Chapter III: Bipartite Equal-Membered Stanzas

I. _Isometrical stanzas._

§ =230. Two-line stanzas.= The simplest bipartite equal-membered stanza is that of two isometrical verses only. In the Northern English translation of the Psalms (_Surtees Society_, vols. xvi and xix) we find, for the most part, two-line stanzas of four-foot verses rhyming in couplets, occasionally alternating with stanzas of four, six, eight, or more lines.

In Middle English poetry, however, this form was generally used for longer poems that were not arranged in stanzas. Although it would be possible to divide some of these (e.g. the _Moral Ode_), either throughout or in certain parts, into bipartite stanzas, there is no reason to suppose that any strophic arrangement was intended.

In Modern English, on the other hand, such an arrangement is often intentional, as in R. Browning, _The Boy and the Angel_ (iv. 158), a poem of four-foot trochaic verses:

_Morning, evening, noon and night
'Praise God!' sang Theocrite._

_Then to his poor trade he turned,
Whereby the daily meal was earned._

Similar stanzas in other metres occur in Longfellow, Tennyson, Thackeray, Rossetti, &c.; among them we find e.g. eight-foot trochaic and iambic-anapaestic verses (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 3).

§ =231.= More frequently we find =four-line stanzas=, consisting of couplets. In Middle English lyric poetry such stanzas of two short couplets are occasionally met with as early as in the _Surtees Psalms_, but they occur more frequently in Modern English, e.g. in M. Arnold, _Urania_ (p. 217), and in Carew, e.g. _The Inquiry_ (Poets, iii):

_Amongst the myrtles as I walk'd,
Love and my sighs thus intertalk'd:
'Tell me,' said I, in deep distress,
'Where I may find my shepherdess.'_

Regular alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes is very rarely found in this simple stanza (or indeed in any Middle English stanzas); it is, properly speaking, only a series of rhyming couplets with a stop after every fourth line.

This stanza is very popular, as are also various analogous four-line stanzas in other metres. One of these is the quatrain of four-foot trochaic verses, as used by M. Arnold in _The Last Word_, and by Milton, e.g. in _Psalm CXXXVI_, where the two last lines form the refrain, so that the strophic arrangement is more distinctly marked. Stanzas of four-foot iambic-anapaestic lines we find e.g. in Moore, '_Tis the last Rose of Summer_, and similar stanzas of five-foot iambic verses in Cowper, pp. 359, 410; M. Arnold, _Self-Dependence_ (last stanza).

Less common are the quatrains of four-foot dactylic lines, of three-foot iambic-anapaestic lines, of six-foot iambic and trochaic lines, of seven-foot iambic lines, and of eight-foot trochaic lines. But specimens of each of these varieties are occasionally met with (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 261).

§ =232.= The double stanza, i.e. that of eight lines of the same structure (_a a b b c c d d_), occurs in different kinds of verse. With lines of four measures it is found, e.g. in Suckling's poem, _The Expostulation_ (Poets, iii. 749):

_Tell me, ye juster deities,
That pity lover's miseries,
Why should my own unworthiness
Light me to seek my happiness?
It is as natural, as just,
Him for to love whom needs I must:
All men confess that love's a fire,
Then who denies it to aspire?_

This stanza comes to a better conclusion when it winds up with a refrain, as in Percy's _Reliques_, II. ii. 13. One very popular form of it consists of four-foot trochaic lines, e.g. in Burns, p. 197, M. Arnold, _A Memory Picture_, p. 23 (the two last lines of each stanza forming a refrain), or of four-foot iambic-anapaestic lines (Burns, _My heart's in the Highlands_). Somewhat rarely it is made up of five-foot iambic or septenaric lines (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 262).[188]

§ =233.= We have next to consider the stanzas of four isometrical lines with intermittent rhyme (_a b c b_). As a rule they consist of three- or four-foot verses, which are really Alexandrines or acatalectic tetrameters rhyming in long couplets, and only in their written or printed arrangement broken up into short lines; as, e.g., in the following half-stanza from the older version of the _Legend of St. Katherine_, really written in eight-lined stanzas (ed. Horstmann, _Altenglische Legenden, Neue Folge_, Heilbronn, 1881, p. 242):

