Chapter XXII: Section I: Of the poems composed in couplets

In the poems composed in couplets, the rhymes follow one another, and end at each couplet; that is to say, the second verse rhymes to the first, the fourth to the third, the sixth to the fifth, and in like manner to the end of the poem.

The verses employed in this sort of poems are either verses of ten
syllables; as,

"Oh! could I flow like thee, and make thy Stream
My great Example, as it is my Theme;
Tho' dark yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without Rage; without o'erflowing full."—_Denham._

Or of eight; as,

"O fairest Piece of well-form'd Earth,
Why urge you thus your haughty Birth?
The Pow'r, which you have o'er us lies,
Not in your Race, but in your Eyes.
Smile but on me, and you shall scorn
Henceforth to be of Princes born:
I can describe the shady Grove,
Where your lov'd Mother slept with Jove:
And yet excuse the faultless Dame,
Caught with her Spouse's Shape and Name:
Thy matchless Form will credit bring,
To all the Wonders I shall sing."—_Waller._

Or of seven; as,

"Phillis, why should we delay
Pleasures shorter than the Day?
Could we, which we never can,
Stretch our Lives beyond their Span,
Beauty like a Shadow flies,
And our Youth before us dies.
Or would Youth and Beauty stay,
Love has Wings, and will away.
Love has swifter Wings than Time."

But the second verse of the couplet does not always contain a like
number of syllables with the first; as,

"What shall I do to be for ever known,
And make the Age to come my own?
I shall like Beast and common People die,
Unless you write my Elegy."