Part 2 — CHAPTER IV ONE-RHYMED INDIVISIBLE AND BIPARTITE UNEQUAL-MEMBERED STANZAS
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§ 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 a5 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 (a b a b) 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 b5 a3, a b5 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 B3 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).