_He that made heven and erthe
and sonne and mone for to schine,
Bring ous into his riche
and scheld ous fram helle pine!_

Examples of such stanzas of four-foot trochaic and three-foot iambic verses that occur chiefly in Percy's _Reliques_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 264), but also in M. Arnold, _Calais Sands_ (p. 219), _The Church of Brou, I., The Castle_ (p. 13, feminine and masculine verse-endings alternating), _New Rome_, p. 229, _Parting_, p. 191 (iambic-anapaestic three-beat and two-beat verses), _Iseult of Ireland_, p. 150 (iambic verses of five measures); cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 264.

§ =234.= Stanzas of eight lines result from this stanza by doubling, i. e. by adding a second couplet of the same structure and rhyme to the original long-line couplet. Such a form with the scheme _a b c b d b e b_ meet in the complete stanza of the older _Legend of St. Katherine_ just referred to:

_He that made heven and erthe
and sonne and mone for to schine,
Bring ous into his riche
and scheld ous fram helle pine!
Herken, and y you wile telle
the liif of an holy virgine,
That treuli trowed in Jhesu Crist:
hir name was hoten Katerine_,

This sort of doubling, however, occurs in Modern English poetry more rarely than that which is produced by adding a second long-lined couplet, but with a new rhyme, so that when the stanza is arranged in short lines we have the scheme _a b c b d e f e_.

A stanza like this of trochaic lines we find in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 419:

_King of Saints, to whom the number
Of Thy starry host is known,
Many a name, by man forgotten,
Lives for ever round Thy Throne;
Lights, which earth-born mists have darkened,
There are shining full and clear,
Princes in the court of heaven,
Nameless, unremembered here._

Still more frequent are stanzas of this kind consisting of four-foot and three-foot iambic lines, or of two-foot iambic-anapaestic and trochaic-dactylic lines (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 265).

§ =235.= More popular than the stanza just noticed is that developed from the long-lined couplets by inserted rhyme. A very instructive example of this development is given in the later version of the _Legend of St. Katherine_ (ed. by Horstmann) which is a paraphrase of the older.

The first half-stanza is as follows:

_He that made bothe sunne and mone
In heuene and erthe for to schyne,
Bringe vs to heuene, with him to wone,
And schylde vs from helle pyne!_

Stanzas like this, which are frequent in Low Latin, Provençal, and Old French poetry, are very common in Middle and Modern English poetry. Examples may be found in Ritson's _Ancient Songs_, i, p. 40, Surrey, pp. 37, 56, &c., Burns, p.97, &c., M. Arnold, _Saint Brandan_, p. 165, &c. Masculine and feminine rhymes do not alternate very often (cf. Percy's _Reliques_, I. iii. 13). More frequently we find stanzas with refrain verses, e.g. Wyatt, p. 70.

Stanzas of this kind consisting of four- or three-foot iambic, trochaic, iambic-anapaestic, trochaic-dactylic lines, of three-foot iambic lines, or of two-foot dactylic or other lines are also very common, e.g. in M. Arnold's _A Modern Sappho_ (with alternating masculine and feminine verse-endings), _Pis Aller_ (p. 230), _Requiescat_ (p. 21).

Another stanza of great importance is what is called the elegiac stanza, which consists of four five-foot verses with crossed rhymes. In Middle English literature it was only used as a part of the _Rhyme-Royal_ and of the eight-lined stanza. In Modern English, however, it has been used from the beginning more frequently; it occurs already in Wyatt (p. 58):

_Heaven and earth and all that hear me plain
Do well perceive what care doth make me cry
Save you alone, to whom I cry in vain;
Mercy, Madam, alas! I die, I die!_

Other examples are found in M. Arnold's poems _Palladium_ (p. 251), _Revolutions_ (p. 254), _Self Deception_ (p. 225, with alternate masculine and feminine rhymes). This stanza is very popular throughout the Modern English period (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 267).

Stanzas of this kind, however, consisting of trochaic verses, of six-foot (as in Tennyson's _Maud_), seven- and eight-foot metres are not very frequently met with (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 269).

