Chapter IV

ONE-RHYMED INDIVISIBLE AND BIPARTITE
UNEQUAL-MEMBERED STANZAS

§ =251.= These different kinds of stanzas may be conveniently treated together, since they are closely allied with each other, in that both of them--the indivisible stanzas usually, and the bipartite unequal-membered stanzas frequently--exhibit a one-rhymed principal part.

I. _One-rhymed and indivisible stanzas._

The =one-rhymed stanzas=, taken as a whole, cannot without qualification be ranged under any of the other kinds of stanza. The four-lined and eight-lined stanzas of this form, it is true, do for the most part seem to belong so far as their syntactical structure is concerned to the bipartite, equal-membered class (_a a, a a; a a a a, a a a a_). But those of six lines may belong either to the bipartite (_a a a, a a a_) or to the tripartite class (_a a, a a, a a_). It is even more difficult to draw a sharp line of distinction when the strophes have an odd number of lines.

In no case is there such a definite demarcation between the chief parts in these one-rhymed stanzas as exists in stanzas with varied rhymes, whether based upon crossed rhymes or on rhyming couplets.

=Three-lined stanzas= of the same structure as the four-lined stanzas to be described in the next section were not used before the Modern period. They occur pretty often, and are constructed of widely different kinds of verse; in Drayton's _The Heart_ (Poets, iii. 580) three-foot lines are used:

_If thus we needs must go,
What shall our one heart do,
This one made of our two?_

Stanzas of this kind, consisting of three-foot trochaic and dactylic verses, as well as stanzas of four-foot iambic, iambic-anapaestic, trochaic, and dactylic verses, are also met with in the Modern period. Even more popular, however, are those of five-foot iambic verses, as e. g. in Dryden, pp. 393, 400, &c. Stanzas of longer verses, on the other hand, e.g. six-foot dactylic, seven-foot trochaic, iambic, or iambic-anapaestic and eight-foot trochaic verses, occur only occasionally in the more recent poets, e.g. Tennyson, Swinburne, R. Browning, D.G. Rossetti, &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 303-4).

Some other Modern English anisometrical stanzas may also be mentioned, as one in Cowley with the formula _a₅ a₄ a₅_ in _Love's Visibility_ (Poets, v. 273):

_With much of pain, and all the art I knew
Have I endeavour'd hitherto
To hide my love, and yet all will not do._

For other forms see _Metrik_, ii, § 305.

§ =252. Four-lined, one-rhymed stanzas= of four-foot verses (used in Low Latin, Provençal and Old French poetry, cf. _Metrik_, i, p. 369) are early met with in Middle English poems, as in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, pp. 57 and 68.

The first begins with these verses, which happen to show a prevailing trochaic rhythm.

_Suete iesu, king of blysse,
Myn huerte loue, min huerte lisse,
Þou art suete myd ywisse,
Wo is him þat þe shall misse._

_Suete iesu, myn huerte lyht,
Þou art day withoute nyht;
Þou ȝeue me streinþe ant eke myht,
Forte louien þe aryht_.

This simple form of stanza is also found in Modern English poetry; apparently, however, only in one of the earliest poets, viz. Wyatt (p. 36).

It occurs also in Middle English, consisting of four-stressed, rhyming-alliterative long-lines, as e.g. in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 237; and of simple four-stressed long lines in Wyatt (p. 147), and Burns (pp. 253, 265, &c.).

In Middle English poetry Septenary verses are often used in this way on the Low Latin model (cf. _Metrik_, i, pp. 90, 91, 370), as well as Septenary-Alexandrine verses, e.g. Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 93:

_Blessed be þou, leuedy, ful of heouene blisse,
Suete flur of parays, moder of mildenesse,
Preyȝe iesu, þy sone, þat he me rede and wysse
So my wey forte gon, þat he me neuer misse._

In Modern English stanzas of this kind, consisting of Septenary verses, are of rare occurrence. We have an example in Leigh Hunt's _The jovial Priest's Confession_ (p. 338), a translation of the well-known poem ascribed to Walter Map, _Mihi est propositum in taberna mori_ (cf. §§ 135, 182).

Shorter verses, e.g. iambic lines of three measures, are also very rarely used for such stanzas; e.g. in Donne and Denham (_Poets_, iv. 48 and v. 611).

§ =253.= A small group of other stanzas connected with the above may be called =indivisible stanzas=. They consist of a one-rhymed main part mostly of three, more rarely of two or four lines, followed by a shorter refrain-verse, a _cauda_, as it were, but in itself too unimportant to lend a bipartite character to the stanza. Otherwise, stanzas like these might be looked upon as bipartite unequal-membered stanzas, with which, indeed, they stand in close relationship. Three-lined stanzas of this kind occur in Modern English only; as e.g. a stanza consisting of an heroic couplet and a two-foot refrain verse of different rhythm: _a a₄ B₂_ in Moore's Song:

_Oh! where are they, who heard in former hours,
The voice of song in these neglected bowers?
They are gone--all gone!_

Other stanzas show the formulas _a a₅ b₃_ and _a a₄ b₃_. Their structure evidently is analogous to that of a four-lined Middle English stanza _a a a₄ B₃_, the model of which we find in Low Latin and Provençal poetry (cf. _Metrik_, i. 373) and in Furnivall's _Political, Religious, and Love Poems_, p. 4:

_Sithe god hathe chose þe to be his knyȝt,
And posseside þe in þi right,
Thou hime honour with al thi myght,
Edwardus Dei gracia_.

