(EARL OF SURREY: _Psalm. LV_. ab. 1540.) This is a not very successful experiment in unrimed alexandrines. Others of Surrey's Psalms are in rimed "Poulter's Measure" (alexandrines alternating with septenary). O, let me breathe a while, and hold thy heavy hand, My grievous faults with Shame enough I understand. Take ruth and pity on my plaint, or else I am forlorn; Let not the world continue thus in laughing me to scorn. Madam, if I be he, to whom you once were bent, With whom to spend your time sometime you were content: If any hope be left, if any recompense Be able to recover this forepassed negligence, O, help me now, poor wretch, in this most heavy plight, And furnish me yet once again with Tediousness to fight. (_The Marriage of Wit and Science_, V. ii., in Dodsley's _Old English Plays_, ed. Hazlitt, vol. ii. p. 386. ab. 1570.) In this play the alexandrine is the dominant measure, though mingled with occasional septenaries still. (See Schipper, vol. i. p. 256.) While favor fed my hope, delight with hope was brought, Thought waited on delight, and speech did follow thought; Then grew my tongue and pen records unto thy glory, I thought all words were lost that were not spent of thee, I thought each place was dark but where thy lights would be, And all ears worse than deaf that heard not out thy story. (SIDNEY: _Astrophel and Stella_, Fifth Song. [In stanzas _aabccb_.] ab. 1580.) See also Sidney's sonnet in alexandrines, p. 272, below. Of Albion's glorious isle the wonders whilst I write, The sundry varying soils, the pleasures infinite, (Where heat kills not the cold, nor cold expels the heat, The calms too mildly small, nor winds too roughly great, Nor night doth hinder day, nor day the night doth wrong, The summer not too short, the winter not too long) What help shall I invoke to aid my Muse the while? Thou Genius of the place (this most renowned isle) Which livedst long before the all-earth-drowning flood, Whilst yet the world did swarm with her gigantic brood, Go thou before me still thy circling shores about, And in this wand'ring maze help to conduct me out. (DRAYTON: _Polyolbion_, ll. 1-12. 1613.) This is by all odds the longest Modern English poem in alexandrines, and while the verse is often agreeable, it illustrates the unfitness of the measure--to English ears--for long, continuous poems. The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink; I heard a voice; it said, "Drink, pretty creature, drink!" And looking o'er the hedge, before me I espied A snow-white mountain-lamb with a Maiden at its side. (WORDSWORTH: _The Pet Lamb_. 1800.)