§ =236.= The four-lined, cross-rhyming stanza gives rise by doubling to the eight-lined (_a b a b a b a b_), which occurs very often in Middle English, as in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 99, or in the _Luve-Rone_ by Thomas de Hales, ed. Morris (_Old Eng. Misc._, p. 93), where both masculine and feminine rhymes are used:

_A Mayde cristes me bit yorne,
þat ich hire wurche a luue ron:
For hwan heo myhle best ileorne
to taken on oþer soþ lefmon,
Þat treowest were of alle berne
and beste wyte cuþe a freo wymmon;
Ich hire nule nowiht werne,
ich hire wule teche as ic con._

Stanzas of this kind are met with also in Modern English, as in Burns (p. 262); stanzas of four-stressed lines are found in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 110, and others of three-foot verses in _Polit. Poems_, i. 270.

There is still another mode of doubling, by which the four originally long-lined verses are broken up by the use of two different inserted rhymes; the scheme is then: _a b a b c b c b_. This is the stanza to which the second version of the _Legend of St. Katherine_ has been adapted in paraphrasing it from the first (cf. §§ 77, 78, 235):

_He that made bothe sunne and mone
In heuene and erthe for to schyne,
Bringe vs to heuene, with him to wone,
And schylde vs from helle pyne!
Lystnys, and I schal you telle
The lyff off an holy virgyne,
That trewely Jhesu louede wel:
Here name was callyd Kateryne._

This stanza occurs, e.g., in Burns (p. 201). Less common is the form of stanza _a b a b a c a c_ (e.g. in Wyatt, p. 48) resulting from the breaking up two rhyming couplets of long lines by inserted rhyme (not from four long lines with one rhyme).

The common mode of doubling is by adding to a four-lined stanza a second of exactly the same structure, but with new rhymes. Some few examples occur in Middle English in the _Surtees Psalter_, Ps. xliv, ll. 11, 12. Very frequently, however, we find it in Modern English constructed of the most varying metres, as, e.g., of five-foot iambic verses in Milton, _Psalm VIII_ (vol. iii, p. 29):

_O Jehovah our Lord, how wondrous great
And glorious is thy name through all the earth,
So as above the heavens thy praise to set!
Out of the tender mouths of latest birth,
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou
Hast founded strength, because of all thy foes,
To stint the enemy, and slack the avenger's brow,
That bends his rage thy providence to oppose._

More popular are stanzas of this kind consisting of three- or four-foot iambic, trochaic, and iambic-anapaestic verses, sometimes with alternate masculine and feminine rhymes. (For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 271.)

§ =237.= Only very few examples occur of the sixteen-lined doubling of this stanza, according to the scheme _a b a b c d c d e f e f g h g h₂_; it occurs, e.g., in Moore, _When Night brings the Hour_. Another form of eight lines (_a b c d . a b c d₃_) is met with in Rossetti, _The Shadows _(ii. 249); it seems to be constructed on the analogy of a six-lined stanza (_a b c . a b c_), which is used pretty often. This stanza, which is closely allied to the tail-rhyme stanza described in § 238, consists most commonly of four-foot iambic verses; it occurs, e.g., in Campbell, _Ode to the Memory of Burns_ (p. 19):

_Soul of the Poet! whereso'er
Reclaim'd from earth, thy genius plume
Her wings of immortality:
Suspend thy harp in happier sphere,
And with thine influence illume
The gladness of our jubilee._

Specimens of forms of stanzas like this, consisting of other kinds of verse, e.g. of three-foot trochaic-dactylic verse, as in M. Arnold's _The Lord's Messenger_ (p. 231), are given in _Metrik_, ii, § 272.

