_frons_ or 'upsong') of which is isometrical, the arrangement of rhymes
being parallel.
A pretty stanza with the scheme _a a b b₃ c c₄_ presents itself in the
song _The Fairy Queen_ (Percy's _Rel_. III. ii. 26):
_Come, follow, follow me,
You, fairy elves that be:
Which circle on the greene,
Come, follow Mab, your queene,
Hand in hand let's dance around,
For this place is fairye ground._
For similar stanzas conforming to the schemes _a a b b₄ c c₅_, _a a b b
c₄ c₅_, _a a b b c ~ c ~₅_, _a a b b₆ c ~ c ~₅_, _a a b b c₄ c₃_ (in
Moore, _The Wandering Bard_), &c., see _Metrik_, ii, § 389.
Another group is represented by stanzas of six rhyming couplets of
unequal length, as _a₅ a₄ b₅ b₄ c₅ c₄_ (Sidney, _Psalm XXXIX_), _a₆ a₃
b₆ b₃ c₆ c₃_ (id. _Psalm II_); or _a₅ a₂ b₅ b₂ c c₅_, _a₄ a₅ b₄ b₅ c
c₄_, frequently used by Herbert and Cowley, or _a₅ a₄ b b₃ c₅ c₄_, _a a
b₄ b₃ c c₄_ (in Moore, _St. Senanus and the Lady_), the two _pedes_
enclosing the _cauda_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 390-2).
Similar stanzas with crossed rhymes occur pretty often, especially
stanzas of three Septenary verses broken up by inserted rhyme, according
to the formula _a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃_, as in Moore, _The Gazelle_:
_Dost thou not hear the silver bell,
Thro' yonder lime-trees ringing?
'Tis my lady's light gazelle,
To me her love-thoughts bringing,--
All the while that silver bell
Around his dark neck ringing_.
For other specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 393.
§ =274.= More popular are stanzas of a more distinctly tripartite
character, formed on the scheme _a b a b c c_ (which occurs also in the
isometrical group). These stanzas are used in many various forms, as e.
g. one in Cowper, _Olney Hymns_ (p. 25), like _a b a b₃ c c₄_:
_By whom was David taught
To aim the deadly blow,
When he Goliath fought,
And laid the Gittite low?
Nor sword nor spear the stripling took,
But chose a pebble from the brook._
Numerous other examples are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 394, together with
similar stanzas formed according to the schemes _a b ~ a b ~₃ c c₄_, _a
b a b₃ C C₄_, _a ~ b a ~ b₃ c c₅_, _a b a b₄ c c₅_, _a ~ b a ~ b₄ c c₆_,
&c.
The reverse order with regard to the length of the verses in the _pedes_
and the _cauda_ is also not uncommon, as e.g. in stanzas on the schemes
_a b a b c₅ c₄_, _a b a b c₅ c₃_, _a b a b₅ c₄ c₅_, &c.
Stanzas of this kind are met with chiefly in the earlier Modern English
poets, e.g. in Cowley and Herbert. Shorter lines also are used, e.g.
in stanzas corresponding to the formulas _a b a b₄ c c₃_, _a b a b₄ c
c₂_; stanzas like these also occur later, e.g. in Moore. In Cowley, now
and then, a stanza is found with a preceding _frons_ (on the scheme _a
a₅ b c b c₄_). In Moore we find yet another variety (in _Poor broken
flower_), the _cauda_ of which is enclosed by the _pedes_ (according to
the formula _a ~ b₅ c c₃ a ~ b₅_).
Another group of stanzas is to be mentioned here, the verses of which
are of different length in the first part, admitting of many various
combinations. Especially stanzas of Septenary rhythm in the first part
are very popular, as e.g. in Cowper's fine poem _The Castaway_ (p.
400), on the scheme _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c₄_:
_Obscurest night involved the sky,
The Atlantic billows roared,
When such a destined wretch as I,
Washed headlong from on board,
Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
His floating home for ever left._
There are many varieties of this form of stanza, as e.g. _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c
c₅_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ c₅_, _a₃ b₂ a₃ b₂ c₄ c₅_, _a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂ c c₄_, _a₅
b₄ a₅ b₄ c c₅_; _a₃ b₄ a₃ b₄ c c₄_, _a₂ b₄ a₂ b₄ c c₅_. All these
different schemes were chiefly used by the earlier Modern English poets,
as Browne, Carew, Cowley, Waller, and Herbert. (See _Metrik_, ii, §
397).
There are some other stanzas of allied structure which may be regarded
as extensions of the Poulter's Measure by the addition of a second
Alexandrine or Septenary verse, their formulas being _a b c b₃ d₄ d₃_ or
_a b₃ c₄ b₃ d₄ d₃_. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 398.
§ =275. Stanzas of seven lines= are very common, and have many diverse
forms. In the first place may be mentioned those which have parallel
arrangement of rhymes, and in which the _frons_ is isometrical. Some of
these forms, used chiefly by the earlier poets, as Cowley, Sheffield,
and others, have the scheme _a a b b c₄ c₂ c₅_ or _a a b b c₄ c a₅_.
Another variety, with alternate four-and two-foot iambic-anapaestic
lines according to the formula _a a b b₄ r r₂ R₄_, occurs in Moore,
_The Legend of Puck the Fairy_:
_Would'st know what tricks, by the pale moonlight,
Are play'd by me, the merry little Sprite,
Who wing through air from the camp to the court,
From king to clown, and of all make sport;
Singing, I am the Sprite
Of the merry midnight,
Who laugh at weak mortals, and love the moonlight._
Stanzas with an anisometrical first part, e.g. on the model _a₄ a₅ b₄
b₅ c c₄ c₅_in Donne, _Love's Exchange_ (Poets, iv. 30), are of rare
occurrence.
Numerous stanzas of this kind have in part crossed rhymes; we find, e.
g., stanzas with the same order of rhymes as in the _rhyme royal, _on
the model _a b a b b c₃ c₅_ as in S. Daniel, _A Description of Beauty_:
_O Beauty (beams, nay, flame
Of that great lamp of light),
That shines a while with fame,
But presently makes night!
Like winter's shortliv'd bright,
Or summer's sudden gleams;
How much more dear, so much less lasting beams._
Similar stanzas have the schemes _a b a b b₃ c c₅_, _a b a b c b₄ c₂_,
_a b a b c c₄ R₂_, _a b a b c c₄ C₅_, _a b a b c c₄ b₃_, _a b a b₄ c c₂
a₄_, &c. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 401-3.
In many stanzas the first and the last part (_frons_ and _cauda_) are
anisometrical. Thus Donne, Cowley, and Congreve furnish many examples of
the formulas _a₅ b₄ a₅ b₄ c c₄ b₅_, _a ~₄ b₆ a ~₄ b₅ c c₃ c₄_, _a₄ b₅ a₄
b₅ c c₂ b₄_, and later poets make frequent use of similar stanzas
composed of shorter lines after the model of the following by Congreve,
_Poets_, vii. 546 (_a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~3 c c₄ b ~₃_):
_Tell me no more I am deceived,
That Cloe's false and common;
I always knew (at least believ'd)
She was a very woman;
As such I lik'd, as such caress'd,
She still was constant when possess'd,
She could do more for no man._
For examples of other similar stanzas (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c b₃_, _a₄ b₃ a₄
b₃ C C₃ C₅_, _a₃ b₄ a₃ b₄ c c c₄_, _a₄ b ~₂ a₄ b ~₂ c c a₄_, &c.) see
_Metrik_, ii, §§ 404-6.
§ =276. Eight-lined stanzas= of various kinds are also very popular.
They rarely occur, however, with an isometrical _frons_, composed of
rhyming couplets (_a a b b c c d₅ d₃_, _a ~ a ~ b ~ b ~₄ C ~ C ~₂ d ~ d
~₄_, _a a b b c c d₄ d₅_; cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 408, 410); or with
enclosing rhymes in the _cauda_ (_a a b b c d d₄ c₅_, _a a b b₄ c d₄ d₂
c₄_, ib. § 409); or of an anisometrical structure with parallel rhymes
in both parts (ib. § 411).
The usual forms show crossed rhymes; either throughout the whole stanza
(in which case the first part is isometrical), or in the first part
only. The first form is represented by the following elegant stanza (_a
b a b₅ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃_) in the second of Drayton's _Eclogues_ (Poets,
iii. 590):
_Upon a bank with roses set about,
Where turtles oft sit joining bill to bill,
And gentle springs steal softly murm'ring out,
Washing the foot of pleasure's sacred hill;
There little Love sore wounded lies,
His bow and arrows broken,
Bedew'd with tears from Venus' eyes;
Oh! grievous to be spoken._
Other schemes that occur are: _a b a b c₅ d₃ c₅ d₃_, _a b a b c d c₄
d₃_, _a b a b c c d₄ d₃_, _a b a b₄ c c₂ d d₄_, _a b a₄ b₃ c c d d₄_, _a
~ b a ~ b₃ c₄ d₃ d₄ d₃_, _a b ~ a b ~₃ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃_, _a ~ b c ~ b d
~ e₃ f₄ e₃_, _a ~ b a ~ b₃ c d c₄ d₃_, _a ~ b a ~ b c ~ d c ~4 d₅_ (M.
Arnold, p. 2), &c.; for numerous examples see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 412, 414,
415.
Sometimes stanzas occur, the isometrical part of which forms the
_cauda_, as on the scheme _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c d d₄_ in Moore, _Sovereign
Woman_:
_The dance was o'er, yet still in dreams,
That fairy scene went on;
Like clouds still flushed with daylight gleams,
Though day itself is gone.
And gracefully to music's sound,
The same bright nymphs went gliding round;
While thou, the Queen of all, wert there--
The fairest still, where all were fair._
For examples of other forms (_a b a₄ b₂ c d C D₄, a ~₃ b₄ a ~₃ b₄ c b c
b₄, a₄ b₃ c₄ b₃ d e d e₃_, &c.) see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 413, 416.
§ =277.= Very frequently stanzas occur which are of an entirely
anisometrical structure in both parts. To this group belong the first
tripartite anisometrical stanzas of the Middle English period, contained
in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 111 (two songs). Their stanzaic
form (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ b b₅ c₇ c₅_) is also of great importance, on account
of the fact that the first five-foot verses as yet known in English
poetry occur in the _cauda_ of these stanzas. The first strophe may
serve as an example:
_Lutel wot hit anymon,
Hou loue hym haueþ ybounde,
Þat for us oþe rode ron,
Ant bohte vs wiþ is wounde,
Þe loue of hym vs haueþ ymaked sounde,
Ant yeast þe grimly gost to grounde.
Euer ant oo, nyht ant day, hi haueþ vs in is þohte,
He nul nout leose þat he so deore bohte._
This stanza is also interesting on account of its regular use of
masculine rhymes in the first and in the third line, and of feminine
rhymes in the others. The structure of the five-measured verses employed
in this stanza has been referred to before (§ 153).
Very often both main parts, the _upsong_ and the _downsong_, have
crossed rhymes in Modern English, e.g. in a form of stanza with the
scheme _a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃ c d₅ c₃ d₂_ in Southey, _To a Spider_ (ii. 180):
_Spider! thou need'st not run in fear about
To shun my curious eyes;
I wont humanely crush thy bowels out,
Lest thou should'st eat the flies;
Nor will I roast thee with a damn'd delight
Thy strange instinctive fortitude to see,
For there is One who might
One day roast me._
A structure analogous to that of the two last-quoted specimens is
exhibited in many stanzas occurring in earlier Modern English poetry, as
in Cowley, Herbert, Browne, Carew (_a₅ b₄ a₅ b₄ c₄ c₅ d₄ d₅_, _a₅ b₂ a₅
b₂ c₄ c₃ d₅ d₂_, _a₃ b₂ a₃ b₂ c c₄ d d₅_, _a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂ c₃ c₂ d d₃_);
other forms, corresponding only in the upsong or downsong to the Middle
English stanza quoted above, are _a ~₄ b₂ a ~₃ b₂ c ~₄ d₃ c ~₄ d₃_, _a₄
b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃ b ~₂ b ~₃ c₄ b ~₃_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c d₃ c₄ d₃_, &c., used by
Burns, Moore, and Mrs. Hemans. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 417,
418.
§ =278.= The next group consists of stanzas, one main part of which
consists of a half or of a whole tail-rhyme stanza. The first of these
two forms is used e.g. by Burns in the song _She's Fair and Fause_ (p.
204), where the stanza consists of four- and three-foot verses on the
model _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c c₄ d₃_:
_She's fair and fause that causes my smart,
I lo'ed her meikle and lang:
She's broken her vow, she's broken my heart,
And I may e'en gae hang.
A coof cam in wi' rowth o' gear,
And I hae tint my dearest dear,
But woman is but warld's gear,
Sae let the bonie lass gang._
Other stanzas of this class correspond to the formulas _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ a a
a₄ b₃_, _a ~₄ b₂ a ~₄ b₃ c ~ c ~ c ~₄ b₂_, _a₃ b₂ a₃ b₂ c c c₃ b₂_. For
examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 419.
There is another form of stanza the first part of which according to the
Middle English usage consists of a complete tail-rhyme stanza (cf. the
ten-lined stanzas of this group), while the _cauda_ is formed by a
rhyming couplet, so that its structure corresponds to the scheme _a a₄
b₃ a a₄ b₃ c c₄_; it occurs in Spenser, _Epigrams_, ii (p. 586):
_As Diane hunted on a day,
She chaunst to come where Cupid lay,
His quiver by his head:
One of his shafts she stole away,
And one of hers did close convay
Into the other's stead:
With that Love wounded my Love's hart
But Diane beasts with Cupid's dart._
Similar stanzas of other metres are very frequently met with, as e.g.
stanzas corresponding to the formulas _a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d₅_, _a a₃ b₂ c
c₃ b₂ d d₆_, _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ b b₇_, and _a ~ a ~₄ b₅ c ~ c ~₄ b₅ d d₅_.
The reverse order (i.e. _frons_ + two _versus_) we have in _a a₃ b b₂
c₃ b b₂ c₃_ and _a a₅ b b₃ c₅ d d₃ e₅_. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, §
420.
A stanza corresponding to the formula _a b₄ c₃ a b₄ c₃ a₄ D₃_ occurs in
M. Arnold's _The Church of Brou_ (p. 17).
§ =279.= Among =stanzas of nine lines=, those with parallel rhymes must
again be mentioned first; as e.g. a strophe on the scheme _a a b b c c
d d₄ d₅_, in Akenside, Book I, Ode X, _To the Muse_ (Poets, ix. 780).
Other stanzas occurring also in more recent poetry (Wordsworth, W.
Scott) are on the schemes _a a b b₄ c c₂ c d d₄_, _a a b b c₄ d₃ c c₄
d₃_, _a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃ c c d D₄_. For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 421.
Similar stanzas, also with an isometrical first part, but with crossed
rhymes, are not very often met with. The schemes are _a b a b₄ c c₂ c d
d₄_, _a b a b c c d d₄ d₅_, _a b a b b c b b₄ c₃_, _a b a b c d c d₄
e₂_, _a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃ c ~ d c ~ d₄_, &c. Specimens of them are also found
in modern poets, as in Moore, Burns, Walter Scott, &c. For examples see
_Metrik_, ii, § 422.
More frequently stanzas occur with an anisometrical first and last part
and crossed rhymes in each of them; the schemes are _a₄ b₅ a₄ b₅ c₄ d₃
c₅ d d₄_, _a₅ b₂ a₅ b₂ c c₅ d d₂ c₄_, _a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂ c₄ d d₂ c c₄_. The
most popular, however, are those stanzas in which one or other of the
two main parts consists of Septenary verses; they are of frequent
occurrence in Burns and other modern poets; a stanza on the scheme _a₄
b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃ r₂_, e.g., is found in Burns, _The Holy Fair_
(p. 14):
_Upon a simmer Sunday morn,
When Nature's face is fair,
I walked forth to view the corn,
An' snuff' the caller air.
The risin' sun, owre Galston muirs,
Wi' glorious light was glintin;
The hares were hirplin down the furrs,
The lav'rocks they were chantin
Fu' sweet that day._
For similar examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 424.
Other stanzas are formed by combination with a complete or a shortened
tail-rhyme stanza; so that we have schemes like _a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d
d₄_, _a ~ a ~ b c ~ c ~ b₄ d ~ d ~₂ b₄_, _a a₂ b₄ c c₂ b₄ d d₂ b₄_. They
occur in Carew (_Poets_, iii. 709), Dryden (p. 368), and Thackeray (p.