Similar stanzas occur also in Modern English poets: _a a a₄ B₂_ in Wyatt, p. 99, _a a a₅ B₃_ in G. Herbert, p. 18, &c. We find others with the formula _a a a₄ b₂ a a a₄ b₂_ in Dunbar's _Inconstancy of Love_, and with the formula _a a a₄ b₃ c c c₄ b₃ d d d₄ b₃_, in Dorset (_Poets_, vi. 512); there are also stanzas of five lines, e.g. _a a a a₄ B₂_ (Wyatt, p. 80).

An older poem in Ritson's _Anc. Songs_, i. 140 (_Welcom Yol_), has the same metre and form of stanza, but with a refrain verse of two measures and a two-lined refrain prefixed to the first stanza: _A B₄ a a a₄ B₂ c c c₄ B₂_. A similar extended stanza is found in Wyatt (p. 108) _A₃ b b b₃ A₃ B₂_; _A₃ c c c₃ A₃ B₂_. There are also in modern poetry similar isometrical stanzas, as in Swinburne (_Poems_, ii. 108) on the scheme _a a a b₅_, _c c c b₅_, _d d d b₅_, _e e e f₅_, _g g g f₅_, _h h h f₅_; in Campbell (p. 73) _a a a b₄_, _c c c b₄_, _d d d b₄_; and in M. Arnold, _The Second Best_ (p. 49), with feminine endings in the main part of the stanza, _a ~ a ~ a ~ b₄_, _c ~ c ~ c ~ b₄_, _d ~ d ~ d ~ b₄_, &c.

II. _Bipartite unequal-membered isometrical stanzas._

§ =254.= These are of greater number and variety. The shortest of them, however, viz. =stanzas of four lines=, are found only in Modern English; first of all, stanzas arranged according to the formula _a a b a_; in this case _b_ can be used as refrain also, as in Sidney, _Astrophel and Stella_, Song I (Grosart, i. 75):

_Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes entendeth,
Which now my breast, surcharg'd to musick lendeth!
To you, to you, all song of praise is due,
Only in you my song begins and endeth._

Similar stanzas of four-foot iambic and of two-foot iambic-anapaestic lines occur in Tennyson, _The Daisy_ (p. 270), and in Longfellow, _King Olaf and Earl Sigwald_ (p. 573).

Stanzas with the scheme _a b b a_ also belong to this group, the two halves not being exactly equal, but only similar to each other on account of the unequal arrangement of rhymes.

Such a stanza of four-foot iambic verses occurs in an elegy of Ben Jonson's (_Poets_, iv. 571):

_Though beauty be the mark of praise,
And yours of whom I sing be such,
As not the world can praise too much,
Yet is't your virtue now I raise_.

and notably in Tennyson's _In Memoriam_. Both this stanza and the similar stanza of trochaic verses are found pretty often (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 311).

§ =255.= More frequently =five-lined stanzas= occur. One on the scheme _a b b a a₄_, similar to that just mentioned, is used in Sidney, _Psalm XXVIII_; others, composed in various metres, have a one-rhymed _frons_ or _cauda_, e.g. _a a a b b₃_ in Wyatt, p. 128, _a a b b b₄_ in Moore (_Still when Daylight_) and other poets. Of greater importance are some stanzas on the formula _a a b a b_; they may be looked upon as isometrical tail-rhyme-stanzas, shortened by one chief verse; as _a a b a B₄_, often occurring in Dunbar, e.g. in _The Devil's Inquest_, and in Wyatt, p. 29:

_My lute awake, perform the last
Labour, that thou and I shall waste,
And end that I have now begun;
And when this song is sung and past,
My lute! be still, for I have done._

Another form of this stanza, consisting of five-foot lines with refrain, occurs in Swinburne, _In an Orchard_ (_Poems_, i. 116), and a variety consisting of three-foot verses is found in Drayton's _Ode to Himself_ (Poets, iii, p. 587). More frequently this stanza is found with the two parts in inverted order (_a b a a b₄_), as in Moore:

_Take back the sigh, thy lips of art
In passion's moment breath'd to me:
Yet, no--it must not, will not part,
'Tis now the life-breath of my heart,
And has become too pure for thee._

There are also five-foot iambic and three-foot iambic-anapaestic and other lines connected in this way, as in G. Herbert (p. 82); in Longfellow, _Enceladus_ (p. 595); on the scheme _a b c c b₃_ in Wordsworth, i. 248; and in R. Browning according to the formula _a b c c b₄_ (vi. 77). The allied form of stanza, _a a b b a_, probably originating by inversion of the two last verses of the former stanza (_a a b a b_), occurs in Middle English in the poem _Of the Cuckoo and the Nightingale_.[191]

_The god of love,--a! benedicite,
How mighty and how greet a lord is he!
For he can make of lowe hertes hye,
And of hye lowe, and lyke for to dye,
And harde hertes he can maken free._

The same stanza, both of four- and five-foot lines, is frequently employed by Dunbar; e.g. _On his Heid-Ake, The Visitation of St. Francis_, &c. We find it also in modern poets, composed of the same, or of other verses; Moore, e.g., has used it with five-foot iambic-anapaestic lines, in _At the mid hour of Night_.

A stanza on the model _a b a b b_ is a favourite in Modern English; it is formed from the four-lined stanza (_abab_) by repeating the last rhyme. It consists of the most different kinds of verse; an example is Carew's _To my inconstant Mistress_ (Poets, iii. 678):

_When thou, poor excommunicate
From all the joys of love, shall see
The full reward, and glorious fate,
Which my strong faith shall purchase me,
Then curse thine own inconstancy._

For other specimens in lines of five, three, and four feet see _Metrik_, ii. 307.