§ =238.= From the four- and eight-lined bipartite equal-membered isometrical stanzas, dealt with in the preceding paragraphs, it will be convenient to proceed to the six-lined stanzas of similar structure. To these belongs a certain form of the tail-rhyme stanza, the nature and origin of which will be discussed when we treat of the chief form, which consists of unequal verses. The isometrical six-lined stanzas to be discussed here show the same structure as the common tail-rhyme stanza, viz. _a a b c c b_. An example is afforded in a song, Ritson, i. 10:

_Sith Gabriel gan grete
Ure ledi Mari swete,
That godde wold in hir lighte,
A thousand yer hit isse,
Thre hundred ful iwisse,
Ant over yeris eighte._

In Modern English this stanza occurs very often, e.g. in Drayton, _To the New Year_ (Poets, iii. 579); as a rule, however, it consists of four-foot iambic verses; e.g. in Suckling in a song (_Poets_, iii. 748):

_When, dearest, I but think of thee,
Methinks all things that lovely be
Are present, and my soul delighted:
For beauties that from worth arise,
Are like the grace of deities,
Still present with us though unsighted._

In this poem all the tail-verses are feminine throughout; in other cases there are masculine and feminine verses, more often we find masculine or feminine exclusively; but usually they interchange without any rule. Examples of these varieties, and also of similar stanzas consisting of three-foot trochaic verses, of two- and three-foot iambic-anapaestic, and of five-foot iambic lines are given in _Metrik_, ii, § 273.

Stanzas of this form consisting of two-stressed verses occurring in Middle English poems have been quoted in § 65.

§ =239.= A variety that belongs to Modern English only is that in which the tail-verses are placed at the head of the half-stanzas, according to the formula _a b b a c c_. It occurs in Ben Jonson's _Hymn to God_ (Poets, iv. 561), consisting of two-foot iambic verses; another example, with four-foot trochaic verses, occurs in Mrs. Browning, _A Portrait_ (iii. 57); cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 274.

A twelve-lined stanza, resulting from the doubling of the six-line stanza, is found only in Middle English poetry, its arrangement of rhymes being _a a b c c b d d b e e b_; or with a more elaborate rhyme-order, _a a b a a b c c b c c b_, as in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 41.

Still another modification of the simple six-lined stanza consists in the addition of a third rhyme-verse to the two rhyming couplets of each half-stanza; so that an eight-lined stanza results with the scheme _a a a b c c c b_. Two specimens of this kind of stanza, consisting of two-stressed lines and occurring in Early English dramatic poetry, have been quoted above, § 70.

The same stanza of two-foot verses occurs in the _Coventry Mysteries_, p. 342. In Modern English, too, we find it sometimes, consisting of three-foot iambic verses, as in Longfellow, _King Olaf's Death Drink_ (p. 577). Stanzas of five-, four-, and two-foot iambic verses and other metres are likewise in use. (For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 275.)

Some rarely occurring extended forms of this stanza are exemplified in Metrik, ii, § 277, their schemes being _a ~ a ~ b ~ c d ~ d ~ b ~ c₄_, _a ~ b ~ c ~ d e ~ f ~ g ~ d₃_, _a b b c a d d c₄_, _a a a a b c c c c b₄_.

Sixteen-lined stanzas of this kind of two-stressed verses (rhyming _a a a b c c c b d d d b e e e b_) that were frequently used in Middle English Romances have been quoted and discussed above, § 65.

II. _Anisometrical Stanzas._

§ =240.= In connexion with the last section, the chief species of the =tail-rhyme stanza= may be discussed here first of all. This stanza, as a rule, consists of four four-foot and two three-foot verses, rhyming according to the scheme _a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃_; cf. the following specimen (Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 101):

_Lustneþ alle a lutel þrowe,
Ȝe þat wolleþ ou selue yknowe,
Unwys þah y be:
Ichulle telle ou ase y con,
Hou holy wryt spekeþ of mon;
Herkneþ nou to me._

The last line of each half-stanza, the tail-verse proper, was originally simply a refrain. The tripartite character of the half-stanza and the popular origin of the stanza was shown long ago by Wolf, _Über die Lais, Sequenzen und Leiche_, p. 27 (cf. _Engl. Metrik_, i, pp. 353-7). According to him this stanza was developed first of all from choruses sung in turn by the people and from the ecclesiastical responses which also had a popular origin, and lastly from the sequences and 'proses' of the middle ages.

