A History of English VersificationSchipper, J. (Jakob)
History
A History of English Versification
Schipper, J. (Jakob)
English language -- Versification; English poetry -- History and criticism
Other forms of a similar structure are _a a₃ b b₂ a a₃ B₄_, _a₄ a b b₃ c
c₄ x₃_, _a₄ a b₅ b c c₄ c₅_, _a₅ a a b b₄ c c₃_; for examples see
_Metrik_, ii, §467.
Stanzas which have crossed rhymes either in part or throughout are still
commoner. Thus a stanza on the model of the _rhyme royal_ stanza (_a₃ b
a b₅ b₃ c c₅_) which occurs in Mrs. Hemans, _Elysium_ (iii. 236):
_Fair wert thou in the dreams
Of elder time, thou land of glorious flowers
And summer winds and low-toned silvery streams,
Dim with the shadows of thy laurel bowers,
Where, as they pass'd, bright hours
Left no faint sense of parting, such as clings
To earthly love, and joy in loveliest things!_
Other similar stanzas correspond to _a₄ b a₅ b₄ c₃ c₄ c₅_, _a₃ b a₄ b₂ c
c c₅_, _a₅ b a₄ b₅ c₄ c c₅_, _a₅ b c c b a₄ a₅_, _a b a₄ b₃ b₅ a₄ b₃_,
and _a b a₃ b₄ c₃ c₂ c₄_; for examples taken from older poets (Donne,
Carew, Cowley) and from later literature (Longfellow, D. G. Rossetti)
cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 468.
Several other stanza-forms remind us by their structure and arrangement
of rhymes of certain shortened forms of the tail-rhyme stanza, e.g. one
in _A Parting Song_ by Mrs. Hemans (vi. 189), on the scheme _A₄ B₃ c c d
d₄ B₂_:
_When will ye think of me, my friends?
When will ye think of me?
When the last red light, the farewell of day,
From the rock and the river is passing away--
When the air with a deep'ning hush is fraught
And the heart grows burden'd with tender thought--
Then let it be._
Similar stanzas corresponding to the formulas _a b₄ a a₃ b a₄ a₃_, _a₄
b₃ a a₄ b₃ c c₄_, _a a b a₅ b a a₂_ are quoted in _Metrik_, ii, § 469.
§ =290.= Most of the =eight-lined stanzas=, which on the whole are rare,
are similar to the tail-rhyme stanza, the scheme of which is carried out
in both parts, to which a third part is then added as the _cauda_ (last
part).
Stanzas of this kind, used especially by Cowley, correspond to _a a₅ b₃
c c₄ b₃ d d₄_, _a₅ a₄ b₄ c₅ c₅ b₄ d₄ d₅_, _a₅ a b c c b₄ d d₅_, and _a
a₅ b₄ c c b₅ d₄ d₅_ (cf. _Metrik_, ii, § 470).
The half-stanzas (_pedes_) are separated by the _cauda_ in a stanza on
the scheme _a a₄ b₅ c c d d₄ b₃_, which occurs in Wordsworth, _The
Pilgrim's Dream_ (vi. 153):
_A Pilgrim, when the summer day
Had closed upon his weary way,
A lodging begged beneath a castle's roof;
But him the haughty Warder spurned;
And from the gate the Pilgrim turned,
To seek such covert as the field
Or heath-besprinkled copse might yield,
Or lofty wood, shower-proof._
In other stanzas on the models _a₄ b₂ a b c c c₄ b₂_, _a ~ b a ~₄ b₃ c ~
c ~ c ~₄ b₂_, _a₄ b₂ a₄ c c₂ d d₄ b₂_, and _a₄ B ~₂ a a₄ C ~₂ D₃ D₄_,
only a half-stanza of the tail-rhyme form can be recognized (cf.
_Metrik_, ii, §475).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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