Much less common is the form _a b b a b_, which occurs e.g. in Coleridge's _Recollections of Love_ (_a b b a b₄_).

Five-lined stanzas of crossed rhymes are not very rare; an example of the form _a b a b a₄_ is found in R. Browning's _The Patriot_ (iv. 149):

_It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day._

For specimens of other forms see _Metrik_, ii, § 318.

§ =256.= The simplest kind of isometrical stanzas of this group is that in which the four-lined one-rhymed stanza is extended by the addition of a couplet with a new rhyme, so that it forms a =six-lined stanza=. A Latin stanza of this kind consisting of Septenary verses is given in Wright's _Pol. Poems_, i. 253, and a Middle English imitation of it, ib. p. 268, in the poem _On the Minorite Friars_. The same stanza composed of four-stressed verses is used by Minot in his poem _Of the batayl of Banocburn_ (ib. i. 61):

_Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene,
At the Bannok burn war ȝe to kene;
Thare slogh ȝe many sakles, als it was sene;
And now has king Edward wroken it, I wene.
It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth the while;
War ȝit with the Skottes, for thai er ful of gile._

Here the _frons_ is connected with the _cauda_, which recurs in each stanza as a kind of refrain, by means of _concatenatio_. Two other poems of Minot's (v, ix) are written in similar stanzas of six and eight lines. In the ten-lined stanza of the poem in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 25, which is of similar structure, we find the doubling of the _frons_.

A six-lined stanza of this kind, which has the formula _a a a b B B_ (_B B_ being refrain-verses), is used by Dunbar in his _Gray-Horse_ poem and in _Luve Erdly and Divine_. The latter begins:

_Now culit is Dame Venus brand;
Trew Luvis fyre is ay kindilland,
And I begyn to undirstand,
In feynit luve quhat foly bene;
Now cumis Aige quhair Yowth hes bene,
And true Luve rysis fro the splene._

The same kind of stanza occurs in Wyatt, p. 137. Other forms are: _a a b a b b₅_, in Wyatt, p. 71; _a b c c b a₄_ in John Scott, _Conclusion_ (Poets, ix. 773); _a b c b c a₄_ in Tennyson, _A Character_ (p. 12):

_With a half-glance upon the sky
At night he said, 'The wanderings
Of this most intricate Universe
Teach me the nothingness of things.'
Yet could not all creation pierce
Beyond the bottom of his eye._

Longer isometrical stanzas are unfrequent, and need hardly be mentioned here (cf. _Metrik_, ii, p. 556).

III. _Bipartite unequal-membered anisometrical stanzas._

§ =257. Two-lined and four-lined stanzas.= The shortest stanzas of this kind consist of two anisometrical lines, rhyming in couplets, e.g. four- and five-foot, five- and three-foot lines, &c.

These have been mentioned before (§ 207); but as a rule they are used, like the heroic couplet, in continuous systems only, without strophic arrangement.

The _Poulter's Measure_ (§§ 146, 206) must be mentioned in this place. This metre, also, is in narrative poetry employed without strophic arrangement; but in lyrical poetry it is sometimes written in stanzas. In this case it is mostly printed as a stanza of four lines, even when rhyming in long lines, i.e. with intermittent rhyme (_a b₃ c₄ b₃_); e.g. in Tennyson, _Marriage Morning_ (p. 285):

_Light, so low upon earth,
You send a flash to the sun,
Here is the golden close of love,
All my wooing is done._

The division into stanzas is still more distinctly recognizable when there are crossed rhymes (_a b₃ a₄ b₃_), as e.g. in a song in Percy's _Reliques_, I. ii. 2, _The Aged Lover renounceth Love_ (quoted by the grave-digger in Shakespeare's _Hamlet_):

_I lothe that I did love,
In youth that I thought swete,
As time requires: for my behove
Me thinkes they are not mete._

This stanza occurs very frequently (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 321), but is rarely formed of trochaic verses.

Another rare variety on the scheme _a ~ b₃ c₄ b₃_ is found in Mrs. Hemans, _The Stream is free_ (vii. 42), and in M. Arnold's _The Neckan_ (p. 167).

Similar to the common _Poulter's Measure_ stanza is another stanza of iambic-anapaestic verses on the formula _a a₃ b₄ a₃_ (in _b_ middle-rhyme is used, so that the scheme may also be given as _a a₃ b b₂ a₃_.)We find it in Burns, the _a_-rhymes being masculine (p. 245) and feminine (p. 218).

Four-lined stanzas of two rhyming couplets of unequal length are fairly common; as e.g. on the model _a a₅ b b₄_ in Dryden, _Hymn for St. John's Eve_:

_O sylvan prophet! whose eternal fame
Echoes from Judah's hills and Jordan's stream,
The music of our numbers raise,
And tune our voices to thy praise._

Other schemes that occur are _a a₄ b b₅_, _a a b₄ b₅_, _a a b₄ b₂_, _a a₄ b₃ b₂_, _a₄ a₂ b b₄_, _a₅ a₃ b b₅_; there are even forms with lines of unequal length in each part, as e.g.: _a₄ a₅ b₇ b₅_, _a₇ a₄ b₂ b₆_, _a₅ a₃ b₅ b₄_, _a₅ a₄ b₄ b₆_. For examples see _Metrik_, ii (§§ 322-4).