A sequence-verse such as:

_Egidio psallat coetus | iste laetus | Alleluia_,

in its tripartition corresponds to the first half of the above-quoted Middle English tail-rhyme stanza:

_Lustneþ alle a lutel þrowe | ȝe þat wolleþ ou selue yknowe |
Unwys þah y be._

When two long lines like this, connected with each other by the rhyme of the last section, the two first sections of each line being also combined by leonine rhyme, are broken up into six short verses, we have the tail-rhyme stanza in the form above described. This form was frequently used in Low Latin poetry, and thence passed into Romanic and Teutonic literature.

A form even more extensively used in Middle and Modern English poetry is that in which the tail-verse has feminine instead of masculine endings. A Modern English specimen from Drayton's poem _To Sir Henry Goodere_ (_Poets_, iii. 576) may be quoted; it begins:

_These lyric pieces, short and few,
Most worthy Sir, I send to you,
To read them be not weary:
They may become John Hewes his lyre,
Which oft at Powlsworth by the fire
Hath made us gravely merry._

This, the chief form of the tail-rhyme stanza, has been in use throughout the whole Modern English period. There has, however, never been any fixed rule as to the employment of feminine or masculine rhymes. Sometimes feminine tail-rhymes with masculine couplets are used (as in the example above), sometimes masculine rhymes only, while in other instances masculine and feminine rhymes are employed indiscriminately.

Iambic-anapaestic verses of four or three measures were also sometimes used in this form of stanza, as in Moore, _Hero and Leander_.

There are a great many varieties of this main form; the stanza may consist, for instance, of four- and two-foot iambic or trochaic lines, or of iambic lines of three and two, five and three, five and two measures, according to the schemes _a a b c c₄ b₂_, _a a₃ b₂ c c₃ b₂_, _a a₅ b₃ c c₅ b₃_, _a a₅ b₂ c c₅ b₂_, and _a₃ b b₅ a₃ c c₅_ (the tail-verses in front). For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 279.

§ =241.= The next step in the development of this stanza was its enlargement to twelve lines (_a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d₄ b₃ e e₄ b₃_) by doubling. This form occurs in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 43:

_Lenten is come wiþ loue to toune,
Wiþ blosmen and wiþ briddes roune,
Þat all þis blisse bryngeþ:
Dayes eȝes in þis dales,
Notes suete of nyhtegales,
Vch foule song singeþ.
Þe þrestlecoc him þreteþ oo;
Away is huere wynter woo,
When woderoue springeþ.
Þis foules singeþ ferli fele,
Ant wlyteþ on huere wynter wele,
Þat al þe wode ryngeþ._

We are not in a position to quote a Modern English specimen of this stanza, but it was very popular in Middle English poetry, both in lyrics and in legends or romances, and in later dramatic poetry.[189]

§ =242.= As to the =further development of the tail-rhyme stanza,= the enlarged forms must first be mentioned. They are produced by adding a third line to the principal lines of each half-stanza; the result being an eight-lined stanza of the formula _a a a₄ b₃ c c c₄ b₃_. Stanzas of this form occur in Early Middle English lyrics, e.g. in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 51 (with a refrain-stanza) and _Polit. Songs_, p. 187 (four-stressed main verses and two-stressed tail-verses, the latter having occasionally the appearance of being in three-beat rhythm).

A later example is found in Dunbar's poem _Off the Fenȝeit Freir of Tungland_; in the Miracle Plays the form was also in favour. Isometrical stanzas of this kind have been mentioned above (§§ 238, 239).

In Modern English poetry this stanza is extensively used. We find it in Drayton, _Nymphidia_ (Poets, iii. 177), with feminine tail-verses:

_Old Chaucer doth of Topas tell,
Mad Rablais of Pantagruel,
A later third of Dowsabel,
With such poor trifles playing:
Others the like have laboured at,
Some of this thing and some of that,
And many of they know not what,
But that they must be saying_.

Other examples of this stanza, as of similar ones, consisting of four- and three-foot trochaic and iambic-anapaestic verses, are given in _Metrik_, ii, § 280.

