§ =253.= A small group of other stanzas connected with the above may be called =indivisible stanzas=. They consist of a one-rhymed main part mostly of three, more rarely of two or four lines, followed by a shorter refrain-verse, a _cauda_, as it were, but in itself too unimportant to lend a bipartite character to the stanza. Otherwise, stanzas like these might be looked upon as bipartite unequal-membered stanzas, with which, indeed, they stand in close relationship. Three-lined stanzas of this kind occur in Modern English only; as e.g. a stanza consisting of an heroic couplet and a two-foot refrain verse of different rhythm: _a a₄ B₂_ in Moore's Song: _Oh! where are they, who heard in former hours, The voice of song in these neglected bowers? They are gone--all gone!_ Other stanzas show the formulas _a a₅ b₃_ and _a a₄ b₃_. Their structure evidently is analogous to that of a four-lined Middle English stanza _a a a₄ B₃_, the model of which we find in Low Latin and Provençal poetry (cf. _Metrik_, i. 373) and in Furnivall's _Political, Religious, and Love Poems_, p. 4: _Sithe god hathe chose þe to be his knyȝt, And posseside þe in þi right, Thou hime honour with al thi myght, Edwardus Dei gracia_. Similar stanzas occur also in Modern English poets: _a a a₄ B₂_ in Wyatt, p. 99, _a a a₅ B₃_ in G. Herbert, p. 18, &c. We find others with the formula _a a a₄ b₂ a a a₄ b₂_ in Dunbar's _Inconstancy of Love_, and with the formula _a a a₄ b₃ c c c₄ b₃ d d d₄ b₃_, in Dorset (_Poets_, vi. 512); there are also stanzas of five lines, e.g. _a a a a₄ B₂_ (Wyatt, p. 80). An older poem in Ritson's _Anc. Songs_, i. 140 (_Welcom Yol_), has the same metre and form of stanza, but with a refrain verse of two measures and a two-lined refrain prefixed to the first stanza: _A B₄ a a a₄ B₂ c c c₄ B₂_. A similar extended stanza is found in Wyatt (p. 108) _A₃ b b b₃ A₃ B₂_; _A₃ c c c₃ A₃ B₂_. There are also in modern poetry similar isometrical stanzas, as in Swinburne (_Poems_, ii. 108) on the scheme _a a a b₅_, _c c c b₅_, _d d d b₅_, _e e e f₅_, _g g g f₅_, _h h h f₅_; in Campbell (p. 73) _a a a b₄_, _c c c b₄_, _d d d b₄_; and in M. Arnold, _The Second Best_ (p. 49), with feminine endings in the main part of the stanza, _a ~ a ~ a ~ b₄_, _c ~ c ~ c ~ b₄_, _d ~ d ~ d ~ b₄_, &c. II. _Bipartite unequal-membered isometrical stanzas._ § =254.= These are of greater number and variety. The shortest of them, however, viz. =stanzas of four lines=, are found only in Modern English; first of all, stanzas arranged according to the formula _a a b a_; in this case _b_ can be used as refrain also, as in Sidney, _Astrophel and Stella_, Song I (Grosart, i. 75): _Doubt you to whom my Muse these notes entendeth, Which now my breast, surcharg'd to musick lendeth! To you, to you, all song of praise is due, Only in you my song begins and endeth._