237). The formula _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c d c c₄ d₃_ we find in Campbell (p. 82),
_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d₄_ in Byron's _Ode to Napoleon_ p. 273):
_'Tis done--but yesterday a King!
And arm'd with Kings to strive--
And now thou art a nameless thing;
So abject--yet alive!
Is this the man of thousand thrones,
Who strew'd our earth with hostile bones,
And can he thus survive?
Since he, miscall'd the Morning Star,
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far._
For other specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 424, 425.
§ =280.= Among the =stanzas of ten lines=, those with an isometrical
first part and parallel rhymes may first be mentioned; they correspond
to the schemes _a a b b c d d e e₄ c₅_, _a a b b c d c d₄ f₃ f₄_, _a a b
b c₄ d₃ c c c₄ d₃_, _a a b b₄ c d c d₂ e e₄_, and are found in Akenside,
Wordsworth, and Moore. Next come stanzas with an anisometrical first
part according to the formulas _a₅ a₄ b₅ b₄ c c₅ d d e₄ e₅_, _a₄ a₅ b₄
b₅ c d c₄ d₃ e e₅_, _a ~ a ~₃ b b₄ c ~ c ~₃ d d₄ e ~ e ~₃_, occurring in
Cowley and Campbell (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 427, 428).
In other stanzas, crossed rhymes are used in the isometrical first part;
they correspond to the formulas _a b a b₅ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ e₆ e₇_, _a b a b c
c d e d₅ E₂_, _a b a b c d e₅ c₃ d e₅_, _a b a b c₃ c₂ d₃ d₂ e₃ e₄_, and
are found in Browne, G. Herbert, and Ben Jonson (ib. § 429).
In modern poetry simpler stanzas of this kind are used; one e.g. on the
scheme _a ~ b ~ a ~ b ~₃ c c₄ d ~ e ~ d ~ e ~₃_ (the _cauda_ being thus
enclosed by the two _pedes_) in Moore's song _Bring the bright Garlands
hither_:
_Bring the bright garlands hither,
Ere yet a leaf is dying;
If so soon they must wither,
Ours be their last sweet sighing.
Hark, that low dismal chime!
'Tis the dreary voice of Time.
Oh, bring beauty, bring roses,
Bring all that yet is ours;
Let life's day, as it closes,
Shine to the last through flowers._
Similar stanzas corresponding to the formulas _a ~ b a ~ b₂ c c₄ d ~ e d
~ e₂_, _a ~ b ~ a ~ b c ~ d c ~ d₂ e e₄_, _a b a b c d c d₄ e₃ e₄_ and
_a ~ b a ~ b₄ c ~₄ d₃ c ~₄ d₃ c ~₄ d₃_, are used by the same poet in
_With Moonlight Beaming_, _The Young Indian Maid_, _Guess, guess_, and
_from this Hour_.
Many stanzas of this group with an isometrical first part are formed by
combination with a tail-rhyme stanza, which then generally forms the
_cauda_, as in one of Cunningham's stanzas, viz. in _Newcastle Beer_
(Poets, x. 729), the stanza consisting of four- and two-stressed verses
on the scheme _a b a b₄ c c₂ d₄ e e₂ d₄_:
_When fame brought the news of Great-Britain's success,
And told at Olympus each Gallic defeat;
Glad Mars sent by Mercury orders express,
To summon the deities all to a treat:
Blithe Comus was plac'd
To guide the gay feast,
And freely declar'd there was choice of good cheer;
Yet vow'd to his thinking,
For exquisite drinking,
Their nectar was nothing to Newcastle beer._
For examples of many similar forms, e.g. _a b a b c c d e e₄ d₃_, _a₅ b
b₄ a₅ c c d e e d₃_, _a b a b₄ c c₂ d₄ e ~ e ~₂ d₄_, _a b a b₄ c c₂ d₃ e
e₂ d₃_, _a b a b₃ c ~ c ~1 d₃ e ~ e ~1 d₂_, see _Metrik_, ii, § 431.
§ =281.= Stanzas of this kind with an anisometrical first part occur in
the Middle English period: e.g. in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p.
83, on the scheme _a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b ~₃ c c₄ d ~₃ e e₄ d ~₃_:
_Jesu, for þi muchele miht
Þou ȝef vs of þi grace,
Þat we mowe dai and nyht
Þenken o þi face.
In myn herte hit doþ me god,
When y þenke on iesu blod,
Þat ran doun bi ys syde,
From is herte doun to is fot,
For ous he spradde is herte blod,
His woundes were so wyde._
The shorter, Septenary part of the stanza represents the _frons_, the
tail-rhyme stanza, the _versus_. Of a similar form (_a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃
a b₃ a₂_) is the stanza of the poem _An Orison of our Lady_ (E. E. T.
S., vol. xlix, p. 158). In Modern English also allied forms occur; one
especially with the scheme _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c d e e₄ d₃_ in Gray, _Ode on
the Spring_ (Poets, x. 215); other forms are _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c₂ d₃ e e₂
d₄_, _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c c d e e₄ d₅_, _a b₃ a₄ b₃ d d₄ e₃ f f₄ e₃_. (For
examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 432.)
The reverse combination, viz. tail-rhyme stanza and Septenary (on the
scheme _a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d₄ b₃ d₄ b₃_), also occurs in Middle English
times[195]), e.g. in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 87:
_Nou skrinkeþ rose and lylie flour,
þat whilen ber þat suete sauour,
in somer, þat suete tyde;
ne is no quene so stark ne stour,
ne no leuedy so bryht in bour,
þat ded ne shal by glyde.
Whose wol fleyshlust forgon,
and heuene blis abyde,
on iesu be is þoht anon,
þat þerled was ys syde._
Similar stanzas occur also in Modern English; e.g. one on the formula
_a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d₄ e₃ d₄ e₃_ in Burns (p. 255), another on the scheme
_a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d e₃ d₄ e₃_ (=_Poulter's Measure_ in the _cauda_), ib.
p. 189.
Other ten-line stanzas consisting chiefly of Septenary verses or of
_Poulter's Measure_ correspond to the formulas _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃
e e₄_, _a b₃ a₄ b₃ c d₃ c₄ d₃ e e₄_, _a b a₄ b₃ c d c₄ d₃ e e₃_. For
examples, partly taken from Moore, see _Metrik_, ii, § 435.
Stanzas of this kind consisting of five-foot verses are rarely met with,
e.g. _a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃ c₅ d₃ c₅ d₃ e e₄_, _a b₄ a₅ b₄ c c d d e e₅_, _a₅ b₃
a₅ b₃ c c₄ d₂ d₅ e₂ e₅_; as in Spenser and Browne (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §
434).
§ =282.= Stanzas of eleven lines= are also rare. There is one with an
isometrical first part (on the scheme _a b a b₅ c c₂ c₃ d₂ d₅ x₂ d₆_)
in Ben Jonson, _Cynthia's Revels_ (Poets, iv. 610); another in
Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_ (st. xxxv-xxxix), corresponding to the
scheme _a b a b₄ c₃ d d d₄ c₃ e e₄_.
Other stanzas of an almost entirely anisometrical structure consist of a
combination with a tail-rhyme stanza, as e.g. a Middle English stanza
on the scheme _a a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃_, with a regular tail-rhyme
stanza representing the _pedes_, and a shortened tail- rhyme stanza
representing the _cauda_; it occurs in the _Towneley Mysteries_, pp.
221-3. A similar one we have in Phineas Fletcher (_Poets_, iv. 460) on
the formula
_a ~₂ a ~₃ b₂ e ~₂ e ~₃ b₂ d ~₄ e ~ e ~₂ d d₅_,
and another one in Leigh Hunt, _Coronation Soliloquy_ (p. 225) which
corresponds to the formula _a a₂ b ~₃ c c₂ b ~₃ d d₂ e ~₃ f₄ e ~₃_.
In other stanzas parts only of tail-rhyme stanzas occur, as in a strophe
of the form _a₄ b ~₃ c₄ b ~₃ d e d d₄ e₃ r R₄_, used by Wordsworth in
_The Seven Sisters_ (iii. 15):
_Seven Daughters had Lord Archibald,
All children of one mother:
You could not say in one short day
What love they bore each other.
A garland of seven lilies wrought!
Seven Sisters that together dwell;
But he, bold Knight as ever fought,
Their Father, took of them no thought,
He loved the wars so well.
Sing mournfully, oh! mournfully,
The solitude of Binnorie!_
Other stanzas of this kind are formed on the schemes _a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂ c c₂
d₃ e₄ d₂ e₄ d₂_ (Moore, _Love's Young Dream_), _a b b a c c d e e d₅ e₃_
(Swinburne, _Ave atque Vale_, Poems, ii. 71). Cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 436,
437.
§ =283. Stanzas of twelve lines= are very numerous. One of the Middle
English period we have in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 27; it is
formed on the scheme _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ b b b c₃ D D D₄ C₃_ and is similar to
those ten-lined stanzas mentioned above, which consist of two Septenary
verses and a tail-rhyme stanza; the second part of which, being the
refrain, thus becomes the _cauda_ of the stanza. In the Modern English
period some simple stanzas with an isometrical first part and parallel
rhymes may be mentioned in the first place. These are constructed on the
schemes _a a b b c c d d₄ e₄ f₂ e₄ f₂_, _a a b b c c d d e e f₄ f₃_ and
occur in Mrs. Hemans (iv. 171; vii. 155); stanzas of this kind with
crossed rhymes are likewise met with, e.g. _a ~ b a ~ b₄ c c₃ d₅ e e f
f₃ d₅_ in Burns, p. 188.
Pretty often we find stanzas for singing, the _cauda_ of which is
enclosed by the _pedes_; in the first stanza the two _pedes_ together
form the refrain, in the others, however, only the last one, e.g. in
stanzas on the schemes _A ~ B A ~ B₄ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ A ~ B A ~ B₄_, _e ~ f e
~ f₄ g₄ h₃ g₄ h₃ A ~ B A ~ B₄_ in _Hymns Ancient and Mod._, No. 138,
consisting of trochaic verses:
_Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
He hath burst His bonds in twain;
Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
Alleluia! swell the strain!
For our gain He suffered loss
By Divine decree;
He hath died upon the Cross,
But our God is He._
_Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
He hath burst His bonds in twain;
Christ is risen! Christ is risen!
Alleluia! swell the strain._
_See the chains of death are broken;
Earth below and heaven above_, &c. &c.
Similar stanzas frequently occur in Moore, e.g. stanzas on the models
_A ~ B A ~ B₄ c c d₃ d₂ E ~ B E ~ B₄_, and _f ~ g f ~ g₄ h h i₃ i₂ E ~
B E ~ B₄_ (in _Love's light summer-cloud_), _A B ~ A B ~₃ c d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃
A B ~ A B ~₃_, _e f ~ e f ~₃ g h ~₃ g₄ h ~₃ A B ~ A B ~₃_ (in _All
that's bright must fade_). For other examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 441.
Similar stanzas of Septenary metres, also common in Moore, have the
formulas _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ E₄ F₃ E₄ F₃_ (in _When Time_), _A₄
B₃ A₄ B₃ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ A₄ B₃ A₄ B₃_ (st. i), _d₄ e₃ d₄ e₃ f₄ g₃ f₄ g₃ A₄
B₃ A₄ B₃_ (st. ii); only in st. i the _cauda_ is in the middle; in the
others it closes the stanza (_Nets and Cages_).
Other stanzas have the reverse order of verses, as e.g. stanzas on the
schemes _a ~₃ b₄ a ~₃ b₄ c ~₃ d₄ c ~₃ d₄ E ~₃ F₄ E ~₃ F₄_ (_To Ladies'
Eyes_), _A ~₃ B₄ A ~₃ B₄ c d c d₄ A ~₃ B₄ A ~₃ B₄_ (_Oh! Doubt me not_).
This sort of stanza also occurs in Moore with other metres, e.g.
according to the formulas _A₄ B₂ A₄ B₂ c₃ d₂ c₃ d₂ A₄ B₂ A₄ B₂_, _e₄ b₂
e₄ b₂ f₃ g₂ f₃ g₃ e₄ b₂ e₄ b₂_ (_Not from thee_) and there are still
other varieties in Moore and in some of the more recent poets. Cf.
_Metrik_, ii, §§ 443-5.
§ =284.= Among the =stanzas of thirteen lines=, one belonging to the
Middle English period has been mentioned above (p. 342, note), which is
formed by combination with a tail-rhyme stanza.
In the few Modern English stanzas of this length we generally find also
a part of a tail-rhyme stanza, as e.g. in the _cauda_ of a stanza
constructed on the formula _a b ~ a b ~ c d ~ c d ~₄ E F ~₄ g g₂ F ~₄_
(Moore, _Lesbia hath_, &c.); or in a stanza like _a ~ b a ~ b₄ c c₂ b₄ d
d₂ e f e f₄_, deficient in one four-stressed tail-verse as in Moore,
_The Prince's Day_:
_Tho' dark are our sorrows to-day we'll forget them,
And smile through our tears, like a sunbeam in showers;
There never were hearts, if our rulers would let them,
More form'd to be grateful and blest than ours.
But just when the chain
Has ceas'd to pain_,
_And hope has enwreath'd it round with flowers,
There comes a new link
Our spirits to sink--
Oh! the joy that we taste, like the light of the poles,
Is a flash amid darkness, too brilliant to stay;
But, though 'twere the last little spark in our souls,
We must light it up now, on our Prince's Day._
For other forms of stanzas belonging to this group see _Metrik_, ii, §
447.
§ =285.= More numerous are =stanzas of fourteen lines=. Judging by the
examples which have come to our knowledge, they are also, as a rule,
formed by combination with a tail-rhyme stanza; as e.g. in a stanza by
Browne (_Poets_, iv. 276) on the scheme _a b a b c a c a₅ a a₂ b₃ c c₂
b₃_; another stanza, frequently used by Burns, corresponds to the
formula
_a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d₄ e₃ d₄ e₃ f ~₂ g₃ h ~₂ g₃_
and occurs, e.g., in his _Epistle to Davie_ (p. 57):
_While winds frae aff Ben-Lomond blaw,
And bar the doors wi' driving snaw,
And hing us owre the ingle,
I set me down, to pass the time,
And spin a verse or twa o' rhyme,
In hamely, westlin jingle.
While frosty winds blaw in the drift,
Ben to the chimla lug,
I grudge a wee the Great-folk's gift,
That live sae bien an' snug:
I tent less, and want less
Their roomy fire-side;
But hanker and canker,
To see their cursèd pride._
A similar stanza is found in Moore, _The Sale of Loves_, _a₄ b ~₃ a₄ b
~₃ c₄ d ~₃ c₄ d ~₃ E E₂ F ~₃ G G₂ F ~₃_. In other stanzas used by this
poet, the tail-rhyme stanza forms the _cauda_ enclosed by two _pedes_
(see § 283); e.g. in _Nay, tell me not, dear_, on the scheme _a b a b₄
c c₂ d₄ e e₂ d₄ F G F G₄_. Another stanza of the form _A B ~ A B ~₃ c
c₂ d₃ e e₂ d₃ A B ~ A B ~₃_, _f g ~ f g ~₃ h h₂ i₃ k k₂ i₃ A B ~ A B
~₃_, is used in _Oft, in the stilly night_.
As to other forms cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 448. Stanzas, the enclosing
_pedes_ of which are formed by two tail-rhyme stanzas, are discussed
ib. § 449 (schemes: _a a₂ b ~₃ C C₂ b ~₃ d ~ d ~₃ e e₂ f ~₃ C C₂ f ~₃_,
_g g₂ h ~₃ i i₂ h ~₃ k ~ k ~₃ l l₂ m ~₃ C C₂ m ~₃_).
§ =286.= Some stanzas of still greater extent (not very common) are also
formed by combination with tail-rhyme stanzas. There are a few =stanzas
of fifteen lines=, e.g. one on the model _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d d₂ e₃ f f₂
e₃ g G₃ G₄_ in Moore, _Song and Trio_; one on
_a ~ a ~ b ~ b ~₂ c₁ d ~ d ~ e ~ e ~₂ c₁ f ~ f ~ g ~ g ~₂ c₁_
in Shelley, _The Fugitives_ (iii. 55); and one on
_a ~ a ~ a ~ b c ~ c ~ c ~ b d ~ d ~ d ~ e f ~ f ~₂ e₄_
in Swinburne, _Four Songs in Four Seasons_ (Poems, ii. 163-76).