Enclosing rhymes are also found; and in this case the lines of the same length usually rhyme together, as in the formula _a₃ b b₅ a₃_ in Mrs. Hemans, _The Song of Night_ (vi. 94):

_I come to thee, O Earth!
With all my gifts!--for every flower sweet dew
In bell, and urn, and chalice, to renew
The glory of its birth._

Sometimes verses are used partly of unequal length: _a₃ b₅ b₃ a₄_ in M. Arnold, _A Nameless Epitaph_ (p. 232), or _a₅ b₂ b₄ a₅_, _a b b₄ a₃_, &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 325).

§ =258.= Stanzas of this kind frequently occur with crossed rhymes. Most commonly two longer verses are placed between two shorter ones, or vice versa; thus we have the formula _a₃ b a₅ b₃_ in Southey's _The Ebb-Tide_ (ii. 193):

_Slowly thy flowing tide
Came in, old Avon! scarcely did mine eyes,
As watchfully I roam'd thy green-wood side,
Perceive its gentle rise._

Other forms are _a₂ b a₃ b₂_, _a₄ b a₅ b₄_, _a₅ b a₄ b₅_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 326).

Three isometrical verses and one shorter or longer end-verse can also be so connected, as e.g. on the scheme _a b a₄ b₂_ in Pope, _Ode on Solitude_ (p. 45):

_Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground_;

or in Cowper on the model _a b a₄ b₅_ in _Divine Love endures no Rival_ (p. 418):

_Love is the Lord whom I obey,
Whose will transported I perform;
The centre of my rest, my stay,
Love's all in all to me, myself a worm._

Similar stanzas both with this and other arrangements of rhymes (as e. g. _a b a₅ b₃_, _a b a₄ b₂_, _a b a₃ b₅_) are very popular. A specimen of the first of these formulas is found in M. Arnold's _Progress_ (p. 252), and one of the second in his _A Southern Night_ (p. 294). For other examples see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 326-7.

More rarely a short verse begins the stanza (e.g. _a₃ b a b₅_ in Mrs. Hemans, _The Wish_, vi. 249), or is placed in the middle on the scheme _a₅ b₂ a b₅_ (as in G. Herbert, _Church Lock and Key_, p. 61). For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 328, 329.

Stanzas of one isometrical and another anisometrical half are not frequently met with; a specimen of the form _a b₄ a₅ b₂_ is found in G. Herbert's _Employment_ (p. 51).

More common are stanzas of two anisometrical halves; in this case either the two middle or the isolated verses are generally isometrical; e.g. on the scheme _a₅ b a₄ b₃_ in G. Herbert, _The Temper_ (p. 49):

_How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rymes
Gladly engrave thy love in steel,
If what my soul doth feel sometimes,
My soul might ever feel!_

or on _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₅_ in Milton, _Psalm V_ (vol. iii, p. 24):

_Jehovah, to my words give ear,
My meditation weigh;
The voice of my complaining hear,
My king and God, for unto thee I pray._

Stanzas like these are very much in vogue, and may be composed of the most varied forms of verse (cf. _Metrik_, ii; § 330).

§ =259.= Among the =five-lined stanzas= the first place must be given to those in which the arrangement of rhymes is parallel, as these are found in Middle English as well as in Modern English poetry. A stanza of form _a a a₄ b₃ b₆_ occurs in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 60:

_Wynter wakeneþ al my care,
nou þis leues waxeþ bare;
ofte y sike ant mourne sare,
when hit cómeþ in my þóht,
óf this wórldes ióie, hóu hit geþ ál to nóht._

A similar structure (_a a a₄ b₃ b₅_) is shown in a stanza of a poem quoted by Ritson, _Ancient Songs_, i. 129; the poem belongs to the fifteenth century.

Still more numerous are these stanzas in Modern English; e.g. the form _a a a₃ b b₅_ occurs in Herbert, _Sinne_ (p. 58), _a a a₃ b₄ b₃_ in Shelley (iii. 244), _a a a b₄ b₅_ in Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 734); a still more irregular structure (_a₄ a₅ b b₄ b₅_) in Cowley, _All for love_ (Poets, v. 263):

_'Tis well, 'tis well with them, say I.
Whose short liv'd passions with themselves can die;
For none can be unhappy who,
'Midst all his ills, a time does know_
(_Though ne'er so long_) _when he shall not be so_.

Here again we meet with the stanzas mentioned above, which are partially characterized by enclosing rhymes, e.g. corresponding to the formula _a b b a_, as in M. Arnold, _On the Rhine_ (p. 223), or on the scheme _a a b b₄ a₅_, as in Byron, _Oh! snatch'd away_, &c. (p. 123):

_Oh! snatch'd away in beauty's bloom,
On thee shall press no ponderous tomb;
But on thy turf shall roses rear
Their leaves, the earliest of the year;
And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom._

For other stanzas on the formulas _a a₅ b b₄ A₃_, _a₅ b b₄ a₅ a₄_, _a₃ b b₂ a a₃_, &c., see _Metrik_ (ii, §§ 332, 333).

In others the chief part of the stanza shows crossed rhyme, as e.g. on the scheme _a b a b₄ b₃_ in Poe, _To Helen_ (p. 205):

_Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore._

Other stanzas take the forms _a₅ b₄ a₅ b₄ b₅_, _a₅ b₂ a₄ b₃ b₅_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ b₂_, &c. More uncommon are such forms as _a₃ b b₅ a₄ b₅, a b₅ b₃ a b₅_, &c. (For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 334.)

