Note 27 — Chapter IV · IMITATION IN LYRIC AND PASTORAL
Reading edition
Each stanza of the Epithalamion ends with a longer line (6 beats), which is the common refrain. The other lines have generally five beats, but the sixth and eleventh have only three; and this variation is occasionally extended. Generally there is a rhyme-shift after the eleventh line, but not a break (11 lines on 5 rhymes [or 4] plus 7 lines on 3 rhymes [or 4]). A few stanzas are lengthened to nineteen lines (11 plus 8). Thus the typical variations in this triumph of metrical interweaving are as follows, the underlined letters indicating the lines of three beats:
Stanza I a b a b c c b c b d d / e f f e e g g
II a b a b c c d c d f f / g h h g g h h
IV a b a b c c d c d e e / f g g h h i i
III. & VIII a b a b c c d c d e e / f g g f h h i i (19 lines)