Two =stanzas of sixteen lines= occur in Moore on the schemes _a a₂ b ~₃
c c₂ b ~₃ d e d e₃ f f₂ g ~₃ h h₂ g ~₃_ (_The Indian Boat_), and _a a₂ b
~₃ c c₂ b ~₃ d d₂ e ~₃ f f₂ e ~₃ G ~₄ H H₂ G ~₃_ (_Oh, the Shamrock_).
A =stanza of seventeen lines=
(_a a₄ b₃ a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d₄ e₃ d d₄ e₃_)
is found in a Middle English poem in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr.
Poetry_, p. 47; it consists of two six-lined, common tail-rhyme
stanzas (the _pedes_), and a shortened one (forming the _cauda_).
A =stanza of eighteen lines= on the formula
_a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃ d d₄ b₃ e e₄ b₃ f f g g g f₂_
occurs in Wright's _Pol. Songs_, p. 155 (cf. _Metrik_, i, p. 411); the
scheme might also be given as _a a₄ b₂_, &c., if the tail-rhyme verses
be looked upon as two-stressed lines. A simpler stanza according to the
scheme _a a₂ b₃ c c₂ b₃ d d₂ b₃ e e₂ b₃ f f₂ g₃ h h₂ g₃_ is used in _The
Nut-Brown Mayd_ (Percy's _Rel._ II. i. 6). Cf. § 244, also _Metrik_, i,
p. 367, and ii, p. 715.
Similar stanzas are used by Shelley (in _Arethusa_, i. 374) and by Moore
(in _Wreath the Bowl_). Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 453.
Lastly, a =stanza of twenty lines= with the scheme _a b ~ a c d b ~ d c
e e₃ f₄ g g₃ f₄ h h₃ i₄ k ~ k ~₃ i₄_, occurs in _The King of France's
Daughter_ (Percy's _Rel._ III. ii. 17); cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 454.
PART III
MODERN STANZAS AND METRES OF FIXED FORM
ORIGINATING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE
RENASCENCE, OR INTRODUCED LATER
CHAPTER VI
STANZAS OF THREE AND MORE PARTS
CONSISTING OF UNEQUAL PARTS ONLY
§ =287. Introductory remark.= At the very beginning of the Modern
English period the poetry of England was strongly influenced by that of
Italy. Among the strophic forms used by the Italian poets, two
especially have had an important share in the development of English
metre: the sonnet and the canzone. Apart from those direct imitations
which we shall have to notice later, the sonnet form tended to make more
popular the use of enclosing rhymes, which had until then been only
sparingly employed in English poetry; while the canzone with its varied
combinations of anisometrical verses, mostly of eleven and seven
syllables, gave rise to a variety of similar loosely constructed
stanzas, as a rule, of three- and five-foot verses.
At the same time, however, these Modern English stanzas of a somewhat
loose structure were also affected by the stricter rules for the
formation of stanzas which had come down from the Middle English period.
Hence their structure frequently reminds us of the older forms, two
adjoining parts being often closely related, either by order of rhymes,
or by the structure of the verse, or by both together, though the old
law of the equality of the two _pedes_ or of the two _versus_ is not
quite strictly observed.
This explains the fact that some stanzas (especially the shorter ones)
have a structure similar to that of the old tripartite stanzas; while
others (chiefly the longer ones) not unfrequently consist of four or
even more parts.
In the first group the chief interest centres round those which have
enclosing rhymes in their first or last part. Although the transposition
of the order of rhymes thus effected in the _pedes_ or in the _versus_
was common both in Northern French and Provençal poets,[196] the
teachers of the Middle English poets, we find scarcely a single example
of it in Middle English, and it seems to have become popular in Modern
English only through the influence of the Italian sonnet.
In accordance with the analogy of the isometrical stanzas or parts of
stanzas this arrangement of rhymes is found also in the anisometrical
ones; so that we have first parts (_pedes_) both on the scheme _a b b a₄_,
_a b b a₅_ or _a₄ b b₃ a₄_, _a₅ b₄ b₄ a₅_. From the arrangement of rhymes
this order was transferred to the lines themselves; thus a stanza with
enclosing rhymes consisting of two longer lines with a couplet of short
lines between them, as in the last example, is transformed into a
similar stanza with crossed rhymes according to the formula _a₅ b₄ a₄
b₅_, the shorter lines being, as before, placed between the longer ones
(or vice versa _a₄ b₅ a₅ b₄_). It is evident that here too in spite of
the regular arrangement of rhymes the two _pedes_ are not alike, but
only similar to each other.
§ =288. Six-lined stanzas= of this kind, with an isometrical first part
or isometrical throughout, occur pretty often; one e.g. on the scheme
_a b b a c c₄_ is met with in John Scott, _Ode_ XIX (_Poets_, xi. 757):
_Pastoral, and elegy, and ode!
Who hopes, by these, applause to gain,
Believe me, friend, may hope in vain--
These classic things are not the mode;
Our taste polite, so much refin'd,
Demands a strain of different kind._
For similar stanzas according to the formulas _a b b a a b₄_, _a b b a c
c₅_, _a b b a c₃ c₅_ (Milton, _Psalm_ IV), _a b b a₅ c₄ c₅_, and _a b b
a c₅ c₃_, see _Metrik_, ii, § 456.
Other stanzas have anisometrical first and last parts; as e.g. one on
the model _a₅ b b₄ a₅ c₄ c₃_ which was used by Cowley, _Upon the
shortness of Man's Life_ (Poets, v. 227):
_Mark that swift arrow, how it cuts the air,
How it outruns thy following eye!
Use all persuasions now, and try
If thou canst call it back, or stay it there.
That way it went, but thou shalt find
No track is left behind._
Similar stanzas are found in later poets, as e.g. Mrs. Hemans, D. G.
Rossetti, Mrs. Browning, corresponding to _a₅ b b₄ a₅ c₄ c₅_, _a₃ b b₅
a₃ c c₅_, _a₅ b b₃ a₄ c₅ c₃_, _a₃ b₄ b₅ a₄ b₅ a₃_, _a b₃ b₄ a₃ c c₄_,
&c. (For specimen see _Metrik_, ii, § 458.)
Even more frequently we have stanzas of three quite heterogeneous parts;
the lines rhyming crosswise, parallel, or crosswise and parallel. They
occur both in the earlier poets (Cowley, Herbert, &c.) and in those of
recent times (Southey, Wordsworth, Shelley, the Brownings, Swinburne,
&c.). A song by Suckling (_Poets_, iii. 730) on the scheme _a₃ a b b₂ c
c₄_ may serve as an example:
_If when Don Cupid's dart
Doth wound a heart,
We hide our grief
And shun relief;
The smart increaseth on that score;
For wounds unsearcht but rankle more._
For an account of other stanzas of a similar structure (e.g. _a a₅ b b₄
c c₃_, _a a₄ b b c₃ c₅_, _a₅ a₃ b b c₄ c₅_, _a₂ a b b c₄ c₁_, &c.) see
_Metrik_, ii, §459.
Very often we find stanzas of combined crossed and parallel rhymes; one
e.g. on the model _a b a₅ b₆ c c₅_ in Shelley, _A Summer-Evening
Churchyard_ (i. 160):
_The wind has swept from the wide atmosphere
Each vapour that obscured the sunset's ray;
And pallid Evening twines its beaming hair
In duskier braids around the languid eyes of day:
Silence and Twilight, unbeloved of men,
Creep hand in hand from yon obscurest glen._
Many stanzas of a similar kind correspond to the schemes _a a₄ b c₂ b₄
c₃_, _a₄ b₃ a b c c₄_, _a₃ b₅ a b₄ c₅ c₄_, _a b a₅ b c c₄_, _a₅ a b c c
b₄ c₅_, _a₄ b ~₂ a a₄ b ~a₄_, _a₅ b₃ a b c₅ c₃_, and _a b c c a₄ b₃_;
for specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 460-3.
Stanzas consisting of shorter lines are not so often met with; we have
an example (on the model _a b a₂ b c₄ c₃_) consisting of
iambic-anapaestic verses in R. Browning, _On the Cliff_ (vi. 48):
_I leaned on the turf,
I looked at a rock
Left dry by the surf;
For the turf, to call it grass were to mock;
Dead to the roots, so deep was done
The work of the summer sun._
For stanzas on the schemes _a₄ b₁ a₄ b₂ C D₂_, _a b a₄ c₃ c b₂_ see
ibid. § 464.
§ =289.= Among =seven-line= stanzas, both in earlier (Ph. Fletcher, S.
Daniel, &c.) and more recent poets (Mrs. Browning, Swinburne, R.
Browning, D.G. Rossetti), those which are entirely isometrical occur
often. One on the model _a b b a b b a₅_ is met with in S. Daniel's
_Epistle to the Angel Spirit of the most excellent Sir Philip Sidney_
(Poets, iii. 228):
_To thee, pure spir't, to thee alone addrest
Is this joint work, by double int'rest thine:
Thine by thine own, and what is done of mine
Inspir'd by thee, thy secret pow'r imprest:
My muse with thine itself dar'd to combine,
As mortal stuff with that which is divine:
Let thy fair beams give lustre to the rest._
Specimens of stanzas on the schemes _a b b a c c c₄_, _a b b a b b a₄_,
_a b b a a c c₃_, _a b b a a c c₅_, _a b b a c c a₅_, and _a b c c d d
d₄_, are given in _Metrik_, ii, §456.
Anisometrical stanzas on the model _a b b a_ in the first part occur
only in single examples, one corresponding to the scheme _a b b a₄ b₂ c
c₄_ found in Milton, _Arcades_, Song I; and another of the form _a₃ b b₅
a₃ c c a₅_ in Mrs. Hemans, _The Festal Hour_ (ii. 247); cf. _Metrik_,
ii, § 466.
Sometimes quite anisometrical stanzas with parallel rhymes occur,
especially in the earlier poets, as e.g. in Wyatt, Suckling, Cowley; a
stanza of Cowley's poem, _The Thief_ (Poets, v. 263), has the formula
_a₅ a b b c c₄ c₅_:
_What do I seek, alas! or why do I
Attempt in vain from thee to fly?
For, making thee my deity,
I give thee then ubiquity,
My pains resemble hell in this,
The Divine Presence there, too, is,
But to torment men, not to give them bliss._
Other forms of a similar structure are _a a₃ b b₂ a a₃ B₄_, _a₄ a b b₃ c
c₄ x₃_, _a₄ a b₅ b c c₄ c₅_, _a₅ a a b b₄ c c₃_; for examples see
_Metrik_, ii, §467.
Stanzas which have crossed rhymes either in part or throughout are still
commoner. Thus a stanza on the model of the _rhyme royal_ stanza (_a₃ b
a b₅ b₃ c c₅_) which occurs in Mrs. Hemans, _Elysium_ (iii. 236):
_Fair wert thou in the dreams
Of elder time, thou land of glorious flowers
And summer winds and low-toned silvery streams,
Dim with the shadows of thy laurel bowers,
Where, as they pass'd, bright hours
Left no faint sense of parting, such as clings
To earthly love, and joy in loveliest things!_
Other similar stanzas correspond to _a₄ b a₅ b₄ c₃ c₄ c₅_, _a₃ b a₄ b₂ c
c c₅_, _a₅ b a₄ b₅ c₄ c c₅_, _a₅ b c c b a₄ a₅_, _a b a₄ b₃ b₅ a₄ b₃_,
and _a b a₃ b₄ c₃ c₂ c₄_; for examples taken from older poets (Donne,
Carew, Cowley) and from later literature (Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti)
cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 468.
Several other stanza-forms remind us by their structure and arrangement
of rhymes of certain shortened forms of the tail-rhyme stanza, e.g. one
in _A Parting Song_ by Mrs. Hemans (vi. 189), on the scheme _A₄ B₃ c c d
d₄ B₂_:
_When will ye think of me, my friends?
When will ye think of me?
When the last red light, the farewell of day,
From the rock and the river is passing away--
When the air with a deep'ning hush is fraught
And the heart grows burden'd with tender thought--
Then let it be._
Similar stanzas corresponding to the formulas _a b₄ a a₃ b a₄ a₃_, _a₄
b₃ a a₄ b₃ c c₄_, _a a b a₅ b a a₂_ are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 469.
§ =290.= Most of the =eight-lined stanzas=, which on the whole are rare,
are similar to the tail-rhyme stanza, the scheme of which is carried out
in both parts, to which a third part is then added as the _cauda_ (last
part).
Stanzas of this kind, used especially by Cowley, correspond to _a a₅ b₃
c c₄ b₃ d d₄_, _a₅ a₄ b₄ c₅ c₅ b₄ d₄ d₅_, _a₅ a b c c b₄ d d₅_, and _a
a₅ b₄ c c b₅ d₄ d₅_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 470).
The half-stanzas (_pedes_) are separated by the _cauda_ in a stanza on
the scheme _a a₄ b₅ c c d d₄ b₃_, which occurs in Wordsworth, _The
Pilgrim's Dream_ (vi. 153):
_A Pilgrim, when the summer day
Had closed upon his weary way,
A lodging begged beneath a castle's roof;
But him the haughty Warder spurned;
And from the gate the Pilgrim turned,
To seek such covert as the field
Or heath-besprinkled copse might yield,
Or lofty wood, shower-proof._
In other stanzas on the models _a₄ b₂ a b c c c₄ b₂_, _a ~ b a ~₄ b₃ c ~
c ~ c ~₄ b₂_, _a₄ b₂ a₄ c c₂ d d₄ b₂_, and _a₄ B ~₂ a a₄ C ~₂ D₃ D₄_,
only a half-stanza of the tail-rhyme form can be recognized (cf.
_Metrik_, ii, §475).
Sometimes an unequal part is inserted between two parts of a somewhat
similar structure, as in a stanza with the formula _a a b c b c d₄ d₅_
in Byron, _Translation from Horace_ (p. 89):
_The man of firm and noble soul
No factious clamours can control;
No threat'ning tyrant's darkling brow
Can swerve him from his just intent;
Gales the warring waves which plough,
By Auster on the billows spent,
To curb the Adriatic main,
Would awe his fix'd, determined mind in vain._
Other stanzas correspond to the schemes _a a₅ . b b c c₃ . d ~ d ~₄_,
_a₅ a₃ a₄ . b b₄ . c c₄ c₅_, _a b₅ b₃ . a₄ a . c c c₅_, _a₃ a . b c b c
. d d₅_, _a a₄ . b₄ c ~ c ~₂ . d d₂ b₄_, and _a₅ a₂ . b b₅ . c c c₅ c₂_.
All these forms are met with in earlier poets, as e.g. Donne, Drayton,
and Cowley; for specimen see _Metrik_, ii, § 471.
§ =291.= A quadripartite structure is sometimes observable in stanzas
with four rhymes, especially with a parallel or crossed order, or both
combined, as e.g. in a poem by Donne, _The Damp_ (Poets, iv. 37), the
scheme being _a₅ a₄ b b₅ c c₄ d d₅_:
_When I am dead, and doctors know not why,
And my friends' curiosity
Will have me cut up, to survey each part,
And they shall find your picture in mine heart;
You think a sudden Damp of love
Will through all their senses move,
And work on them as me, and so prefer
Your murder to the name of massacre._
For stanzas of different structure on similar models cf. _Metrik_, ii, §
472 (_a₅ a b₃ b c₅ d₃ c₂ d₄_, _a₅ a b₂ b c₅ c₂ d₄ d₅_, _a₅ a₃ b b₅ c c₄
d d₅_, _a b a₄ b₅ c c₄ d d₅_, _a a₅ b b c d c₄ d₅_, and _a₄ b₅ a₄ b₃ c
d₄ c₂ d₄_).
There are other stanzas of this kind which occur in earlier poets, as e.
g. Donne, Cowley, and Dryden, or in some of those of later date, as
Southey, R. Browning, and Rossetti, one half-stanza having enclosing
rhymes and the whole stanza partaking of a tripartite structure. We
find, e.g. the form _A b b a c d c₄ d₃_ in D. G. Rossetti, _A Little
While_ (i. 245):
_A little while a little love
The hour yet bears for thee and me
Who have not drawn the veil to see,
If still our heaven be lit above.
Thou merely, at the day's last sigh,
Hast felt thy soul prolong the tone;
And I have heard the night-wind cry
And deemed its speech mine own._
Other similar stanzas correspond to the formulas _a a b₅ b₄ c₅ d d₄ c₅_,
_a₅ b b₄ a₅ c c₄ d d₅_, _a₄ b b₂ a c₄ d d₂ c₃_, and _a₅ b₃ a b₅ c₃ d d₅
c₃_; for examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 474. Stanzas on the model _a ~ b c
a ~ c₄ B₂ d₄ D₂_, or on _a b c ~₂ d d a b c ~₄_, are found only in single
examples (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 476).