Stanzas with crossed rhymes throughout, on the other hand, are very frequent, as e.g. type _a b a b₄ a₃_ in R. Browning's _By the Fireside_ (iii. 170):

_How well I know what I mean to do
When the long dark autumn evenings come;
And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue?
With the music of all thy voices, dumb
In life's November too!_

There are many other forms, sometimes very complicated, as e.g. _a b a b₄ a₃_, _a b₄ a₂ b a₆_, _a₃ b a₄ b₃ a₅_, &c. (For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 335.)

§ =260.= The tail-rhyme stanzas shortened by one verse occupy an important position among the five-lined stanzas.

These curtailed forms occur as early as the Middle English period, e.g. in an envoi on the model _a a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂_, forming the conclusion of a poem in six-lined stanzas (_a a a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂_), printed in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 38.

_Ich wolde ich were a þrestelcok,
A bountyng oþer a lauerok.
Swete bryd!
Bituene hire curtel ant hire smok
Y wolde ben hyd._

In Modern English the common form of stanza is much employed, consisting of four- and three-foot verses, _a a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_; there are many varieties of this scheme, as _a a b a₄ b₃_, _a₅ a b₄ a₅ b₃_, _a a₂ b a₄ b₃_, &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 336).

A similar form, with shortening in the first half-stanza, also occurs in Middle English poetry, though only as an envoi of another form of stanza, viz, in the _Towneley Mysteries_ (pp. 34-323):

_Vnwunne haueþ myn wonges wet,
Þat makeþ me rouþes rede;
Ne sem i nout þer y am set,
Þer me calleþ me fule flet
And waynoun! wayteglede._

This stanza is also frequently used in Modern English, e.g. by Thomas Moore, _Nay, do not weep_.

A similar stanza on the model _a₄ b₂ a a₄ b₂_ is used by Moore in _Echo_ (ii. 211):

_How sweet the answer Echo makes
To music at night,
When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes,
And far away, o'er lawns and lakes,
Goes answering light._

We find specimens of this stanza consisting of other metres and of different structure (isometrical in the first half-stanza), e.g. on the schemes _a₅ b₃ a a₅ b₃_, _a b a a₄ b₃_, &c. (For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 337.)

Stanzas of this kind are also formed with three rhymes, e.g. _a b₃ c c₂ b₄_, _a b₃ c c₂ b₃_, _a ~ b₄ c ~ c ~₂ b₄_, &c. (For specimens cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 338.)

Another class of shortened tail-rhyme stanzas, which is deficient not in one of the rhyming couplets, but in one of the tail-verses, comes in here. Omission of the first tail-verse, producing a stanza on the scheme _a a b b c_, occurs in Wordsworth, _The Blind Highland Boy_ (ii. 368):

_Now we are tired of boisterous joy,
Have romped enough, my little Boy!
Jane hangs her head upon my breast,
And you shall bring your stool and rest;
This corner is your own._

Another stanza, which is used in Carew's _Love's Courtship_ (Poets, iii. 707), is formed on the scheme _a a₄ b₂ c c₄_, where the tail-verse of the second half-stanza is wanting. As to the other varieties, arising from the use of other metres, cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 338.

Sometimes stanzas of three rhymes occur, rhyming crosswise throughout, and of various forms, e.g. _a b a c₄ b₃_ in Longfellow, _The Saga of King Olaf_ (p. 565); _a b₄ c₃ a₄ c₂_ in Coleridge; _a b a b₅ C₃_ in Mrs. Hemans (iv. 119); _a b a b₄ C₃_ in Moore, _Weep, Children of Israel_:

_Weep, weep for him, the Man of God--
In yonder vale he sunk to rest;
But none of earth can point the sod
That flowers above his sacred breast.
Weep, children of Israel, weep!_

For other varieties see _Metrik_, ii, § 339.

§ =261.= Unequal-membered anisometrical =stanzas of six lines= are only rarely met with in Middle English, as e.g. _a a₄ b b b a₂_ in Dunbar's poem, _Aganis Treason_.

They occur, on the other hand, very frequently in Modern English, especially with parallel rhymes on the scheme _a a a a₄ B C₂_ in _The Old and Young Courtier_ (Percy's _Rel._ II. iii. 8):

_An old song made by an aged-old pate,
Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a greate estate,
That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate,
And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate;
Like an old courtier of the queen's,
And the queen's old courtier._

For specimens of other stanzas, the rhymes of which are arranged in a similar way (according to _a₅ a a b b₄ b₅_, or with partly enclosing rhymes, as _a₅ b b b b₃ a₅_, _a a b b b₄ a₂_, _a a₄ b b b a₂_, &c.), see _Metrik_, ii, § 340.

Forms based upon the tail-rhyme stanza are very popular; of great importance is the entwined form on a Provençal model (cf. Bartsch, _Provenzalisches Lesebuch_, p. 46) which was imitated in Middle English poetry. It corresponds to the scheme _a a a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_ and gives the impression, according to Wolf in his book, _Über die Lais_, &c., p. 230, note 67, that the second part of a common tail-rhyme stanza is inserted into the first, though it is also possible that it may have been formed from the extended tail-rhyme stanza _a a a₄ b₃ a a a₄ b₃_ by shortening the second part by two chief verses. The first stanza of a poem in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 94, may serve as a specimen:

_Ase y me rod þis ender day,
By grene wode to seche play,
Mid herte y þohte al on a may,
Suetest of alle þinge;
Lyþe, and ich ou telle may
Al of þat suete þinge._

This stanza occurs frequently in the _Towneley Mysteries_, pp. 120-34, 254-69, &c. In Modern English, however, we find it very seldom; as an example (iambic-anapaestic verses of four and three measures) we may refer to Campbell's _Stanzas on the battle of Navarino_ (p. 176).

