Middle Ages (c. 1150) who
wrote in hexameters rhyming in the middle and at the end.
Similar verses, however, had been used occasionally in classic
Latin poetry, as e.g. _Quot caelum stellas, tot habet tua Roma
puellas_, Ovid, Ars Amat. i. 59.