§ =292.= The most important of the Modern English eight-lined stanzas,
however, is an isometrical one on a foreign model, viz. a stanza of
hendecasyllabic or rather five-foot verses corresponding to the Italian
_ottava rima_, on the scheme _a b a b a b c c_. This stanza, which has
always been very popular in Italian poetry, was introduced into English
by Wyatt and Surrey; in Surrey we have only an isolated specimen, in _To
his Mistress_ (p. 32):
_If he that erst the form so lively drew
Of Venus' face, triumph'd in painter's art;
Thy Father then what glory did ensue,
By whose pencil a Goddess made thou art,
Touched with flame that figure made some rue,
And with her love surprised many a heart.
There lackt yet that should cure their hot desire:
Thou canst inflame and quench the kindled fire._
The stanza was often used by Wyatt, Sidney, and Spenser for reflective
poems, and by Drayton and Daniel for epic poems of some length. In
modern literature it has been used by Frere, Byron (_Beppo, Don Juan_),
Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Longfellow, and others (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §
579).
§ =293. Stanzas of nine lines= either show a combination of parallel
with crossed or enclosing rhymes, as in the forms _a a b c b c d d d₄_,
_a₅ b a₄ b₅ b₅ c₄ c₅ d d₅_ (Rhyme-Royal + rhyming couplet), _a b₅ b a₄
c₃ c c d d₅_, _a₄ a b b₅ c₄ c₅ d₄ d d₅_, _a₄ b a₃ c₄ b₃ d b c₄ D₁_ &c.
(for specimens see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 477 and 479), or, in some of the
later poets, they consist of parts of modified tail-rhyme stanzas
combined with other forms, as in the following stanza (_a ~₃ b₄ a ~ b₃ c
c₂ d₃ a ~ d₃_) of a song by Moore:
_Love thee, dearest? love thee?
Yes, by yonder star I swear,
Which thro' tears above thee
Shines so sadly fair;
Though often dim,
With tears, like him,
Like him my truth will shine,
And--love thee, dearest? love thee?
Yes, till death I'm thine._
Other stanzas of Moore and others have the formulas _a a b a b c c c₄
d₃_ (Burns, p. 216), _a b ~ a a₄ b ~₃ c d d₄ c₃_, _a a b₄ c₂ b₄ c₂ d d₄
c₂_, _a₄ b₃ a a₄ c ~₃ c ~ d ~ d ~₂ b₃_ &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 478).
§ =294.= The =ten-line stanzas= are also based mostly on a combination
of earlier strophic systems. Thus in Campbell's well-known poem, _Ye
Mariners of England_ (p. 71), the _Poulter's Measure_ rhythm is
observable, the scheme being _a ~ b₃ c₄ d₃ . e₄ f₃ . e₂ F₃ G₄ F₃_:
_Ye Mariners of England!
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!
Your glorious standard launch again
To match another foe!
And sweep through the deep,
While the stormy winds do blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow._
Similar stanzas occurring in the works of earlier poets, as Sidney and
Spenser, correspond to the schemes _a₆ b a b b₅ c c₄ d₂ b₅ d₂_, _a₅ a₂ b
~ c b ~ c D ~ D ~ E E₃_, &c. But generally speaking most of the earlier
poets, as e.g. Donne, Cowley, and Suckling, prefer a simpler order of
rhymes, the schemes being _a a₃ b b . c₅ c c₄ . d d d₅_, _a₄ a b b₅ c c₄
d d e e₅_, _a₅ a a₂ b b c d d₃ e e₅_, &c.; the more modern poets (Moore,
Wordsworth, Swinburne), on the other hand, are fond of somewhat more
complicated forms, as _a₄ b ~ b ~₂ a a₄ c ~ c ~₂ d a d₄_, _a b a₄ b₃ c
c₅ d e₃ d₄ e₃_, _a b b₄ a₃ c d d e d₄ d₃_, &c. (For specimens cf.
_Metrik_, ii, §§ 480, 481.) A fine form of stanza corresponding to the
formula _a b c b c₅ a₃ d e e d₅_ is used by M. Arnold in his poem _The
Scholar Gipsy_, and another on the scheme _a a₃ b c c b₅ d₃ e d e₅_ in
_Westminster Abbey_, p. 479.
=§ 295. Stanzas of eleven lines= do not frequently occur in earlier
poetry, and for the most part simple forms are employed, e.g. _a b₄ a b
c d₅ c d₄ e e₅ e₄_, _a₅ a b₄ b₅ c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ e e₄ e₅_, _a a b b₄ c₃ d₅ d₃
c e e e₅_, &c.; the more recent poets, however, as Moore, Wordsworth,
and R. Browning, have usually preferred a more intricate arrangement, as
_a ~ b c ~ d d a ~ b c ~₂ e e e₄_, _a b c₄ b₃ d e f f₄ e₃ g g₄_, _a₄ b₃
a b c₄ d₃ c₄ d₃ e₂ e₃ e₄_. The last scheme occurs in a song by Moore:
_How happy once, tho' wing'd with sighs,
My moments flew along,
While looking on those smiling eyes,
And list'ning to thy magic song!
But vanish'd now, like summer dreams,
Those moments smile no more;
For me that eye no longer beams,
That song for me is o'er.
Mine the cold brow,
That speaks thy alter'd vow,
While others feel thy sunshine now._
§ =296. Stanzas of twelve lines= are more frequent, possibly on account
of the symmetrical arrangement of the stanza in equal parts, twelve
being divisible by three. They are constructed on different models, e.g.
_a a₅ b₃ b a₅ c₃ d₅ d c₄ c₅ e e₅_, _a a₄ b ~ b ~ c₃ c₂ d₃ d₂ e f₃ f₁
e₃_, _a₄ b₂ b₁ a₃ c ~₄ d ~₄ c ~₂ e ~ e ~ f ~ f ~₃_ (_bob-verse_
stanzas), _a b₄ c ~ c ~₂ a₄ b₃ d d e₄ f₂ f₄ e₅_, &c., occurring in
earlier poets, such as Donne, Browne, Dryden, &c. Similar stanzas,
partly of a simpler structure (_a b b a₅ a₆ c c₄ b₅ d d e₄ e₅_, _a ~ b
a ~ b₃ c c₄ d d₃ e ~ f₃ e ~ f₂_, and _a a₄ b₂ c c₄ b₁ b₄ a₂ D E ~ F E₄
~_), are found in modern poetry; the last scheme, resembling the
tail-rhyme stanza, occurring in Tennyson (p. 12):
_A spirit haunts the year's last hours
Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers:
To himself he talks;
For at eventide, listening earnestly,
At his work you may hear him sob and sigh
In the walks;
Earthward he boweth the heavy stalks
Of the mouldering flowers:
Heavily hangs the broad sunflower
Over its grave i' the earth so chilly;
Heavily hangs the hollyhock,
Heavily hangs the tiger-lily._
Many other examples are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, §§ 484-6. For several
stanzas of a still greater extent, but of rare occurrence, which need
not be mentioned in this handbook, see ibid., §§ 487-90.
CHAPTER VII
THE SPENSERIAN STANZA AND FORMS DERIVED
FROM IT
§ =297.= One of the most important Modern English stanzas is the
Spenserian, so called after its inventor. This stanza, like the forms
discussed in the last chapter, but in a still greater degree, is based
on an older type. For it is not, as is sometimes said, derived from the
Italian _ottava rima_ (cf. § 292), but, as was pointed out by Guest (ii.
389), from a Middle English eight-lined popular stanza of five-foot
verses with rhymes on the formula _a b a b b c b c_, which was modelled
in its turn on a well-known Old French ballade-stanza (cf. § 269). To
this stanza Spenser added a ninth verse of six feet rhyming with the
eighth line, an addition which was evidently meant to give a very
distinct and impressive conclusion to the stanza.
As a specimen the first stanza of the first book of the _Faerie Queene_,
where it was used for the first time, may be quoted here:
_A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield.
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt._
This euphonious stanza became very popular and has been used by many of
the chief Modern English poets, as e.g. by Thomson, _The Castle of
Indolence_; Shenstone, _The School-Mistress_; Burns, _The Cotter's
Saturday Night_; Byron, _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_; Shelley, _The
Revolt of Islam_.
The great influence it had on the development of the different forms of
stanza, especially in the earlier Modern English period, is proved by
the numerous imitations and analogous formations which arose from it.
§ =298.= All the imitations have this in common that they consist of a
series of two to ten five-foot lines followed by a concluding line of
six (or rarely seven) feet.
John Donne, Phineas Fletcher, and Giles Fletcher were, it seems, the
inventors of those varieties of stanza, the shortest of which consist of
three or four lines on the schemes _a a₅ a₆_, _a b a₅ b₆_, and were used
by Rochester, _Upon Nothing_ (Poets, iv. 413), and Cowper (p. 406). A
stanza of five lines, however, on the model _a b a b₅ b₆_ occurs in
Phineas Fletcher's _Eclogue II_.
The favourite six-lined stanza with the formula _a b a b c c₅_ (cf. §
267, p. 327) was often transformed into a quasi-Spenserian stanza _a b a
b c₅ c₆_ by adding one foot to the last line, as e.g. by Dodsley in _On
the Death of Mr. Pope_ (Poets, xi. 103), Southey, _The Chapel Bell_ (ii.
143), and others; cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 493.
It was changed into a stanza of seven lines on the scheme _a b a b c c₅
c₆_ by Donne, _The Good Morrow_ (Poets, iv. 24) by the addition of a
seventh line rhyming with the two preceding lines.
Much more artistic taste is shown by the transformation of the
seven-lined _rhyme royal_ stanza _a b a b b c c₅_ (cf. § 268) into a
quasi-Spenserian stanza _a b a b b c₅ c₆_ in Milton's _On the Death of a
Fair Infant_.
By the addition of a new line rhyming with the last couplet this form
was developed into the eight-lined stanza _a b a b b c c₅ c₆_ employed
in Giles Fletcher's _Christ's Victory and Triumph_.
Omitting some rarer forms (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 495) we may mention that
Phineas Fletcher transformed the _ottava rima a b a b a b c c₅_ into a
quasi-Spenserian stanza of the form _a b a b a b c₅ c₆_, and that he
also extended the same stanza to one of nine lines (_a b a b a b c c₅
c₆_) by adding one verse more. Other nine-line quasi-Spenserian stanzas
occurring occasionally in modern poets, e.g. Mrs. Hemans, Shelley, and
Wordsworth, correspond to _a b a a b b c c₅ c₆_, _a b a b c d c d₅ d₆_,
_a b a b c c b d₅ d₆_, _a a b b c c d d₅ d₆_. (For specimens see
_Metrik_, ii, § 496.)
A stanza of ten lines on the scheme _a b a b c d c d e₅ e₆_ was invented
by Prior for his _Ode to the Queen_ (Poets, vii. 440); but it is not, as
he thought, an improved, but only a simplified form of the old
Spenserian scheme:
_When great Augustus govern'd ancient Rome,
And sent his conquering bands to foreign wars;
Abroad when dreaded, and belov'd at home,
He saw his fame increasing with his years;
Horace, great bard! (so fate ordain'd) arose,
And, bold as were his countrymen in fight,
Snatch'd their fair actions from degrading prose,
And set their battles in eternal light:
High as their trumpets' tune his lyre he strung,
And with his prince's arms he moraliz'd his song._
This stanza has been used by some subsequent poets, e.g. by Chatterton,
who himself invented a similar imitation of the old Spenserian form,
viz. _a b a b b a b a c₅ c₆_. Other stanzas of ten lines are _a b a b b
c d c d₅ d₆_, _a b b a c d d c e₅ e₆_, _a b a b c c d e e₅ d₆_. (For
specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 497.)
A stanza of eleven lines on the scheme _a b a b c d c d c d₅ d₆_ occurs
in Wordsworth in the _Cuckoo-clock_ (viii. 161).
§ =299.= Amongst the stanzaic formations analogous to the Spenserian
stanza, which for the most part were invented by the poets just
mentioned, two different groups are to be distinguished; firstly,
stanzas the body of which consists of four-foot (seldom three-foot)
verses, a six-foot final verse being added to them either immediately or
preceded by a five-foot verse; secondly, stanzas of anisometrical
structure in the principal part, the end-verse being of six or sometimes
of seven feet.
The stanzas of the first group consist of four to ten lines, and have
the following formulas: four-lined stanzas, _a b c₄ b₆_ (Wordsworth);
five lines, _a b a b₃ b₆_ (Shelley); six lines, _a b a a b₃ b₆_ (Ben
Jonson), _a b a b₄ c₅ c₆_ (Wordsworth, Coleridge), _a a₃ b₅ c c₃ b₆_
(R. Browning); seven lines, _a ~ b b a ~ c c₄ c₇_ (Mrs. Browning); eight
lines, _a b a b c c d₄ d₆_ (Gray, Wordsworth), _a a b b c c d₄ d₆_ (John
Scott), _a a b b c c₄ d₅ d₆_ (Coleridge); nine lines, _a b a b c d c₄ d₅
c₆_ and _a b a b c c d d₄ d₆_ (Akenside), _a b a b b c b c₄ c₆_
(Shelley, _Stanzas written in Dejection_, i. 370); ten lines, _a b a b c
d c d₄ e₅ e₆_ (Whitehead).
As an example we quote a stanza of nine lines from Shelley's poem
mentioned above:
_I see the Deep's untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore,
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
I sit upon the sands alone,
The lightning of the noon-tide ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion._
For other examples see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 499-503.
§ =300.= Greater variety is found in the second group; they have an
extent of four up to sixteen lines and mostly occur in poets of the
sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (Donne, Ben Jonson, Cowley, Rowe,
Akenside, &c.), rarely in the nineteenth century. Stanzas of four lines
are, _a₅ a b₄ b₆_ (Poets, v. 236), _a a₄ b₅ b₆_ (ib. xi. 1207); of five
lines, _a₅ a b₃ b₄ a₆_ (ib. v. 281), _a b a₅ b₄ b₆_ (ib. ix. 312), &c.;
of six lines, _a₄ b₅ a₄ b c₅ c₆_ (ib. xi. 130), _a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃ c₅ c₆_ (ib.
x. 722), _a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₆_ (ib. xi. 1070; tail-rhyme stanza), _a b₅ a₄ b
c₅ c₆_ (Tennyson, _The Third of February_); of seven lines, _a₃ b₅ b₃ a₄
c c₃ c₆_ (Poets, v. 413), _a b a b₅ b₃ c₅ c₆_ (Mrs. Hemans, _Easter
Day_, vii. 165, with rhymes in the _rhyme royal_ order; of eight lines,
_a a₃ b₅ c c₃ b₅ d₄ d₆_ (Milton, _Hymn on the Nativity_, ii. 400;
tail-rhyme + _d₄ d₆_), _a₅ b₂ a b₅ c₃ d₅ c₃ d₇_ (Poets, iv. 36), _a₅ a₄
b b₅ c d c₄ d₆_ (ib. v. 432), _a b₄ b c a₅ d d₄ c₆_ (ib. ix. 794), _a b
a b c₅ c₃ d₅ d₆_, and _a b₅ a₄ b₃ c₅ d₄ d₃ c₆_ (Wordsworth, _Artegal and
Elidure_, vi. 47, and _'Tis said that some have died for love_, ii. 184,
beginning with the second stanza).
The following stanza from the last-mentioned poem may serve as a
specimen:
_Oh move, thou Cottage, from behind that oak!
Or let the aged tree uprooted lie,
That in some other way yon smoke
May mount into the sky:
The clouds pass on; they from the heavens depart.
I look--the sky is empty space;
I know not what I trace;
But when I cease to look, my hand is on my heart._
Stanzas of nine lines, especially occurring in Donne, have the formulas
_a b b₅ a₃ c c c₄ d₅ d₆_ (Poets, iv. 29), _a a b b c₅ c d₄ d₅ d7_ (ib.
36), _a₂ b b a₅ c c₂ d d₅ d₇_ (ib. 31), _a a b b b₅ c d d₄ c₆_ (ib. vii.