More frequent in Modern English, on the other hand, is a variety of this stanza with two-foot tail-verses on the scheme _a a a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂_; it is especially common in Ramsay and Fergusson, and occurs in several poems of Burns, e.g. in his _Scotch Drink_ (p. 6):

_Let other Poets raise a fracas
'Bout vines, an' wines, an' drunken Bacchus,
An' crabbit names an' stories wrack us,
An' grate our lug,
I sing the juice Scotch bear can mak us,
In glass or jug._

The same form of stanza is used by Wordsworth and by M. Arnold in his poem _Kaiser Dead_ (p. 495).

The same stanza sometimes occurs with the order of the parts inverted like _a₄ b₃ a a a₄ b₃_, e.g. in Longfellow's _Voices of the Night_ (p. 40).

Other unequal-membered varieties of the anisometrical tail-rhyme stanza correspond to _a a₃ b₅ a a₅ b₆_ (cf. the chapter on the Spenserian stanza and its imitations), _a a b c c₄ b₃_ (M. Arnold, _Horatian Echo_, p. 47), _a a b c c₃ b₅_, _a₅ a₃ b₅ c c b₅_, _a₄ a₂ b₄ c₂ c₅ b₄_, _a₄ b₃ a c c₄ b₃_ (entwined _frons_), _a a₄ b₃ c₃ b₄ c₅_ (entwined _cauda_).

For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 343.

Here again we must mention stanzas which in their structure are influenced by the tail-rhyme stanza and are formed on the scheme _a b c a b c_; of these we have several examples in G. Herbert, on the scheme _a b c₅ a b₄ c₅_, e.g. in _Magdalena_ (p. 183):

_When blessed Marie wip'd her Saviour's feet,
(Whose precepts she had trampled on before)
And wore them for a jewell on her head,
Shewing his steps should be the street,
Wherein she thenceforth evermore
With pensive humblenesse would live and tread._

Other stanzas of his correspond to _a₅ b₄ c₃ c₄ b₃ a₅_, _a₃ b₅ c₄ c₄ b₅ a₃_, &c. In Moore we have a similar stanza: _a b₄ c₂ b a₄ c₂_ which is unequal-membered on account of the arrangement of rhyme (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 344). An unusual form of stanza, which may also be classed under this head, occurs in M. Arnold's _Human Life_ (p. 40), its formula being _a₃ b₄ c a c b₅_.

§ =262. A stanza of seven lines= is used in Dunbar's poem _The Merchants of Edinborough_, formed on the scheme _a a a b₄ B₂ a₄ B₄_; it is very interesting on account of the duplication of the refrain-verses (_B₂_, _B₄_). Apart from the first short refrain-verse the arrangement of rhymes is the same as it is in the entwined tail-rhyme stanza:

_Quhy will ȝe, merchantis of renoun,
Lat Edinburgh, ȝour nobill toun,
For laik of reformatioun
The commone proffeitt tyne and fame?
Think ȝe noht schame,
That onie other regioun
Sall with dishonour hurt ȝour name!_

The Modern English stanzas also mostly bear a greater or less resemblance to the tail-rhyme stanza. This relationship is evident in a stanza like _a a₄ b₃ c c c₄ b₃_, used in Wordsworth, _To the Daisy_ (iii. 42):

_Sweet flower! belike one day to have
A place upon thy Poets grave,
I welcome thee once more:
But He, who was on land, at sea,
My Brother, too, in loving thee,
Although he loved more silently,
Sleeps by his native shore._

A peculiar form of stanza occurring in M. Arnold's _In Utrumque Paratus_ (p. 45) with the formula _a₅ b₃ a c b c₅ b₃_ likewise belongs to this group.

In other instances the longer part comes first on the model _a a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃_, e.g. in Mrs. Hemans, _The Sun_ (iv. 251).

Other stanzas correspond to _a a₃ b₂ c c c₃ B₂_ and _a a a b c c₂ b₃_.

In other cases the equal-membered tail-rhyme stanza becomes unequal-membered by adding to the second tail-verse another verse rhyming with it, the formula being then _a a₄ B₂ a a₄ b B₂_ (e.g. in Longfellow, _Victor Galbraith_, p. 503) or _a a₂ b₄ c c₂ b₄ B₃_ (in Moore, _Little man_), or _a a₃ b₂ c ~ c ~ b b₃_ (id., _The Pilgrim_).

Less closely allied to the tail-rhyme stanza are the forms which are similar to it only in one half-strophe, e.g. those on the model _a₄ b₂ a b c c₄ b₂_ (Shelley, _To Night_, iii. 62), _a b₃ c c₂ a a₄ b₃_ (id. _Lines_, iii. 86), _a b b₄ r₂ a R₄ r₂_ (Tennyson, _A Dirge_, p. 16). For other examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 347.

