A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
Iambic-anapaestic verses of two stresses and feminine ending are found
in Longfellow's poem _The Men of Nidaros_ (p. 579); the arrangement into
stanzas of six lines being marked only by the syntactical order, in the
same way as in Southey's poem _The Soldier's Wife_ (ii. 140), in which,
too, four-foot dactylic verses are combined in stanzas of three lines.
Two-foot dactylic and dactylic-trochaic verses of a similar structure to
those mentioned in Book I, § 73, are joined to rhymeless stanzas of five
lines (the first four have feminine endings, the last a masculine one)
by Matthew Arnold in his poem _Consolation_ (p. 50). Stanzas of five
iambic verses of three and five measures, corresponding to the formula
_a₃ b₅ c₃ d₅ e₃_ occur in his poem _Growing Old_ (p. 527). In Charles
Lamb's well-known poem, _The Old Familiar Faces_, written in stanzas of
three lines, consisting of five-foot verses with feminine endings, the
division into stanzas is marked by a refrain at the end of each stanza.
For examples of these different kinds of verses the reader is referred
to the author's _Metrik_, ii, §§ 255-8.
In conclusion it may be mentioned that many of the irregular, so-called
Pindaric Odes (cf. Book II, chap. viii) are likewise written in
rhymeless anisometrical stanzas.
NOTES:
[179] Specimens of earlier hexameter verse with detailed
bibliographical information may be found in our _Metrik_, ii,
§§ 249-50; and especially in C. Elze's thorough treatise on
the subject, _Der englische Hexameter_. Programm des
Gymnasiums zu Danzig, 1867. (Cf. F. E. Schelling, _Mod. Lang.
Notes_, 1890, vii. 423-7.)
BOOK II. THE STRUCTURE OF STANZAS
PART I
CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS
STANZA, RHYME, VARIETIES OF RHYME
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