142), &c.; of ten lines, _a a₄ b b c c₅ d₄ d d₅ d₆_ (ib. iv. 28), _a a
b c c₄ b₂ d e d₅ e₆_ (ib. ix. 788), _a b a b₅ c c d d₄ e₅ e₆_ (Shelley,
_Phantasm of Jupiter in Prometheus Unbound_); of twelve lines, _a b a b₅
c c d d e e₅ f₅ f₆_ (Poets, xi. 588); of thirteen lines, _a b ~₄ a₅ b ~₃
c₄ c₅ d d₂ e₅ e₂ f₅ e₂ f₆_ (Ben Jonson, _Ode to James, Earl of Desmond_,
ib. iv. 572); of fifteen lines, _a b a b c₅ d d₄ d₆ c e c e d f₅ f₆_
(Shelley, _Ode to Liberty_, i. 360-9); of sixteen lines, _a b a b a b a
b₅ c c₃ b₅ d d₃ b₅ e₄ e₆_ (Swinburne, _New-Year Ode to Victor Hugo_
(_Midsummer Holiday_, pp. 39-63).
This last stanza has an exceedingly fine structure, consisting of an
isometrical first part and an anisometrical tail-rhyme stanza + an
anisometrical rhyming couplet, forming the last part:
_Twice twelve times have the springs of years refilled
Their fountains from the river-head of time,
Since by the green sea's marge, ere autumn chilled
Waters and woods with sense of changing clime,
A great light rose upon my soul, and thrilled
My spirit of sense with sense of spheres in chime,
Sound as of song wherewith a God would build
Towers that no force of conquering war might climb.
Wind shook the glimmering sea
Even as my soul in me
Was stirred with breath of mastery more sublime,
Uplift and borne along
More thunderous tides of song,
Where wave rang back to wave more rapturous rhyme
And world on world flashed lordlier light
Than ever lit the wandering ways of ships by night._
The three stanzas last quoted, as well as some of the shorter ones
occurring in Akenside, Rowe, &c., were also used for odes, and in this
way the affinity of formations like these with the odic stanzas to be
discussed in the next chapter becomes apparent.
CHAPTER VIII
THE EPITHALAMIUM STANZA AND OTHER ODIC STANZAS
§ =301.= The Spenserian stanza stands in unmistakable connexion with
Spenser's highly artistic and elaborate =Epithalamium stanza= (Globe Ed.
587-91) inasmuch as the last line, _That all the woods may answer and
their echo ring_, repeated in each stanza as a burden together with the
word _sing_ which ends the preceding verse, has six measures, the rest
of the stanza consisting of three- and five-foot lines.
Like the Spenserian stanza, the Epithalamium stanza has given rise to
numerous imitations.
It cannot be said that one fixed form of stanza is employed throughout
the whole extent of Spenser's Epithalamium. It rather consists of two
main forms of stanza, viz. one of eighteen lines (st. i, ii, iv, v, vi,
x, xvi, xxi, xxiii), and one of nineteen lines (st. iii, vii, viii, ix,
xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxii), whereas one stanza, the
fifteenth, has only seventeen lines. In the arrangement of rhymes there
are also sporadic varieties: cf. e.g. iv and ix.
The arrangement of verse, however, is always similar in both groups. The
main part of the stanza consists of five-foot verses, the succession of
which is interrupted three times by three-foot ones, the final verse of
the stanza having six measures. In the stanza of eighteen lines the
usual arrangement is _a b a b c₅ c₃ d c d e₅ e₃ f g g f₅ g₃ r₅ R₆_. In
those of nineteen lines it is _a b a b c₅ c₃ d c d e₅ e₃ f g g f h₅ h₃
r₅ R₆_. The scheme of the stanza of seventeen lines is _a b a b c₅ c₃
d c d e f f g h₅ h₃ r₅ R₆_.
The two following stanzas (ii, iii) may be quoted as specimens of the
two chief forms:
_Early, before the worlds light-giving lampe
His golden beame upon the hils doth spred,
Having disperst the nights unchearefull dampe,
Doe ye awake; and, with fresh lustyhed,
Go to the bowre of my beloved love,
My truest turtle dove;
Bid her awake; for Hymen is awake,
And long since ready forth his maske to move,
With his bright Tead that flames with many a flake,
And many a bachelor to waite on him,
In theyr fresh garments trim.
Bid her awake therefore, and soone her dight,
For lo! the wished day is come at last,
That shall, for all the paynes and sorrowes past,
Pay to her usury of long delight:
And, whylest she doth her dight,
Doe ye to her of joy and solace sing,
That all the woods may answer, and your eccho ring._
_Bring with you all the Nymphes that you can heare
Both of the rivers and the forrests greene,
And of the sea that neighbours to her neare;
Al with gay girlands goodly wel beseene.
And let them also with them bring in hand
Another gay girland,
For my fayre love, of lillyes and of roses,
Bound truelove wize, with a blue silke riband.
And let them make great store of bridal poses,
And let them eeke bring store of other flowers
To deck the bridale bowers.
And let the ground whereas her foot shall tread,
For feare the stones her tender foot should wrong,
Be strewed with fragrant flowers all along,
And diapred lyke the discoloured mead.
Which done, doe at her chamber dore awayt,
For she will waken strayt;
The whiles doe ye this song unto her sing,
The woods shall to you answer, and your Eccho ring._
These stanzas evidently consist of three or four unequal parts, the two
first parts (ll. 1-6, 7-11) being connected by rhyme. There is a certain
similarity between them, the chief difference being that the second
_pes_, as we may call it, is shortened by one verse. With the third
part, a new system of verses rhyming together commences, forming a kind
of last part (_downsong_ or _cauda_); and as the final couplet of the
stanza is generally closely connected in sense with this, the assumption
of a tripartite division of the stanza is preferable to that of a
quadripartite division.
§ =302.= Stanzas of this kind have also been used by later poets in
similar poems. But all these imitations of the Epithalamium stanza are
shorter than their model. As to their structure, some of them might also
be ranked among the irregular Spenserian stanzas, as they agree with
those in having a longer final verse of six or seven measures. But as a
rule, they have--not to speak of the similarity of theme--the
combination of three- and five-foot verses in the principal part, on the
model, it seems, of Spenser's Epithalamium stanza.
Stanzas of this kind (eight lines up to fourteen) occur in Donne and Ben
Jonson; the schemes being--
of eight lines: _a b a b₅ c₃ c₂ d₃ d₆_ (Poets, iv. 588);
of eleven lines: _a₅ a b₄ b₅ c₃ c d d e e₅ E₇_ (ib. iv. 19);
of twelve lines: _a₄ a b c c b d e₅ e₃ d f₅ F₆_ (ib. 16);
of fourteen lines: _a₅ a b₄ b₅ c₃ d d c₅ e₄ e f f g₅ G₆_ (ib. 15).
For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 512.
Stanzas similar in subject and structure, but without the longer
end-verse, may be treated here, as well as some odic stanzas similar in
structure (9-18 lines) and in theme, occurring in earlier poets, as e.g.
Sidney, Spenser, John Donne, Samuel Daniel, Ben Jonson, Drummond, and
Milton. In Modern English poetry there are only some few examples of
such stanzas to be met with in translations of Italian canzones; e.g.
in Leigh Hunt. The schemes are as follows. Stanzas of nine lines, _a b a
b₅ b c₃ c₅ d₃ D₅_ (Sidney, _Arcadia_, p. 388); of ten lines, _a a₃ b₅ b₃
c₅ c d d₃ e e₅_ (Ben Jonson, _Ode to himself_, Poets, iv. 607); of
eleven lines, _a a₄ b₃ b₄ c₃ c₅ D₃ D₂ E₃ E₂ d₅_ (ib. 611); of twelve
lines, _a₂ b₅ b₂ a c c₅ d d₃ e₅ f₃ f₅ e₂_ (ib. 572), _a₃ a b₅ b₃ c c₅ d₃
d e₅ e₃ f f₅_ (Drummond, ib. 664); of thirteen lines, _a b₃ a₅ c b₃ c₅
c d e e₃ d₅ f₃ f₅_ (Sidney, _Arcadia_, p. 394), _a b₃ c₅ a b₃ c₅ c d e
e₃ d₅ f₃ f₅_ (S. Daniel, _The Pastoral_, Poets, iv. 225), agreeing in
form with the eleventh of Petrarch's canzones, _Chiare, fresche e dolci
acque_, translated by Leigh Hunt (p. 394) on the scheme, _a a₃ b₅ c c₃
b₅ b d d₃ e₄ e₅ f₄ f₅_; of fourteen lines, _a b c b a c c₅ d d₃ c e₅ f₃
f₂ e₃_ (Milton, _Upon the Circumcision_, ii. 408); of eighteen lines,
_a b b a₅ a₃ c d c d₅ d₃ e e f e₅ f f₃ G G₅_ (Spenser, _Prothalamium_,
p. 605). For examples of these stanzas, partly formed on the model of
the Italian canzones, see _Metrik_, ii, §§ 512-15.
§ =303.= The English odic stanzas have been influenced too, although
only in a general way, by the anisometrical structure of the Greek odes.
This, however, was only to a slight extent the case in the so-called
=Pindaric Odes=, as the metres usually employed in them were essentially
the same, and retained in their composition the same anisometrical
character exhibited by the odic stanzas considered in the preceding
paragraphs.
There are, however, two groups of Pindaric Odes, viz. Regular and
Irregular, and it is chiefly the latter group to which the preceding
remark refers.
The irregular odes were possibly modelled on certain non-strophical
poems or hymns, consisting of anisometrical verses throughout, with an
entirely irregular system of rhymes. We have an example of them already
in the poems of Donne, the inventor or imitator of some odic stanzas
mentioned in the previous paragraph; it is in his poem _The Dissolution_
(Poets, iv. 38) consisting of twenty-two rhyming verses of two to seven
measures on the model
_a₃ b₄ c₅ d ~₃ b₄ a c₅ d ~₃ e₄ e₅ f₃ f₅ e₅ g₄ g₅ h₃ h₄ i i₅ k₃ l₂ l
k₅ k₇_.
A similar form is found in Milton's poems _On Time_ (ii. 411) and _At a
Solemn Music_ (ii. 412). Other examples taken from later poets are
quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 523. M. Arnold's poems _The Voice_ (second
half) (p. 36) and _Stagirius_ (p. 38) likewise fall under this head.
To the combined influence of the earlier somewhat lengthy unstrophical
odes on the one hand, and of the shorter, strophical ones also composed
of anisometrical verses on the other, we have possibly to trace the
particular odic form which was used by Cowley when he translated, or
rather paraphrased, the Odes of Pindar. Owing to Cowley's popularity,
this form came much into fashion afterwards through his numerous
imitators, and it is much in vogue even at the present day.
The characteristic features of Cowley's free renderings and imitations
of Pindar's odes are, in the first place, that he dealt very freely with
the matter of his Greek original, giving only the general sense with
arbitrary omissions and additions; and, in the second place, he paid no
attention to the characteristic strophic structure of the original,
which is a system of stanzas recurring in the same order till the end of
the poem, and consisting of two stanzas of identical form, the strophe
and antistrophe, followed by a third, the epode, entirely differing from
the two others in structure. In this respect Cowley did not even attempt
to imitate the original poems, the metres of which were very
imperfectly understood till long after his time.
Hence there is a very great difference between the originals and the
English translations of Cowley, a difference which is clear even to the
eye from the inequality of the number of stanzas and the number of
verses in them.
§ =304.= The first Nemean ode, e.g. consists of four equal parts, each
one being formed of a strophe and antistrophe of seven lines, and of a
four-lined epode; twelve stanzas in all. Cowley's translation, on the
other hand, has only nine stanzas, each of an entirely different
structure, their schemes being as follows:
I. _a a₅ b b₄ c₃ c d₆ d₄ e e₃ e f₄ f₅ g₄ g₅_, 15 l.
II. _a a₄ b₃ b₄ b₅ c₄ c₃ c₅ d₄ d₅ e e₄ f₃ f₃ e₅_, 15 l.
III. _a₅ b₃ b₄ a a₅ c₃ c₄ d e e₃ d f ~₄ f ~₆ g₄ g₅ g₇_, 16 l.
IV. _a₅ a b b₄ b c c c₅ d₃ d₅ e e₄ e₆_, 13 l.
V. _a a b b c₅ c₄ c₅ d₄ e d₅ e f f₄ g₅ g₆_, 15 l.
VI. _a a₅ b₄ b₅ c₆ d₅ d₄ c e f₅ f₄ f₅ g₄ g e h₅ h₇_, 17 l.
VII. _a₅ a₃ b₅ b₄ b₅ c₃ c₆ d₄ e₃ e₆ d₅ f f g₄ g₇_, 15 l.
VIII. _a₂ a b₅ b₃ c₄ c₆ d₅ d e₄ e₃ f f₄ g₆ g h₄ h₆_, 16 l.
IX. _a₄ a₅ b₄ b c₆ c d₄ d₅ d e₃ e₆_, 11 l.
Cowley's own original stanzas and those of his numerous imitators are of
a similar irregular and arbitrary structure; cf. Cowley's ode _Brutus_
(Poets, v. 303), which has the following stanzaic forms:
I. _a₄ a b₅ b₄ c c₅ c₄ c₅ d₆ d d₅ d₄ d₅ d₆_, 14 l.
II. _a b a a b₅ b₄ c c d d₅ d₃ d e₄ e₅ f₃ g₃ g₄ f₆_, 17 l.
III. _a₃ a₅ b₄ b₆ c₅ c d₄ d d e e₅ f f₄ g ~₅ g ~₆_, 15 l.
IV. _a a a₅ b₃ b₄ a₅ a a₄ b₅ c₄ c d₅ d₄ e₆ e₅ f₄ f₆_, 17 l.
V. _a b₅ b₄ a₆ c₂ c₅ c₄ a c₅ c₆ d d e₄ e₅ f₃ f g g₅ h
h₄ i i₅ i₄_, 23 l.
Waller's ode _Upon modern Critics_ (Poets, v. 650) has the
following stanzaic forms:
I. _a b b₄ a c₅ c d₄ d₅ d₄ e f₅ f f₄ e₅ f₄ g g h₅ i₃ i h₄
k₅ k₆_, 23 l.
II. _a a₄ b₃ b c c d₄ d₅ e f f g₄ g₅ e₃ h i₄ i₅ h k k₄ l l₅_, 23 l.
III. _a a b b c₄ c₅ d d e e f f₄ e₃ f e g₄ h₅ h g i₄ i₆_, 21 l.
IV. _a b b a₄ c c₅ d₃ d₄ e₅ d₄ d f₅ f₄ g g₅ h₄ h₅ i i₅_, 19 l.
V. _a a b b c₄ d₅ c₃ d e₅ e₆ f₅ f₄ g₅ g h h₄ i₃ i₆_, 18 l.
VI. _a₄ b₃ a b a c c d₄ d₆ e e₄ f f g₅ g₄ g h₅ h i₄ i₆_, 20 l.
All the stanzas are of unequal length and consist of the most various
verses (of three, four, mostly five, even six and seven measures) and
arrangements of rhymes. Parallel rhymes are very common; but sometimes
we have crossed, enclosing, and other kinds of rhyme, as e.g. the
system of the Italian _terzina_. A characteristic feature is that at
the end of the stanza very often three parallel rhymes occur, and that,
as a rule, the stanza winds up with a somewhat longer line of six or
seven measures, as in the Spenserian and the Epithalamium stanza; but
sometimes we also find a short final verse.
To these Irregular Pindaric Odes, besides, belong Dryden's celebrated
odes _Threnodia Augustalis_ and _Alexander's Feast_, the latter having a
more lyrical form, with a short choral strophe after each main stanza;
and Pope's _Ode on St. Cecilia's Day_. A long list of references to
similar poems from Cowley to Tennyson is given in _Metrik_, ii, §§
516-22; amongst these different forms the rhymeless odic stanzas
occurring in Dr. Sayers (_Dramatic Sketches_), Southey (e.g. _Thalaba_)
and Shelley (_Queen Mab_) are noticeable.
§ =305.= To these Irregular Pindaric Odes strong opposition was raised
by the dramatist Congreve, who in a special _Discourse on the Pindaric
Ode_ (Poets, vii. 509) proved that Pindar's odes were by no means
formed on the model of such an arbitrary strophic structure as that of
the so-called Pindaric Odes which had hitherto been popular in English
poetry. To refute this false view he explained and emphasized their
actual structure (see § 303), which he imitated himself in his Pindaric
Ode addressed to the Queen, written soon after May 20, 1706, and
composed in anisometrical rhyming verses. He was mistaken, however, in
thinking that he was the first to make this attempt in English. Nearly
a hundred years before him, Ben Jonson had imitated Pindar's odic form
on exactly the same principles; in his _Ode Pindaric_ to the memory
of Sir Lucius Carey and Sir H. Morison (_Poets_, iv. 585) we have the
strophe (_turn_), antistrophe (_counter-turn_), and the epode (_stand_),
recurring four times (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 525). Ben Jonson, however,
found no followers; so that his attempt had remained unknown even to
Congreve. The regular Pindaric Odes by this poet, on the other hand,
called forth a great many imitations of a similar kind and structure.