§ =263.= There are also some eight-, nine-, and ten-lined stanzas similar to the tail-rhyme stanza. An =eight-lined stanza= of the form _a₄ b a₅ c₂, b₄ d d₅ c₂_ occurs in Herbert, _The Glance_ (p. 18), and one of the form _a ~ a ~₄ B c ~ d c ~ d₄ B₃_ in Moore's _Thee, thee, only thee_:

_The dawning of morn, the daylight's sinking,
The night's long hours still find me thinking
Of thee, thee, only thee.
When friends are met, and goblets crown'd,
And smiles are near, that once enchanted,
Unreach'd by all that sunshine round,
My soul, like some dark spot, is haunted
By thee, thee, only thee._

A stanza used by Wordsworth in _Stray Pleasures_ (iv. 12) corresponds to _a a₂ b₃ c c d d₂ b₃_.

Two stanzas used by M. Arnold correspond to the formulas _a a₂ b₂ c₅ d₄ c₃ d₄ b₂_ (_a a_ printed as one line) in _A Question_ (p. 44), and _a a₃ b₅ c c₃ d b d₃_ in _The World and the Quietist_ (p. 46).

A =stanza of nine lines= is found in Tennyson's _Lady of Shalott_ (p. 28); it is on the scheme _a a a a b c c c₄ b_; one of ten lines in his _Greeting to the Duchess of Edinburgh_ (p. 261) on the model _a b b a₅ C₂ d e e d₅ C₃_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 349).

Other stanzas of this kind are related to the Septenary or the _Poulter's Measure_, e.g. those on the schemes _a₄ b₃ a b c d c₄ d₃_, _a b a₄ b₃ c d₃ c₄ d₃_, and _a b₂ a₄ b₂ c₃ d₂ c₄ d₂_, examples of which, from Moore, are given in _Metrik_, ii, § 348.

=Stanzas of eleven= and =twelve lines= are rare. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 350.

§ =264. The bob-wheel stanzas.= This important class of bipartite unequal-membered anisometrical stanzas was very much in vogue in the Middle English period. They consist (see § 222) of a _frons_ (longer verses of four stresses, or Septenary and Alexandrine verses) and a _cauda_, which is formed of shorter verses and is joined to the _frons_ by one or several 'bob-verses', belonging generally to the first part or 'upsong' (in German _Aufgesang_).

Sometimes it is doubtful whether these stanzas belong to the bipartite or to the tripartite class, on account of the variety of rhymes in the _frons_. But as they mostly consist of two quite unequal parts, they certainly stand in a closer relationship to the bipartite stanzas.

A simple stanza of this kind on the scheme _A A₇ C₁ B₇_ occurs in William of Shoreham (printed in short lines on the model _A₄ B₃ C₄ B₃ d₁ E₄ D₃_):

_Nou here we mote in this sermon of ordre maky saȝe,
Then was bytokned suithe wel wylom by the ealde lawe
To aginne,
Tho me made Godes hous and ministres therinne._

A six-lined stanza of Alexandrines and Septenaries on the scheme _A A B B₆ c₁ C₆_ is found in the poem _On the evil Times of Edward II_ (Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 323). Another variety originated by the breaking up of the longer verses into short ones by inserted rhyme, as in the closing stanzas of a poem by Minot (ed. Hall, p. 17) according to the formula _A B A B A B A B₃ c₁ A C₃_; cf. the last stanza:

_King Edward, frely fode,
In Fraunce he will noght blin
To make his famen wode
That er wonand tharein.
God, that rest on rode,
For sake of Adams syn,
Strenkith him maine and mode,
His reght in France to win,
And have.
God grante him graces gode,
And fro all sins us save._

A similar form of stanza (_A B A B A B A B₃ c₁ B C₃_) is used in the Romance of _Sir Tristrem_; that of the Scottish poem _Christ's Kirk on the Green_, however, is formed on the model _A₄ B₃ A₄ B₄ A₄ B₃ b₁ B₄_.

§ =265.= Still more common than stanzas of this kind composed of even-beat verses, are those of four-stressed rhyming verses with or without alliteration.

Under this head comes a poem in Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 69 (cf. § 60), on the scheme _A A A A₄ B₃ c₁ C₃ B₄_, or rather _A A A A₄ b₂ c₁ c₂ B₄_, the bob-verse being thus inserted in the _cauda_. The common form comes out more clearly in another poem, ibid., p. 212 (st. 1, quoted pp. 100-1), corresponding to _A A A A₄ b₁ c c₂ b₂_, where _A A A A₄_ are verses of four stresses, _b a_ one-stressed bob-verse or the half-verse of a long line, _c c₂ b₂_ half-verses of two stresses.

_The Tournament of Tottenham_ (Ritson's _Anc. Songs_, i. 85-9) is written in a similar form of stanza with the formula _A A A A₄ b c c c b₂_; the cauda consisting of five verses with two stresses only.

This form of stanza is further developed by connecting the halves of the long lines with each other by the insertion of rhymes in the same way as in the stanzas of isometrical verses. An example may be seen in Wright's _Polit. Songs_, p. 153, the scheme being _A A A A₄ b b₁ b₂_ or _A A A A₄ b₁ b₂ b₄_ (or, with the longer lines broken up, _A B A B A B A B₂ c c₁ c₂_, or _A B A B A B A B₂ c₁ c₂ C₄_, &c.).

Similar stanzas, especially those on the model _A A A A₄ b₁ c c c₂ b₂_ (_A B A B A B A B₂ c₁ d d d₂ c₂_) were much used in the mystery plays, as e.g. in the _Towneley Mysteries_ (pp. 20-34), even when in the dialogue the single lines are divided between different speakers (cf. _Metrik_, i, pp. 390-1).

