_How well I know what I mean to do When the long dark autumn evenings come; And where, my soul, is thy pleasant hue? With the music of all thy voices, dumb In life's November too!_ There are many other forms, sometimes very complicated, as e.g. _a b a b₄ a₃_, _a b₄ a₂ b a₆_, _a₃ b a₄ b₃ a₅_, &c. (For examples see _Metrik_, ii, § 335.) § =260.= The tail-rhyme stanzas shortened by one verse occupy an important position among the five-lined stanzas. These curtailed forms occur as early as the Middle English period, e.g. in an envoi on the model _a a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂_, forming the conclusion of a poem in six-lined stanzas (_a a a₄ b₂ a₄ b₂_), printed in Wright's _Spec. of Lyr. Poetry_, p. 38. _Ich wolde ich were a þrestelcok, A bountyng oþer a lauerok. Swete bryd! Bituene hire curtel ant hire smok Y wolde ben hyd._ In Modern English the common form of stanza is much employed, consisting of four- and three-foot verses, _a a₄ b₃ a₄ b₃_; there are many varieties of this scheme, as _a a b a₄ b₃_, _a₅ a b₄ a₅ b₃_, _a a₂ b a₄ b₃_, &c. (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 336). A similar form, with shortening in the first half-stanza, also occurs in Middle English poetry, though only as an envoi of another form of stanza, viz, in the _Towneley Mysteries_ (pp. 34-323): _Vnwunne haueþ myn wonges wet, Þat makeþ me rouþes rede; Ne sem i nout þer y am set, Þer me calleþ me fule flet And waynoun! wayteglede._ This stanza is also frequently used in Modern English, e.g. by Thomas Moore, _Nay, do not weep_. A similar stanza on the model _a₄ b₂ a a₄ b₂_ is used by Moore in _Echo_ (ii. 211): _How sweet the answer Echo makes To music at night, When, roused by lute or horn, she wakes, And far away, o'er lawns and lakes, Goes answering light._ We find specimens of this stanza consisting of other metres and of different structure (isometrical in the first half-stanza), e.g. on the schemes _a₅ b₃ a a₅ b₃_, _a b a a₄ b₃_, &c. (For specimens see _Metrik_, ii, § 337.) Stanzas of this kind are also formed with three rhymes, e.g. _a b₃ c c₂ b₄_, _a b₃ c c₂ b₃_, _a ~ b₄ c ~ c ~₂ b₄_, &c. (For specimens cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 338.) Another class of shortened tail-rhyme stanzas, which is deficient not in one of the rhyming couplets, but in one of the tail-verses, comes in here. Omission of the first tail-verse, producing a stanza on the scheme _a a b b c_, occurs in Wordsworth, _The Blind Highland Boy_ (ii. 368): _Now we are tired of boisterous joy, Have romped enough, my little Boy! Jane hangs her head upon my breast, And you shall bring your stool and rest; This corner is your own._