For this reason the first three stanzas of Congreve's _Pindaric Ode_
(Poets, vii. 570) may be quoted here as an example, the scheme of the
strophe and antistrophe being _a a₅ b₃ c c₄ b₅ b₆_, that of the
epode _a b a b₄ c₅ d₄ c₃ d₄ e₄ e f g₃ g₄ f₅_:
THE STROPHE.
_Daughter of memory, immortal muse,
Calliope; what poet wilt thou choose,
Of Anna's name to sing?
To whom wilt thou thy fire impart,
Thy lyre, thy voice, and tuneful art;
Whom raise sublime on thy aethereal wing,
And consecrate with dews of thy Castalian spring?_
THE ANTISTROPHE.
_Without thy aid, the most aspiring mind
Must flag beneath, to narrow flights confin'd,
Striving to rise in vain:
Nor e'er can hope with equal lays
To celebrate bright virtue's praise.
Thy aid obtain'd, ev'n I, the humblest swain,
May climb Pierian heights, and quit the lowly plain._
THE EPODE.
_High in the starry orb is hung,
And next Alcides' guardian arm,
That harp to which thy Orpheus sung
Who woods, and rocks, and winds could charm;
That harp which on Cyllene's shady hill,
When first the vocal shell was found,
With more than mortal skill
Inventor Hermes taught to sound:
Hermes on bright Latona's son,
By sweet persuasion won,
The wondrous work bestow'd;
Latona's son, to thine
Indulgent, gave the gift divine;
A god the gift, a god th' invention show'd._
The most celebrated among the later Pindaric Odes formed on similar
principles are Gray's odes _The Progress of Poesy_ (Poets, x. 218) and
_The Bard_ (ib. 220). References to other odes are given in _Metrik_,
ii, § 527.
In dramatic poetry M. Arnold attempted to imitate the structure of
the different parts of the Chorus of Greek tragedy in his fragment
_Antigone_ (p. 211), and more strictly in his tragedy _Merope_ (p.
350). It would lead us too far, however, to give a detailed description
of the strophic forms occurring there.
With regard to other lyrical pieces in masques and operas (also of an
unequal-membered strophic structure) and with regard to cantata-stanzas
and other stanzas differing among themselves, in other poems which
cannot be further discussed here, we must refer the reader to §§ 528-31
of our larger work.
CHAPTER IX
THE SONNET
§ =306. Origin of the English Sonnet.= In early Provençal and French
poetry certain lyric poems are found which were called _Son_, sometimes
_Sonet_, although they had neither a fixed extent, nor a regulated
form. But the Sonnet[197] in its exact structure was introduced into
French, Spanish, and English poetry from Italian, and as a rule on
the model, or at least under the influence, of Petrarch's sonnets. In
English literature, however, the sonnet in part had a more independent
development than it had in other countries, and followed its Italian
model at first only in the number and nature of the verses used in it.
Generally speaking, the Italian and the English sonnet can be defined
as a short poem, complete in itself, consisting of fourteen five-foot
(or eleven-syllabled) iambic lines, in which a single theme, a thought
or series of thoughts, is treated and brought to a conclusion. In the
rhyme-arrangement and the structure of the poem, however, the English
sonnet, as a rule, deviates greatly from its Italian model, and the
examples in which its strict form is followed are comparatively rare.
§ =307.= The Italian Sonnet consists of two parts distinguished from
each other by difference of rhymes, each of the parts having its own
continuous system of rhymes. The first part is formed of two quatrains
(_basi_), i.e. stanzas of four lines; the second of two terzetti
(_volte_), stanzas of three lines. The two quatrains have only two, the
terzetti two or three rhymes.
The usual rhyme-arrangement in the quatrains is _a b b a a b b a_,
more rarely _a b b a b a a b_ (_rima chiusa_). There are, however,
also sonnets with alternate rhymes, _a b a b a b a b or a b a b
b a b a_ (_rima alternata_); but the combination of the two kinds of
rhyme, _a b a b b a a b_ or _a b b a a b a b_ (_rima mista_), was
unusual. In the second part, consisting of six lines, the order of
rhymes is not so definitely fixed. When only two rhymes are used, which
the old metrists, as Quadrio (1695-1756), the Italian critic and
historian of literature, regarded as the only legitimate method, the
usual sequence is _cdc dcd_ (crossed rhymes, _rima alternata_). This
form occurs 112 times in those of Petrarch's[198] sonnets which have
only two rhymes in the last part, their number being 124; in the
remaining twelve sonnets the rhyme-system is either _c d d c d c_ or
_c d d d c c_. In the second part of Petrarch's sonnets three rhymes
are commoner than two. In most cases we have the formula _c d e c d
e_, which occurs in 123 sonnets, while the scheme _c d e d c e_ is
met with only in 78 sonnets. The three chief forms, then, of Petrarch's
sonnet may be given with Tomlinson[199] as built on the following models:
_a b b a a b b a c d e c d e_, _a b b a a b b a c d c
d c d_, _a b b a a b b a c d e d c e._
In the seventy-second and seventy-fourth sonnet we have the unusual
schemes _c d e e d c_ and _c d e d e c_. The worst form, according
to the Italian critics, was that which ended in a rhyming couplet.
This kind of ending, as we shall see later on, is one of the chief
characteristics of the specifically English form of the sonnet.
The original and oldest form of the sonnet, however, as recent inquiries
seem to show, was that with crossed rhymes both in the quatrains and
in the terzetti, on the scheme _a b a b a b a b c d c d c d_.
But this variety had no direct influence on the true English form, in
which a system of crossed rhymes took a different arrangement.
An essential point, then, in the Italian sonnet is the bipartition,
the division of it into two chief parts; and this rule is so strictly
observed that a carrying on of the sense, or the admission of
_enjambement_ between the two main parts, connecting the eighth and
ninth verse of the poem by a run-on line, would be looked upon as a
gross offence against the true structure and meaning of this poetic
form. Nor would a run-on line be allowed between the first and the
second stanza; indeed some poets, who follow the strict form of the
sonnet, do not even admit _enjambement_ between the first and the second
terzetto, although for the second main part of the poem this has never
become a fixed rule.
The logical import of the structure of the sonnet, as understood by the
earlier theorists, especially Quadrio, is this: The first quatrain
makes a statement; the second proves it; the first terzetto has to
confirm it, and the second draws the conclusion of the whole.
§ =308.= The structure of this originally Italian poetic form may be
illustrated by the following sonnet, equally correct in form and
poetical in substance, in which Theodore Watts-Dunton sets forth the
essence of this form of poetry itself:
THE SONNET'S VOICE.
A metrical lesson by the sea-shore.
_Yon silvery billows breaking on the beach
Fall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear,
The while my rhymes are murmuring in your ear
A restless lore like that the billows teach;
For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reach
From its own depths, and rest within you, dear,
As, through the billowy voices yearning here,
Great nature strives to find a human speech._
_A sonnet is a wave of melody:
From heaving waters of the impassioned soul
A billow of tidal music one and whole
Flows in the 'octave'; then, returning free,
Its ebbing surges in the 'sestet' roll
Back to the deeps of Life's tumultuous sea._
Although the run-on line between the terzetti is perhaps open to a
slight objection, the rhyme-arrangement is absolutely correct, the
inadmissible rhyming couplet at the end of the poem being of course
avoided. Other sonnets on the sonnet written in English, German, or
French, are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 534.
§ =309.= The first English sonnet-writers, Wyatt and Surrey, departed
considerably from this strict Italian form, although they both
translated sonnets written by Petrarch into English. Their chief
deviation from this model is that, while retaining the two quatrains,
they break up the second chief part of the sonnet, viz. the terzetti,
into a third quatrain (with separate rhymes) and a rhyming couplet.
Surrey went still further in the alteration of the original sonnet by
changing the arrangement and the number of rhymes in the quatrains also,
whereas Wyatt, as a rule, in this respect only exceptionally deviated
from the structure of the Italian sonnet. The greater part of Wyatt's
sonnets (as well as Donne's, cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 541) have therefore
the scheme _a b b a a b b a c d d c e e_, whereas other forms,
as e.g. _a b b a a b b a c d c d e e_ occur only
occasionally (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 535).
This order of rhymes, on the other hand, was frequently used by Sir
Philip Sidney, who on the whole followed the Italian model, and
sometimes employed even more accurate Italian forms, avoiding the final
rhyming couplet (cf. ib. § 538). He also invented certain extended and
curtailed sonnets which are discussed in _Metrik_, ii, §§ 539, 540.
§ =310.= Of greater importance is Surrey's transformation of the Italian
sonnet, according to the formula _abab cdcd efefgg_. This variety of the
sonnet--which, we may note in passing, Surrey also extended into a
special poetic form consisting of several such quatrains together with a
final rhyming couplet (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 537)--was very much in favour
in the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Samuel
Daniel, and above all Shakespeare, wrote their sonnets mainly[200] in
this form, sometimes combining a series of them in a closely connected
cycle. As a specimen of this most important form we quote the eighteenth
of Shakespeare's sonnets:
_Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee._
Commonly the concluding couplet contains an independent thought which
gives a conclusion to the poem. In certain cases, however, the thought
of the previous stanza is carried on in the closing couplet by means of
a run-on line, as is the case in Nos. 71, 72, 108, 154, &c. Sometimes,
of course, a run-on line connects different portions of the sonnet
also, as e.g. Nos. 114, 129, 154, &c. The rhymes, as a rule, are
masculine, but not exclusively so.
§ =311.= Meanwhile, another interesting form had been introduced,
perhaps by the Scottish poet, Alex. Montgomerie,[201] which was
subsequently chiefly used by Spenser. When about seventeen Spenser had
translated the sonnets of the French poet, Du Bellay, in blank verse,
and thereby created the rhymeless form of the sonnet, which, however,
although not unknown in French poetry, was not further cultivated. About
twenty years later he re-wrote the same sonnets in the form introduced
by Surrey. Some years after he wrote a series of sonnets, called
_Amoretti_, in that peculiar and very fine form which, although perhaps
invented by Montgomerie, now bears Spenser's name. The three quatrains
in this form of the sonnet are connected by _concatenatio_, the final
verse of each quatrain rhyming with the first line of the next, while
the closing couplet stands separate. The scheme of this form, then,
_a b a b b c b c c d c d e e_; it found, however, but few
imitators (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 542, 543, 559, note 1).
The various forms of Drummond of Hawthornden's sonnets had also no
influence on the further development of this kind of poetry and
therefore need not be discussed here. It may suffice to say that he
partly imitated the strict Italian form, partly modified it; and that he
also used earlier English transformations and invented some new forms
(cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 547, 548).
§ =312.= A new and important period in the history of sonnet writing,
although it was only of short duration, began with Milton. Not a single
one of his eighteen English and five Italian sonnets is composed on the
model of those by Surrey and Shakespeare or in any other genuine English
form. He invariably used the Italian rhyme-arrangement _a b b a a b
b a_ in the quatrains, combined with the strict Italian order in the
terzetti: _c d c d c d_, _c d d c d c_, _c d e c d e_, _c d c e e d_, _c
d e d c e_; only in one English and in three Italian sonnets we find the
less correct Italian form with the final rhyming couplet on the schemes
_c d d c e e_, _c d c d e e_.
One chief rule, however, of the Italian sonnet, viz. the logical
separation of the two main parts by a break in the sense, is observed
by Milton only in about half the number of his sonnets; and the
above-mentioned relationship of the single parts of the sonnet to each
other according to the strict Italian rule (cf. pp. 372-3 and _Metrik_,
ii, § 533, pp. 839-40) is hardly ever met with in Milton. He therefore
imitated the Italian sonnet only in its form, and paid no regard to the
relationship of its single parts or to the distribution of the contents
through the quatrains and terzets. In this respect he kept to the
monostrophic structure of the specifically English form of the sonnet,
consisting, as a rule, of one continuous train of thought.
Milton also introduced into English poetry the playful variety of the
so-called tail-sonnet on the Italian model (_Sonetti codati_), a sonnet,
extended by six anisometrical verses, with the scheme _a b b a a b b
a c d e d e c₅ c₃ f f₅ f₃ g g₅_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 549),
which, however, did not attract many imitators (Milton, ii. 481-2).
After Milton sonnet-writing was discontinued for about a century. The
poets of the Restoration period and of the first half of the eighteenth
century (Cowley, Waller, Dryden, Pope, Gay, Akenside, Young, Thomson,
Goldsmith, Johnson, and others) did not write a single sonnet, and seem
to have despised this form of poetry (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 550).
§ =313.= When sonnet-writing was revived in the second half of the
eighteenth century by T. Edwards, who composed some fifty sonnets,
by Gray, by Benjamin Stillingfleet, T. Warton, and others of less
importance, as well as by Charlotte Smith, Helen M. Williams, Anna
Seward, the male poets preferred the strict Italian form, while the
poetesses, with the exception of Miss Seward, adopted that of Surrey and
Shakespeare (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 551).
Not long afterwards another very popular and prolific sonnet-writer,
William Lisle Bowles, followed in some of his sonnets the strict Italian
model (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 552), but also wrote sonnets (towards the end
of the eighteenth century) on a scheme that had previously been used by
Drummond, viz. _a b b a c d d c e f f e g g_, this formula
representing a transition form from the Italian to Surrey's sonnet, with
enclosing rhymes in the quatrains instead of crossed rhymes (cf. _Metrik_,
ii, § 546, p. 860).
Bowles's example induced S. T. Coleridge to write his sonnets, which in
part combined in the quatrains enclosing and crossed rhyme (_a b b a []
c d c d e f e f g g_ or _a b a b c d d c e f f e f e_; cf.
_Metrik_, ii, § 553).
Similar, even more arbitrary forms and rhyme-arrangements, the terzetti
being sometimes placed at the beginning (e.g. No. 13, _a a b c c b d e
d e f e f e_) of the poem, occur in Southey's sonnets, which, fine as
they sometimes are in thought, have in their form hardly any resemblance
to the original Italian model except that they contain fourteen lines.
They had, however, like those of Drummond, no further influence, and
therefore need not be discussed here (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 554).
§ =314.= A powerful impulse was given to sonnet-writing by Wordsworth,
who wrote about 500 sonnets, and who, not least on account of his
copiousness, has been called the English Petrarch. He, indeed, followed
his Italian model more closely than his predecessors with regard to the
form and the relationship of the different parts to each other.
The usual scheme of his quatrains is _a b b a, a b b a_, but there is
also a form with a third rhyme _a b b a, a c c a_, which frequently
occurs. The rhyme-arrangement of the terzetti is exceedingly various,
and there are also a great many sub-species with regard to the structure
of the first part. Very often the first quatrain has enclosing rhymes
and the second crossed rhymes, or vice versa; these being either formed
by two or three rhymes. As the main types of the Wordsworth sonnet the
following, which, however, admit of many variations in the terzetti, may
be mentioned: _a b b a b a b a c d e c e d_ (ii. 303), _a b b a
[] a b a b c d e e d c_ (viii. 57), _a b a b b a a b c d c
[] d c d_ (vi. 113), _a b a b a b b a c d d c d c_ (viii. 29),
_a b b a a c a c d e e d e d_ (vii. 82), _a b b a c a c a d e d e e
d_ (viii. 109) or _a b b a c a c a d e d e f f_ (viii. 77), &c.,
_a b a b b c c b d e f e f d_ (vii. 29). There are of this type
also forms in which the terzetti have the structure _d d f e e f_ (vii.
334), or _d e f d e f_ (viii. 68), &c., and _a b a b a c a c d e d
e d e_ (viii. 28). Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 555.
Very often Wordsworth's sonnets differ from those of the Italian poets
and agree with the Miltonic type in that the two chief parts are not
separated from each other by a pause[202]; and even if there is no
run-on line the train of thought is continuous. For this reason his
sonnets give us rather the impression of a picture or of a description
than of a reflective poem following the Italian requirements, according
to which the sonnet should consist of: assertion (quatrain i), proof
(quatrain ii), confirmation (terzet i), conclusion (terzet ii) (cf. p.
