English verse of four stresses is chiefly to be divided into two groups:
that representing the primitive Germanic tendency to emphasize the
element of accent rather than the counting of syllables, and that
produced under foreign influence, showing comparative regularity in the
number of syllables to the verse. The first group is made up of the
various descendants of the original "long line," sometimes rimed and
sometimes unrimed; the second group of forms of the familiar
octosyllabic couplet. (Of modern verse only iambic measures are included
here.)