§ =212.= Among the =classical stanzas=, which may appropriately be discussed in this connexion, the =Sapphic metre= deserves the first place, as it has been imitated pretty often; its scheme is as follows: –́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – – –́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – – –́ ⏑ – – –́ | ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – – –́ ⏑ ⏑ – – It is certainly not an easy task to write in this form of stanza, as it is rather difficult in English to imitate feet of three or even two long syllables (Molossus and Spondee). Yet it has been used by several poets, as by Sidney and his contemporary, the metrist William Webbe; in the eighteenth century by Dr. Watts, Cowper, and Southey (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 253); and in later times by Swinburne, from whose _Poems and Ballads_ a specimen may be quoted: _Áll the nī́ght slēep cā́me not upṓn my ḗyelids, Shēd not dḗw, nōr shṓok nor unclōsed a fḗather, Yḗt with lī́ps shūt clṓse and with ḗyes of ī́ron Stṓod and behḗld me._ Of other kinds of classical verses and stanzas the =Alcaic metre= has occasionally been imitated, e.g. by Tennyson. The scheme of the Latin original is as follows: ⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆ ⏑̄ –́ ⏑ – – | –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ –̆ –̆ –́ ⏑ – - –́ ⏑ - ⏑̄ –́ ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ – ⏑̄ Tennyson's poem is an _Ode to Milton_ (p. 281): _O mī́ghty mṓuth'd īnvḗntŏr ŏf hā́rmŏnĭes, O skī́lled tŏ sī́ng ōf Tī́me ŏr Etḗrnĭty, Gōdgī́ftĕd ṓrgān-vṓice ŏf Énglānd, Mī́ltŏn, ă nā́me tŏ rĕsṓúnd fōr ā́gĕs._ There are besides in Sidney's _Arcadia_, pp. 227 (232, xxxv) and 533, =Anacreontic stanzas= of varying length, consisting of 3-11 verses and constructed in this way: _My Múse, what áiles this árdour? To bláse my ónely sécrets? Alás, it ís no glóry To síng mine ówne decáid state._ § =213.= In connexion with these imitations of classical verses and stanzas without rhyme some other forms should be mentioned which took their rise from an attempt to get rid of end-rhyme. Orm was the first to make the experiment in his rhymeless Septenary, but he found no followers in the Middle English period; Surrey, several centuries later, on the other hand, did achieve success with his blank verse. In the beginning of the seventeenth century Thomas Campion, in his _Observations on the Arte of English Poesy_ (London, 1602), tried to introduce certain kinds of rhymeless verses and stanzas, mostly trochaic; e.g. trochaic verses of three measures (with masculine endings) and of five measures (with feminine endings); distichs consisting of one five-foot iambic and one six-foot trochaic verse (both masculine); then a free imitation of the Sapphic metre and other kinds of rhymeless stanzas, quoted and discussed in _Metrik_, ii, § 254. But these early and isolated attempts need not engage our attention in this place, as they had probably no influence on similar experiments of later poets.