373). The following sonnet by Wordsworth, strictly on the Italian model
in its rhyme-arrangement, may serve as an example:
_With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,
Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;
Some lying fast at anchor in the road,
Some veering up and down, one knew not why.
A goodly Vessel did I then espy
Come like a giant from a haven broad;
And lustily along the bay she strode,
Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.
This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,
Yet I pursued her with a Lover's look;
This ship to all the rest did I prefer:
When will she turn, and whither? She will brook
No tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:
On went She, and due north her journey took._
Sonnets, however, like the following, entitled _A Parsonage in
Oxfordshire_ (vi. 292), give to a still greater extent the impression of
monostrophic poems on account of the want of distinct separation between
the component parts:
_Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,
Is marked by no distinguishable line;
The turf unites, the pathways intertwine;
And, wheresoe'er the stealing footstep tends,
Garden, and that Domain where kindreds, friends,
And neighbours rest together, here confound
Their several features, mingled like the sound
Of many waters, or as evening blends
With shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,
Waft fragrant greetings to each silent grave;
And while those lofty poplars gently wave
Their tops, between them comes and goes a sky
Bright as the glimpses of eternity,
To saints accorded in their mortal hour._
The strophic character of many sonnets is still more visible both in
Wordsworth and some earlier poets (as e.g. Sidney or Shakespeare) when
several consecutive sonnets on the same subject are so closely connected
as to begin with the words _But_ or _Nor_, as e.g. in Wordsworth's
_Ecclesiastical Sonnets_ (XI, XV, XVIII, XXIII); or when sonnets (cf.
the same collection, No. XXXII) end like the Spenserian stanza in an
Alexandrine. This peculiarity, which, of course, does not conform to the
strict and harmonious structure of the sonnet, and is found as early as
in a sonnet by Burns (p. 119), sometimes occurs in later poets also.[203]
Wordsworth has had an undoubtedly great influence on the further
development of sonnet-writing, which is still extensively practised both
in England and America.
§ =315.= None of the numerous sonnet-writers of the nineteenth century,
however, brought about a new epoch in this kind of poetry. They, as a
rule, confined themselves to either one or other of the four chief forms
noted above, viz.:
1. The specifically English form of Surrey and Shakespeare, used e.g. by
Keats, S. T. Coleridge, Mrs. Hemans, C. Tennyson Turner, Mrs. Browning,
M. Arnold (pp. 37, 38) (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 566).
2. The Wordsworth sonnet, approaching to the Italian sonnet in its
form or rather variety of forms; it occurs in S. T. Coleridge, Hartley
Coleridge, Sara Coleridge, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Lamb, Tennyson, D. G.
Rossetti, M. Arnold (pp. 1-8) (cf. ib. §§ 561-2).
3. The Miltonic form, correct in its rhymes but not in the relationship
of its different parts to one another, used by Keats, Byron, Aubrey de
Vere, Lord Houghton, Mrs. Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, and others (cf.
ib. § 563).
4. The strict Italian form, as we find it in Keats, Byron, Leigh Hunt,
Aubrey de Vere, Tennyson, Browning, Mrs. Browning, Austin Dobson,
Rossetti, Swinburne, M. Arnold (pp. 179-85), and most poets of the
modern school (cf. ib. §§ 564-5).
NOTES:
[188] Stanzas of six and twelve lines formed on the same principle
(_a a a b b b_ and _a a b b c c d d e e f f_) are very rare.
For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 363.
[189] Cf. O. Wilda, _Über die örtliche Verbreitung der zwölfzeiligen
Schweifreimstrophe in England_, Breslau Dissertation, Breslau,
1887.
[190] This is a stanza of four iambic lines alternately of four and
three feet with masculine endings, usually rhyming _a b a b_.
[191] _Chaucerian and other Pieces, &c._, ed. Skeat, Oxford, 1897,
p. 347.
[192] This form of stanza is of great importance in the anisometrical
'lays', which cannot be discussed in this place (cf. _Metrik_,
i, § 168). In these poems the strophic arrangement is not
strictly followed throughout, but only in certain parts; a
general conformity only is observed in these cases.
[193] As to this form cf. _Huchown's Pistel of Swete Susan_,
herausgeg. von Dr. H. Köster, Strassburg, 1895 (_Quellen und
Forschungen_, 76), pp. 15-36.
[194] Cf. R. Brotanek, _Alexander Montgomerie_, Vienna, 1896.
[195] It is worth noticing that there are also tripartite stanzas in
Middle English, either allied to the bob-wheel stanza or
belonging to it, both in lyric and dramatic poetry; e.g. the
ten-lined stanza of a poem in Wright's _Songs and Carols_ (Percy
Soc., 1847), p. 15, on the scheme _A B A B C C C₄ d₁ D D₄_
(quoted in _Metrik_, i, p. 406); one of eleven lines according
to the formula _A A A₄ B₃ C C C₄ B₃ d₁ B D₃_ in the
_Towneley Mysteries_, p. 224 (quoted in _Metrik_, i, p. 407),
and one of thirteen lines, used in a dialogue, corresponding to
the scheme _A B A B A A B A A B₃ c₁ B₃ C₂_, ibid., pp. 135-9
(quoted in _Metrik_, i, p. 408).
[196] Cf. Karl Bartsch, 'Der Strophenbau in der deutschen Lyrik'
(_Germania_, ii, p. 290).
[197] For titles of books and essays on the sonnet see _Englische
Metrik_, ii, pp. 836-7 note; cf. also L. Bladene, 'Morfologia
del Sonetto nei secoli XIII e XIV' (_Studi di Filologia
Romanza_, fasc. 10).
[198] Cf. _Étude sur Joachim du Bellay et son rôle dans la réforme de
Ronsard_, par G. Plötz. Berlin, Herbig, 1874, p. 24.
[199] _The Sonnet: Its Origin, Structure and Place in Poetry_, London,
1874, 8º, p. 4.
[200] For certain other varieties occasionally used by these poets see
_Metrik_, §§ 536 and 544-5.
[201] Cf. _Studien über A. M._, von Oscar Hoffmann (Breslau
Dissertation), Altenburg, 1894, p. 32; _Engl. Studien_, xx. 49
ff.; and Rud. Brotanek, _Wiener Beiträge_, vol. iii, pp. 122-3.
[202] Cf. Wordsworth, _Prose Works_, ed. Grosart, 1876, vol. iii, p.
323, where he praises Milton for this peculiarity, showing
thereby that he was influenced in his sonnet-writing by Milton.
[203] On Wordsworth's Sonnets see the Note on the Wordsworthian Sonnet
by Mr. T. Hutchinson, in his edition of _Poems in two volumes by
William Wordsworth_ (1807), London, 1897, vol. i, p. 208.
CHAPTER X
OTHER ITALIAN AND FRENCH POETICAL FORMS
OF A FIXED CHARACTER
§ =316.= The =madrigal=, an Italian form (It. _mandriale_,
_madrigale_, from _mandra_ flock), is a pastoral song, a rural idyl.
The Italian madrigals of Petrarch, &c., are short, isometrical poems
of eleven-syllable verses, consisting of two or three terzetti with
different rhymes and two or four other rhyming verses, mostly couplets:
_a b c a b c d d, a b a b c b c c, a b b a c c d d,
a b b c d d e e, a b b a c c c d d, a b a c b c d e []
d e, a b b c d d e e f f, a b b c d d e f f g g._
The English madrigals found in Sidney and especially in Drummond
resemble the Italian madrigals only in subject; in their form they
differ widely from their models, as they consist of from fifteen to five
lines and have the structure of canzone-stanzas of three- and five-foot
verses. The stanzas run on an average from eight to twelve lines. As a
specimen the twelfth madrigal of Drummond (_Poets_, iv. 644), according
to the formula _a₃ a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃ b₅ c₅ c₃ d d₅_, may be quoted
here:
_Trees happier far than I,
Which have the grace to heave your heads so high,
And overlook those plains:
Grow till your branches kiss that lofty sky,
Which her sweet self contains.
There make her know mine endless love and pains,
And how these tears which from mine eyes do fall,
Help you to rise so tall:
Tell her, as once I for her sake lov'd breath,
So for her sake I now court lingering death._
Other madrigals have the following schemes (the first
occurring twice in Sidney and once in Drummond, while the
rest are found in Drummond only):
fifteen lines, _a₃ a₅ b₃ c₅ c₃ b₅ b₃ d₅ d₃ e e₅ d₃ e f f₅_;
fourteen lines, _a a₃ a₅ b₃ c₅ b₃ c d₅ e e₃ d f₅ d₃ f₅_;
thirteen lines, _a a₃ b₅ c c₃ b₅ c₃ d d₅ e₃ f e f₅_; twelve
lines, _a₂ b₅ b₃ a₅ c d₃ d c₅ c e₃ f f₅_; eleven lines, _a₃
b c a₅ b d₃ d e e f f₅_; ten lines, _a b₃ b a₅ a c b₃ c d d₅_;
nine lines, _a₃ a₅ b c b₃ c c d d₅_; eight lines, _a₃ a₅ b b c₃
c d d₅_; seven lines, _a b a₃ c c₅ a₃ b₅_; six lines, _a b b a c₃
c₅_; five lines, _a b b₃ a b₅_. For specimens of these and other
madrigals in Drummond cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 508.
§ =317.= Some poems in Drummond's and Sidney's works entitled epigrams
consist, as a rule, of two or more five-foot verses, rhyming in
couplets. In Sidney there are also short poems resembling these in
subject, but consisting of one-rhymed Alexandrines. We have also one in
R. Browning (iii. 146) of seven one-rhymed Septenary verses; several
others occur in D. G. Rossetti (ii. 137-40) of eight lines on the
schemes _a a₄ b b₄ a a₄ b b₄_ styled Chimes (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§
570, 571.)
§ =318.= The =terza-rima=. Of much greater importance is another
Italian form, viz. a continuous stanza of eleven-syllable verses, the
terza-rima, the metre in which Dante wrote his Divina Commedia. It first
appears in English poetry in Chaucer's Complaint to his Lady, second and
third part,[204] but may be said to have been introduced into English
literature by Wyatt, who wrote satires and penitential psalms in this
form (Ald. ed. pp. 186-7, 209-34), and by Surrey in his _Description of
the restless state of a Lover_ (Ald. ed. p. 1). The rhyme-system of the
terza-rima is _a b a b c b c d c_, &c. That is to say, the first and
third lines of the first triplet rhyme together, while the middle line
has a different rhyme which recurs in the first and third line of the
second triplet; and in the same manner the first and third lines of each
successive triplet rhyme with the middle line of the preceding one, so
as to form a continuous chain of three-line stanzas of iambic five-foot
verses till the end of the poem, which is formed by a single line added
to the last stanza and rhyming with its second line.
The first stanzas of Surrey's poem may be quoted here:
_The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green,
Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness;
Once have the winds the trees despoiled clean,
And once again begins their cruelness;
Since I have hid under my breast the harm
That never shall recover healthfulness._
_The winter's hurt recovers with the warm;
The parched green restored is with shade;
What warmth, alas! may serve for to disarm
The frozen heart, that mine in flame hath made?
What cold again is able to restore
My fresh green years_, &c., &c.
The terza-rima has not the compact structure of the sonnet,
as in each of its stanzas a rhyme is wanting which is only
supplied in the following stanza. For this reason it seems to
be especially adapted for epic or reflective poetry.
Comparatively few examples of this form are met with in
English poetry, as e.g. in Sidney, S. Daniel, Drummond,
Milton, and Shelley (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 572).
In Sidney and R. Browning (iii. 102) we also find a variety
of the terza-rima consisting of four-foot verses, and in Browning
some others formed of four-stressed verses (iv. 288).
Some similar rhyme-systems of three lines, occurring in
Sidney and Drummond, are of less importance (cf. ib., § 573).
§ =319.= Certain other varieties of the terza-rima, although found in
recent poets, need only be briefly noticed here.
One of four lines on the model _a a b a₅ b b c b₅ c c d c₅_, &c.,
occurs in Swinburne, _Poems_, ii. 32, 34, 239; another on the scheme _a
a b a₅, c c b c₅, d d e d₅_, &c., ib. i. 13; a third one, following
the formula _a b c₃ b₂, a b c₃ b₂, a b c₃ b₂_, called _Triads_,
ib. ii. 159 (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 564).
Five-lined forms, similar to the terza-rima, occur in Sidney, e.g.
_abcdd, efghh, iklmm_, the rhymeless lines being connected by sectional
rhyme, the stanzas themselves likewise by sectional rhyme; another on
the model _a₅ b₃ c₅ c₃ B₅, B₅ d₃ e₅ e₃ D₅, D₅ f₃ g₅ g₃ F₅_; and a third
on the scheme _a₃ a₅ b c₃ b₅, c₃ c₅ d e₃ d₅, e₃ e₅ f g₃ f₅_, &c. A
related form, _a b a b c₄, c d c d e₄, ... y z y z z₄_, is found in Mrs.
Browning (iv. 44). For specimen cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 575.
A terza-rima system of six lines may be better mentioned in this section
than together with the sub-varieties of the sextain, as was done in
_Metrik_, ii, §578; they pretty often occur in Sidney, e.g. _Pansies_,
ix (Grosart, i. 202), on the schemes _a b a b c b, c d c d e d, e f e f
g f, v w v w x w, ... x y x y z y y_.
In Spenser's _Pastoral Aeglogue_ on Sidney (pp. 506-7) a rhyme-system
according to _a b c a b c₅, d b e d f e₅, g f h g i h₅, k i l k m l₅_,
&c. is met with; in Mrs. Browning (iii. 236) a much simpler system,
constructed of five-foot lines on the formula _a b a b a b c d c d c d e
f e f e f_, &c., is used.
A system of ten lines, consisting of five-foot verses (_a b a b b c a e
d D, D e d e e f d f g G, G h g h h i g i k K_, &c., ending in a stanza
of four lines, _X y x y_) occurs in Sidney, pp. 218-20 (221-4, xxxi);
cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 580.
§ =320.= Still less popular was another Italian poetical form, the
=sextain=, originally invented by the Provençal poet, Arnaut Daniel,
and for the first time reproduced in English poetry by Sidney in his
_Arcadia_.
The sextain consists of eleven-syllabled or rather five-foot verses
and has six stanzas of six lines each, and an envoy of three lines
in addition. Each of the six stanzas, considered individually, is
rhymeless, and so is the envoy. But the end-words of the lines of each
stanza from the second to the sixth are identical with those of the
lines in the preceding stanza, but in a different order, viz. six,
one, five, two, four, three. In the envoy, the six end-words of the
first stanza recur, in the same order, alternately in the middle and
at the end of the line. Hence the whole system of rhymes (or rather of
recurrence of end-words) is as follows: _a b c d e f . f a e b d c . c
f d a b e . e c b f a d . d e a c f b . b d f e c a + (a) b (c) d (e) f_.
The first two stanzas of Sidney's _Agelastus Sestine_, pp. 438-9 (426-7,
lxxiv), together with the envoy and with the end-words of the other
stanzas, may serve to make this clear:
_Since wayling is a bud of causefull sorrow,
Since sorrow is the follower of evill fortune,
Since no evill fortune equals publike damage;
Now Prince's losse hath made our damage publike
Sorrow, pay we to thee the rights of Nature,
And inward griefe seale up with outward wayling._
_Why should we spare our voice from endlesse wayling
Who iustly make our hearts the seate of sorrow,
In such a case, where it appears that Nature
Doth adde her force unto the sting of Fortune!
Choosing, alas, this our theatre publike,
Where they would leave trophees of cruell damage._
The other stanzas have the corresponding rhyme-words in this order:
III IV V VI
_damage Nature publike fortune
wayling damage nature publike
publike Fortune sorrow wayling
sorrowe wayling damage nature
fortune sorrowe wayling damage
Nature publike fortune sorrow_
The envoy is:
_Since sorrow, then, concludeth all our fortune,
With all our deaths shew we this damage publique:
His nature feares to dye, who lives still wayling._
This strict form of the sextain, which in Sidney, pp. 216-17 (219-21,
xxx), occurs even with a twofold rhyming system, but, of course, with
only one envoy, has, as far as we know, only once been imitated in
modern poetry, viz. by E. W. Gosse (_New Poems_). Cf. _Metrik_, ii, §
576.