The four-stressed long lines sometimes alternate with Alexandrine and Septenary verses. In these plays stanzas of an eight-lined _frons_ consisting of long verses, rhyming crosswise and corresponding to _A B A B A B A B₄ c₁ d d d₂ c₂_ are also common:

_Peasse at my bydyng, ye wyghtys in wold!
Looke none be so hardy to speke a word bot I,
Or by Mahwne most myghty, maker on mold,
With this brande that I bere ye shalle bytterly aby;
Say, wote ye not that I am Pylate, perles to behold?
Most doughty in dedes of dukys of the Jury,
In bradyng of batels I am the most bold,
Therefor my name to you wille I descry,
No mys.
I am fulle of sotelty,
Falshod, gylt, and trechery;
Therefor am I namyd by clergy
As mali actoris._

Other stanzas, the first _cauda_-verse of which has four beats (on the scheme _A B A B A B A B C₄ d d d c₂_), were also very much in vogue. Stanzas of this kind occur in the poems _Golagros and Gawane_, _The Buke of the Howlat_, _Rauf Coilȝear_, and _The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne_ (S. T. S. vol. 28; cf. § 61). An interesting variety of the common form (with a five-lined _cauda_) we have in the poem _Of sayne John the Euangelist_ (E. E. T. S., 26, p. 87). The stanza consists of an eight-lined _frons_ of crossed rhymes and a _cauda_ formed by a six-lined tail-rhyme stanza[192] of two-beat verses, on the scheme _A B A B A B A B₄ c c d c c d₂_.

As to the rhythmical structure of the half-verses used in the _cauda_ of the stanza cf. the explanations given in § 64.

§ =266.= The bob-wheel stanzas[193] were preserved in the North in Scottish poetry (e.g. Alex. Montgomerie) up to the Modern English period.[194] It is not unlikely that they found their way from this source into Modern English poetry, where they are also met with, though they have not attained any marked popularity.

It must, however, be kept in mind that the Modern English bob-wheel stanzas are not a direct imitation of the Middle English. Sometimes they were influenced probably by the odes, as there is a marked likeness between these two forms, e.g. in two stanzas of Donne (_Poets_, iv. 24 and 39) on the schemes _A B A B C C₄ d d₁ D₄_ and _A₂ A₅ B₄ C C₅ B₄ d₁ D E E₅_; or in a stanza of Ben Jonson in an ode to Wm. Sidney (_Poets_, iv. 558) on the model _A₅ B₄ c c₁ B₃ a d d e₂ E₅_, and in another in _The Dream_ (iv. 566), _A A₄ B₃ C C₄ A₅ A₄ B₃ b₁ D D₃ E E₄ B₅_.

In this and other cases they consist of even-measured, seldom of four-stressed verses, as e.g. in Suckling, who seems to have been very fond of these forms of stanza; cf. the following stanza on the model _A A₄ B₃ c c₁ b₂_ (_Poets_, iii. 736):

_That none beguiled be by time's quick flowing,
Lovers have in their hearts a clock still going;
For though time be nimble, his motions
Are quicker
And thicker
Where love hath its notions._

Other bob-wheel stanzas in Suckling show the schemes _A A₄ a₂ b b₃_ (ib. iii. 740), _A A A₄ B B₅ c₂ c₁ C D₄ d₂_ (ib. iii. 729), _A A B B₄ c₁ c d₂ D₅_ (ib. 739).

More similar to the older forms is a stanza of a song in Dryden formed after _A A B B C₄ d d e e₂ e₃_ (p. 339).

In Modern poetry such stanzas are used especially by Burns, Scott, and sometimes by Moore. So we have in Burns a fine simple stanza on the model _A₄ B₃ A₄ B₃ c₁ B₃_, similar to the Shoreham stanza (cf. § 264):

_It was a' for our rightfu' king
We left fair Scotland's strand,
It was a' for our rightfu' king
We e'er saw Irish land,
My dear;
We e'er saw Irish land._

Similar stanzas occur in Moore on the formula _A₄ B₃ A₄ B₃ a₁ B₃_ in _Then fare thee well_, on _A₄ B ~₃ A₄ B ~₃ c₁ B ~₃_ in _Dear Fanny_. Other stanzas by the same poet have a somewhat longer _cauda_, as _A₄ B ~₃ A₄ B ~₃ c ~ c ~ d ~ d ~1 A₄ C ~₃_ or _A B ~ A B ~ C ~ C ~₄ d d₂ E F ~ E F ~₄_.

A stanza used by Sir Walter Scott in _To the Sub-Prior_ (p. 461) is formed on the model _A A B B₄ c₁ c₂ C₄_, the _frons_ consisting of four-stressed verses:

_Good evening, Sir Priest, and so late as you ride,
With your mule so fair, and your mantle so wide;
But ride you through valley, or ride you o'er hill,
There is one that has warrant to wait on you still.
Back, back,
The volume black!
I have a warrant to carry it back._

Most of these stanzas admit of being looked upon as tripartite on account of the bipartite structure of the _frons_.

Other stanzas may be viewed as consisting of three unequal parts (if not regarded as bipartite); such, for instance, is the stanza on the scheme (_a_) ~ _A_ ~ (_b_) _~ B ~₄ c₁_ (_d_) _D₄ b ~1 e e e c c₂ C₄_ occurring in Shelley's _Autumn, A Dirge_ (iii. 65), where the symbols (_a_)and (_b_) denote middle rhymes.

Stanzas of this kind are met with also in modern poetry, as e.g. in Thackeray, Mrs. Browning, and Rossetti (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 353, 354).