There are some subdivisions of this stanza consisting of verses of three and two measures, of four and two measures, four and one measure, five and two, and five and one measure, according to the formulae _a a a₃ b₂ c c c₃ b₂_, _a a a₄ b₂ c c c₄ b₂_, _a a a₄ b₁ c c c₄ b₁_, _a a a₅ b₂ c c c₅ b₂_, _a a a₅ b₁ c c c₅ b₁_. For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 281.

The ten-lined tail-rhyme stanza occurs very rarely; we have an example in Longfellow's _The Goblet of Life_ (p. 114), its formula being _a a a a₄ b₃ c c c c₄ b₃_.

§ =243.= We find, however, pretty often--though only in Modern English--certain variant forms of the enlarged eight- and ten-lined tail-rhyme stanzas, the chief verses of which are of unequal length in each half-stanza; as in Congreve's poem, _On Miss Temple_ (Poets, vii. 568). In this poem the first verse of each half-stanza is shortened by one foot, in accordance with the formula _a₃ a a₄ b₃ c₃ c c₄ b₃_:

_Leave, leave the drawing-room,
Where flowers of beauty us'd to bloom;
The nymph that's fated to o'ercome,
Now triumphs at the wells.
Her shape, and air, and eyes,
Her face, the gay, the grave, the wise,
The beau, in spite of box and dice,
Acknowledge, all excels._

Stanzas of cognate form are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, §§ 283-5, constructed according to the schemes: _a a₂ a₄ b₃ c c₂ c₄ b₃_, _a₃ b b₄ c ~₂ a₃ d d₄ c ~₂_ (with a varying first rhyme in the chief verses), _a a b b₄ c₂ d d e e₄ c₂_ (ten lines, with a new rhyming couplet in the half-stanza), _a a b b c₃ C₂ a a b b c₃ C₂_ (an analogous twelve-lined stanza, extended by refrain in each half-stanza), _a b a b₅ c₃ d e d e₅ c₃_ (crossed rhymes in the principal verses).

Two uncommon variations that do not, strictly speaking, belong to the isocolic stanzas, correspond to the formulas _a b b₅ c₂ c d d₅ a₂_, _a b a₄ c ~₂ b a b₄ c ~₂_.

§ =244.= Another step in the development of the tail-rhyme stanza consisted in making the principal verses of the half-stanza shorter than the tail-verse. Models for this form existed in Low Latin, Provençal, and Old French poetry (cf. _Metrik_, i, § 366). In Middle English, however, there are not many stanzas of this form. We have an example in Dunbar's poem _Of the Ladyis Solistaris at Court_ (_a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d d₂ e₃ f f₂ e₃_):

_Thir Ladyis fair,
That makis repair,
And in the Court ar kend,
Thre dayis thair
Thay will do mair,
Ane mater for till end,
Than thair gud men
Will do in ten,
For any craft thay can;
So weill thay ken
Quhat tyme and quhen
Thair menes thay sowld mak than._

The same rhythmical structure is found in the old ballad, _The Notbrowne Maid_, in Percy's _Reliques_, vol. ii. In this collection the poem is printed in twelve-lined stanzas of four- and three-foot verses. Skeat, however, in his _Specimens of English Literature_, printed it in stanzas of six long lines.

In either arrangement the relationship of the metre to the Septenary verse comes clearly out.

In Modern English this stanza is also very popular. It occurs in Scott (p. 460, _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃_), Burns (doubled, p. 61, _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d d₂ e₃ f f₂ e₃_, p. 211, _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d d₂ b₃ e e₂ b₃_).

Often there are also two- and three-foot iambic-anapaestic verses combined in stanzas of this kind, as in Cowper (p. 427), Burns (p. 244), &c.

Subordinate varieties of this stanza consisting of other verses are quoted, with specimens, in _Metrik_, ii, §§ 286-8, after the formulas: _a a₄ b₅ c c₄ b₅, a a₄ b₆ c c₄ b₆_, _a a₃ b₅ c c₃ b₅, a a₃ b c c b₄_, _a a₂ b₄ c c₂ b₄, a ~ a ~ b ~ b ~ c d ~ d ~ e ~ e ~₂ c₃_.

§ =245.= A small group of tail-rhyme stanzas consists of those in which the second chief verses are shorter than the first.