§ =321.= Besides this original form of the sextain several other
varieties are met with in English poetry. Thus Spenser, in the eighth
eclogue of his _Shepherd's Calendar_ (pp. 471-2), has a sextain of a
somewhat different structure, the rhymeless end-words being arranged in
this order: _a b c d e f. f a b c d e. e f a b c d. d e f a b c. c d e f
a b. b c d e f a + (a) b (c) d (e) f_. Here the final word of the last
verse of the first stanza, it is true, is also used as final word in the
first verse of the second stanza, but the order of the final words of
the other verses of the first stanza remains unchanged in the second.
The same relation of the end-words exists between st. ii to st. iii,
between st. iii to st. iv, &c., and lastly between st. vi and the envoy;
the envoy, again, has the end-words of the first stanza; those which
have their place in the interior of the verse occur at the end of the
third measure.
Some other sub-varieties of the sextain have rhyming final words in each
stanza.
In Sidney's _Arcadia_, p. 443 (430-1, lxxvi), e.g. one sextain has
the following end-words: _light_, _treasure_, _might_, _pleasure_,
_direction_, _affection_. These end-words recur in the following stanzas
in the order of the regular sextain; hence st. ii has _affection_,
_light_, _direction_, _treasure_, _pleasure_, _might_, &c. In this
variety, also, the rhyme-words of the envoy occur at a fixed place, viz.
at the end of the second measure. Drummond wrote two sextains of the
same elegant form.
In Swinburne also (_Poems_, ii. 46) we have a sextain of rhymed stanzas,
the first stanza rhyming _day_, _night_, _way_, _light_, _may_,
_delight_. All these recur in the following stanzas in a similar order,
though not so strictly observed as in the sextain by Spenser, mentioned
above (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 577).
One example (probably unique in English poetry) of what is known as the
_Double Sextain_ is found in Swinburne's _The Complaint of Lisa_ (Poems,
ii. 60-8), a poem in which he has given one of the most brilliant
specimens of his skill in rhyming. It consists of twelve twelve-lined
stanzas and a six-lined envoy. The first two stanzas rhyme _a b c A B d
C e f E D F_, _F a f D A C b e c E d B_; the envoy on the scheme
_(F) E (e) f (C) A (c) d (b) a (D) B_;
where the corresponding capital and small letters denote different
words rhyming with each other. Cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 581.
§ =322.=. Side by side with these well-known poems of fixed form, mostly
constructed on Italian models, there are some others influenced by
French poetry which have been introduced into English for the most part
by contemporary modern poets, as e.g. Swinburne, Austin Dobson, Robert
Bridges, D.G. Rossetti, A. Lang, and E.W. Gosse[205]. These are the
virelay, roundel, rondeau, triolet, villanelle, ballade, and chant
royal. The =virelay= seems to have been in vogue in earlier English
poetry. Chaucer, e.g. in his _Legende of good Women_, v. 423, says of
himself that he had written _balades_, _roundels_, and _virelayes_. But
only isolated specimens of it have been preserved; in more recent times
it has not been imitated at all.
According to Lubarsch[206] the virelay consists of verses of unequal
length, joined by _concatenatio_ so as to form stanzas of nine lines on
the scheme: _a a b a a b a a b, b b c b b c b b c, c c d c c d c c d,
&c._
Apart from this, however, there were undoubtedly other forms in
existence (cf. Bartsch, _Chrestomathie de l'ancien français_, p. 413).
Morris, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer's Works, vol. vi, p. 305, gives
a virelay of two-foot iambic verses in six-lined stanzas on the model
_a a a b a a a b, b b b c b b b c c c c d c c c d_, &c.
(quoted _Metrik_, i, § 155).
§ =323.=. The =roundel=, used by Eustache Deschamps, Charles d'Orléans,
and others, was introduced into English poetry, it seems, by Chaucer.
But there are only a few roundels of his in existence; one of these
occurs in _The Assembly of Fowles_ (ll. 681-8); if the verses of the
burden are repeated, as printed in the Globe Edition, pp. 638-9, it has
thirteen lines (=a b b= _a b_ =a b= _a b b_ =a b b=, the thick types
showing the refrain-verses):
_Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake
And driven awey the longe nyghtes blake;_
_Seynt Valentyn, that art ful by on lofte,
Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake._
_Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,
Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;
Ful blisful mowe they ben when they awake.
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake
And driven awey the longe nyghtes blake._
Three other roundels of Chaucer on the scheme last mentioned have been
published lately by Skeat in _Chaucer's Minor Poems_, pp. 386-7; some
other Middle English roundels were written by Hoccleve and Lydgate.
In French the roundel was not always confined to one particular metre,
nor did it always consist of a fixed number of verses; the same may be
said of the English roundels.
The essential condition of this form, as used by the French poets, was
that two, three, or four verses forming a refrain must recur three times
at fixed positions in a tripartite isometrical poem consisting mostly of
thirteen or fourteen four- or five-foot verses. A common form of the
French roundel consisted of fourteen octosyllabic verses on the model
_=a b= b a a b =a b= a b b a =a b=._
Conforming to this scheme is a roundel by Lydgate[207]:
_Rejoice ye reames of England and of Fraunce!
A braunche that sprange oute of the floure de lys,
Blode of seint Edward and [of] seint Lowys,
God hath this day sent in governaunce._
_God of nature hath yoven him suffisaunce
Likly to atteyne to grete honure and pris.
Rejoice ye reames of England and of Fraunce!
A braunche hath sprung oute of the floure de lys._
_O hevenly blossome, o budde of all plesaunce,
God graunt the grace for to ben als wise
As was thi fader, by circumspect advise,
Stable in vertue withoute variaunce.
Rejoice ye reames of England and of Fraunce,
A braunche hath sprung oute of the floure de lys._
Another roundel of four-foot verses, by Lydgate (Ritson, i. 129),
corresponds to _=a b= a b a b =a b= a b a b =a b=_ (cf. _Metrik_, i, §
180); some other roundels, of a looser structure, consisting, seemingly,
of ten lines, are quoted in the same place (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 583).
A Modern English roundel of fourteen lines, constructed of three-foot
verses, by Austin Dobson, has the scheme _=a b= a b b a =a b= a b a b_
=a b= (quoted ib. § 583). The French roundel of thirteen lines may be
looked upon as a preliminary form to the rondeau, which was developed
from the roundel at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the
sixteenth century.
§ =324.= The =rondeau= is a poem consisting of thirteen lines of eight
or ten syllables, or four or five measures. It has three stanzas of
five, three, and five lines, rhyming on the scheme _a a b b a a
a b a a b b a_. It has, moreover, a refrain which is formed by
the first words of the first line, and recurs twice, viz. after the
eighth and thirteenth verses, with which it is syntactically connected.
Strictly speaking it therefore has fifteen lines, corresponding to the
scheme _a a b b a a a b_ + _r a a b b a_ + _r_. The rondeau was
much cultivated by the French poet, Clément Marot. It was introduced
into English by Wyatt, from whom the rondeau _Complaint for True Love
unrequited_ (p. 23) may be quoted here:
_What 'vaileth truth, or by it to take pain?
To strive by steadfastness for to attain
How to be just, and flee from doubleness?
Since all alike, where ruleth craftiness,
Rewarded is both crafty, false, and plain._
_Soonest he speeds that most can lie and feign:
True meaning heart is had in high disdain,
Against deceit and cloaked doubleness,
What 'vaileth truth?_
_Deceived is he by false and crafty train,
That means no guile, and faithful doth remain
Within the trap, without help or redress:
But for to love, lo, such a stern mistress,
Where cruelty dwells, alas, it were in vain.
What 'vaileth truth?_
This is the proper form of the rondeau. Other forms deviating from it
are modelled on the schemes:
_a a b b a b b a_ + _r b b a a b_ + _r_ (Wyatt, p. 24),
_a a b b a_ + _r c c b_ + _r a a b b a_ + _r_ (ib. p. 26),
_a b b a a b_ + _r a b b a_ + _r_ (D. G. Rossetti, i. 179).
Austin Dobson, Robert Bridges, and Theo. Marzials strictly follow the
form quoted above.
Another form of the rondeau entirely deviating from the above is found
in Swinburne, _A Century of Roundels_,[208] where he combines verses of
the most varied length and rhythm on the scheme _ABA_ + _b BAB ABA_ +
_b_ where _b_ denotes part of a verse, rhyming with the second, but
repeated from the beginning of the first verse and consisting of one or
several words (cf. _Metrik_, ii, §§ 584, 585).
§ =325.= The triolet and the villanelle are unusual forms occurring only
in modern poets, e.g. Dobson and Gosse.
The =triolet=, found as early as in Adenet-le-Roi at the beginning of
the thirteenth century, is a short poem of eight mostly octosyllabic
verses, rhyming according to the formula =a b= _a_ =a= _a b_ =ab=, the
first verse recurring as a refrain in the fourth, the first and second
together in the seventh and eighth place. Two specimens have been
quoted, _Metrik_, ii, § 586.
§ =326.= The =villanelle= (a peasant song, rustic ditty, from
_villanus_) was cultivated by Jean Passerat (1534-1602); in modern
poetry by Th. de Banville, L. Baulmier, &c. It mostly consists of
octosyllabic verses divided into five stanzas (sometimes a larger or
smaller number) of three lines plus a final stanza of four lines, the
whole corresponding to the scheme =a=¹ _b_ =a=² + _a b_ =a=¹ + _a b_
=a=² + _a b_ =a=¹ + _a b_ =a=² + _a b_ =a=¹ =a=². Hence the first
and the third verses of the first stanza are used alternately as a
refrain to form the last verse of the following stanzas, while in the
last stanza both verses are used in this way. A villanelle by Gosse on
this model consisting of eight stanzas, perhaps the only specimen in
English literature, has been quoted, _Metrik_, ii, § 587.
§ =327.= The =ballade= is a poetical form consisting of somewhat longer
stanzas all having the same rhymes. Several varieties of it existed in
Old French poetry. The two most usual forms are that with octosyllabic
and that with decasyllabic lines. The first form is composed of three
stanzas of eight lines on the model _a b a b b c b C_ (cf. § 269). The
rhymes in each stanza agree with those of the corresponding lines in the
two others, the last line, which is identical in all the three, forming
the refrain; this refrain-verse recurs also at the end of the _envoi_,
which corresponds in its structure to the second half of the main
stanza, according to the formula _b c b C_. The decasyllabic form has
three stanzas of ten verses on the scheme _a b a b b c c d c D_ (cf.
§ 271), and an _envoi_ of five verses on the scheme _c c d c D_; the
same rules holding good in all other respects as in the eight-lined
form. It is further to be observed that the _envoi_ began, as a rule,
with one of the words _Prince_, _Princesse_, _Reine_, _Roi_, _Sire_,
either because the poem was addressed to some personage of royal or
princely rank, or because, originally, this address referred to the poet
who had been crowned as 'king' in the last poetical contest.
In England also the ballade had become known as early as in the
fourteenth century. We have a collection of ballades composed in the
French language by Gower,[209] consisting of stanzas of either eight or
seven (_rhyme royal_) decasyllabic verses with the same rhyme throughout
the poem. Similar to the French are Chaucer's English ballades in his
Minor Poems, which, however, in so far differ from the regular form,
that the _envoi_ consists of five, six, or seven lines; in some of the
poems even there is no _envoi_ at all. Accurate reproductions of the Old
French ballade are not found again until recent times. There are
examples by Austin Dobson and especially by Swinburne _(A Midsummer
Holiday_, London, 1884). They occur in both forms, constructed as well
of four- and five-foot iambic, as of six-, seven-, or eight-foot
trochaic or of five- and seven-foot iambic-anapaestic verses. (For
specimens cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 588.)
§ =328.= The =Chant Royal= is an extended ballade of five ten-lined
ballade-stanzas (of the second form mentioned above), instead of three,
together with an _envoi_. In Clément Marot we meet with another form of
five eleven-line stanzas of decasyllabic verses also with the same
rhymes throughout; the _envoi_ having five lines. The scheme is
_a b a b c c d d e d E_ in the stanzas and _d d e d E_ in the _envoi_.
A Chant Royal by Gosse, composed on this difficult model (perhaps the
only specimen to be found in English poetry), is quoted _Metrik_, ii, §
589.
A more detailed discussion of these French poetical forms of a fixed
character and of others not imitated in English poetry may be found in
Kastner's _History of French Versification_ (Oxford, at the Clarendon
Press, 1903), chapter x. Cf. also Edmund Stengel, _Romanische
Verslehre_, in Gröber's _Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie_
(Strassburg, 1893), vol. ii, pp. 87 ff.
NOTES:
[204] See Chaucer's Works, edited by W. W. Skeat, _Minor Poems_, pp.
75-6, 310-11.
[205] Cf. the essay by Gosse in _The Cornhill Magazine_, No. 211, July,
1877, pp. 53-71.
[206] _Französische Verslehre_, Berlin, 1879, p. 388.
[207] Ritson's _Ancient Songs_, i. 128, written, it is true, in
five-foot verses; the repetition of the two refrain-verses in the
proper place, however, is not indicated in the edition, and a
slight emendation of the text is also required by the sense, viz.
_hath sprung_ instead of _that sprang_ in the last line.
[208] London, Chatto & Windus, 1833.
[209] _The Works of John Gower_, ed. G. C. Macaulay, Oxford, 1899, vol.
i, pp. 335 ff.
OXFORD: HORACE HART M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
Transcriber's Notes
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the each chapter, and
renumbered consecutively to be unique. The sole footnote reference
on p. 250 was mis-numbered, and is corrected here as footnote 173.
The unicode character set available to render the various typographical
features may not be complete. Your reading device may not have the full
complement of fonts required to render all the characters.
Italicized words or phrases are rendered using underscore characters
as _italic_. Any text printed in a bold font will appear as =bold=.
All poetry was printed in italic. To highlight alliteration effects,
some characters were printed using a normal, bold font. In other places,
to indicate special rythyms, such as spondees in an otherwise iambic
line, the author used a normal font, without a bold weight, to show
the secondary stress. These vowels will be delimited with '+'. For
simplicity's sake, the line or lines will be _italicized_, and
the highlighted characters will be marked within: e.g.,
_=m=ōdum lufien | he is =m=ægna spēd_,
where the initial 'm' is printed in bold, normal font.
'_The séa is at ébb, | and the sóund of her útmost wórd,
Is sóft as the l+éa+st w+a+ve's lápse | in a stíll sm+a+ll r+éa+ch.
From báy into báy, | on quést of a góal deférred,
From héadland éver to héadland | and bréach to bréach,
Where éarth gives éar | to the méssage that áll days préach._'
Here, the entire verse is italic, but the +vowels+ are printed in a
normal, but not bold font. Note that the vertical bars, in the original,
are never italicized.
In sections § 25-30, the subtypes of line types A, B, C, etc. are
printed as 'A1', but in later sections these are printed as subscripts.
Both are given here as 'A1', etc.
In the stanza notation employed in Book II, Chapter III, the number of
feet in a line are indicated as in italics, using single letters with
subscripts (both lower- and uppercase):
_a a₄ b₃ c c₄ b₃_
Rhyming patterns can use extra spaces, which are indicated with
non-breaking spaces:
_a b b a a b b a c d e d e c₅ c₃ f f₅ f₃ g g₅_
There is also one superscripted '4', unsupported by this character set,
which uses the carat (^), e.g., 'Phonetik_^4'.
There are cases where punctuation, spelling or spacing seem questionable,
particularly in quoted matter. Where possible, these have been checked
against images of the sources Schipper used. Corrections made to the
text are as follows:
p. 46 Beow. 499[,] 1542, 2095, 2930 Missing comma added.
p. 53 _ges[c´/é]aft_ The accent on 'c' is
likely a printer's
error.
p. 76 _-en_, _-es_, _[-]eþ_ Added missing hyphen.
p. 88 J. A. 31[.] Added missing stop.
p. 100 _Nou haþ =p=rúde þe =p=[r´i/rí]s_ The accent on 'r' is
likely misplaced.
p. 128 _Chambers's Cyclop. of Eng. Lit[.]_, Missing '.' in
abbreviation.
p. 156 _in váyn_: _s[d/á]yen_ Sur. 31; Probable printer's error.
p. 168 _prayer: p[r]ayr_ Missing 'r' inserted.
p. 169 _carry 'em_ (_=carry them_[)] Closing ')' inserted.
p. 205 _How féw to g[oó/óo]d efféct_ Accent should appear
on first vowel.
p. 216 that búd and blóom forth[ ]bríngs Missing space inserted.
p. 224 (1550-1700),['] Spurious apostrophe
removed.