Such a variety occurs in a tail-rhyme stanza of four-foot trochaic verses, the second verse of each half-stanza being shortened by two measures. It was used by Donne in his translation of Psalm 137 (_Poets_, iv, 43):

_By Euphrates' flow'ry side
We did 'bide,
From dear Juda far absented,
Tearing the air with our cries,
And our eyes
With their streams his stream augmented._

The same stanza we find in Longfellow, _Tales of a Wayside Inn_, v (p. 552). Similar stanzas are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 289, their schemes being _a₃ a₂ b₃ c₃ c₂ b₃, a₃ a₂ b₅ c₃ c₂ b₅, a₄ b₃ b₂ a₄ c₃ c₂_ (the tail-rhyme verse put in front).

§ =246.= There are also some stanzas (_a b₄ c₃ a b₄ c₃_) which may be looked upon as modelled on the tail-rhyme stanza; such a stanza we find in Mrs. Browning's poem, _A Sabbath morning at Sea_ (iii. 74); its formula being _a b₄ c₃ a b₄ c₃_:

_The ship went on with solemn face:
To meet the darkness on the deep,
The solemn ship went onward:
I bowed down weary in the place,
For parting tears and present sleep
Had weighed mine eyelids downward._

Other stanzas of this kind show the scheme: _a₄ b₅ c₃ a₄ b₅ c₃_, _a b₂ c₄ a b₂ c₄_, _a₂ b₃ c₁ a₂ b₃ c₁_, _a ~ b a ~ b₄ c ~6 d~ e d ~ e₄ c ~6_; cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 290.

A stanza belonging to this group, and consisting of ten lines rhyming according to the formula _a b a b₃ c₆ d e d e₃ c₆_, occurs in M. Arnold's _Empedocles on Etna_, p. 446 (printed in stanzas of five lines).

§ =247.= Another metre, which was equally popular with the tail-rhyme stanza with its many varieties, is the stanza formed of two Septenary verses (catalectic tetrameters). In the Middle English period we find it used with feminine rhymes only; afterwards, however, there are both feminine and masculine rhymes, and in modern times the feminine ending is quite exceptional. This metre, broken up into four lines, is one of the oldest and most popular of equal-membered stanzas. One of its forms[190] has in hymn-books the designation of _Common Metre_.

Middle and Modern English specimens of this simple form have been given above (§§ 77, 78, 136, 138-40); in some of them the verses rhyme and are printed as long lines; in others the verses rhyme in long lines but are printed as short ones (_a b c b_), and in others, again, the verses both rhyme and are printed as short lines (_a b a b_).

On the analogy of this stanza, especially of the short-lined rhyming form, and of the doubled form with intermittent rhyme (which is, properly speaking, a stanza rhyming in long lines), there have been developed many new strophic forms. One of the most popular of these is the stanza consisting alternately of four- and three-foot iambic-anapaestic verses. In this form is written, e.g. the celebrated poem of Charles Wolfe, _The Burial of Sir John Moore_ (cf. § 191):

_Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried._

In other poems there are masculine rhymes only, as in Cowper (p. 429).

Stanzas of this structure, composed of trochaic verses or of trochaic mixed with iambic or of dactylic mixed with iambic-anapaestic verses, are not frequent. (For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 292.)

§ =248.= Some other analogical developments from this type, however, occur pretty often; a stanza of alternate four- and two-foot verses (_a₄ b ~₂ a₄ b ~₂_) is used, for example, by Ben Jonson (_Poets_, iv. 545):

_Weep with me all you that read
This little story;
And know, for whom a tear you shed,
Death's self is sorry._

Another of five- and four-foot verses (_a₅ b₄ a₅ b₄_) occurs in Cowley, _The long Life_ (Poets, v. 264):

_Love from Time's wings hath stol'n the feathers sure,
He has, and put them to his own,
For hours, of late, as long as days endure,
And very minutes hours are grown._

Other less common analogous forms are given in _Metrik_, ii, § 298, the formulas being _a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃_, _a₃ b₅ a₃ b₅_, _a₅ b₂ a₅ b₂_, _a₂ b₅ a₂ b₅_.

There are also stanzas of anisometrical verses rhyming in couplets, but they occur very rarely. An example is Donne's _The Paradox_ (Poets, iv. 397), after the scheme _a₅ a₅ b₅ b₃_:

_No lover saith I love, nor any other
Can judge a perfect lover:
He thinks that else none can or will agree
That any loves but he._

§ =249.= Pretty often we find--not indeed in middle English, but in Modern English poetry--eight-lined (doubled) forms of the different four-lined stanzas. Only doubled forms, however, of the formula _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃_ are employed with any frequency; they have either only masculine rhymes or rhymes which vary between masculine and feminine. An example of the latter kind we have in Drayton's _To his coy Love_ (Poets, iii. 585):

_I pray thee, love, love me no more,
Call home the heart you gave me,
I but in vain that saint adore,
That can, but will not save me:
These poor half kisses kill me quite;
Was ever man thus served?
Amidst an ocean of delight,
For pleasure to be starved._

Eight-lined stanzas with the following schemes are not common:--_a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃ c₄ b₃_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_, _a ~₃ b₄ a ~₃ b₄ c ~₃ d₄ c ~₃ d₄_, _a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃ d₄ e₃ f₄ e₃._ Only in the last stanza and in the usual form _a b a b c d c d_ we find trochaic and iambic-anapaestic verses. An example of the latter sort which is pretty often met with we have in Cunningham's _The Sycamore Shade_ (Poets, x. 717):

_T'other day as I sat in the sycamore shade,
Young Damon came whistling along,
I trembled--I blush'd--a poor innocent maid!
And my heart caper'd up to my tongue:
Silly heart, I cry'd, fie! What a flutter is here!
Young Damon designs you no ill,
The shepherd's so civil, you've nothing to fear,
Then prythee, fond urchin, lie still._

For specimens of the other subordinate varieties and of the rare twelve-lined stanza (_a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃ d₄ b₃ e₄ f₃ d₄ f₃ g₄ f₃_ and _a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃_) see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 295, 296.

§ =250.= There are also doubled forms of the before-mentioned analogical development of the Septenary, the schemes of which are as follows:

_a₄ b ~₂ a₄ b ~₂ a₄ b ~₂ a₄ b ~₂_, _a₃ b ~₂ a₃ b ~₂ c₃ d ~₂ c₃ d ~₂_, _a ~₂ b₃ a ~₂ b₃ c ~₂ d₃ c ~₂ d₃_, _a ~₄ b₅ a ~₄ b₅ c ~₄ d₅ c ~₄ d₅_, and _a₅ a₄ b₅ b₄ c₅ c₄ d₅ d₄_.

We must here refer to some eight-lined stanzas which have this common feature that the two half-stanzas are exactly alike, but the half-stanzas themselves consist of unequal members. These, however, will be treated in the next chapter.

In this connexion may be also mentioned the doubled _Poulter's Measure_, which occurs somewhat frequently, as in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_, No. 149:

_Thou art gone up on high,
To mansions in the skies;
And round Thy Throne unceasingly
The songs of praise arise.
But we are lingering here,
With sin and care oppressed;
Lord, send Thy promised Comforter,
And lead us to Thy rest._

The same form of stanza was used in Hood's well-known _Song of the Shirt_ (p. 183).

Other stanzas of similar structure are given with specimens in _Metrik_, ii, §§ 300, 301; their formulas are _a₄ a₄ b₂ b₅ c₄ c₄ d₂ d₅_, _a b a₄ b₃ c d c₄ d₃_ (Moore, _Dreaming for ever_), _a₃ b b₃ a₃ c₃ d d₄ c₃_, _a b a₃ b₂ c d c₃ d₂_, _a₃ b₂ c₄ a₂ d₃ b₂ c₄ d₂_; in the same place we have mentioned some ten-lined stanzas of the forms _a a₄ b b₂ a₄ c c₄ d d₂ c₄_ (Moore, The Young May Moon) and _a₃ a₂ b₅ b₂ c₄ d₃ d₂ e₅ e₂ c₄_, &c.