A six-lined stanza of Alexandrines and Septenaries on the scheme A A B B6 c1 C6 is found in the poem On the evil Times of Edward II (Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 323). Another variety originated by the breaking up of the longer verses into short ones by inserted rhyme, as in the closing stanzas of a poem by Minot (ed. Hall, p. 17) according to the formula A B A B A B A B3 c1 A C3; cf. the last stanza:
A similar form of stanza (A B A B A B A B3 c1 B C3) is used in the Romance of Sir Tristrem; that of the Scottish poem Christ’s Kirk on the Green, however, is formed on the model A4 B3 A4 B3 A4 B3 b1 B4
§ 265. Still more common than stanzas of this kind composed of even-beat verses, are those of four-stressed rhyming verses with or without alliteration.
Under this head comes a poem in Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 69 (cf. § 60), on the scheme A A A A4 B3 c1 C3 B4, or rather A A A A4 b2 c1 c2 B4, the bob-verse being thus inserted in the cauda. The common form comes out more clearly in another poem, ibid., p. 212 (st. 1, quoted pp. 100–1), corresponding to A A A A4 b1 c c2 b2, where A A A A4 are verses of four stresses, b a one-stressed bob-verse or the half-verse of a long line, c c2 b2 half-verses of two stresses. The Tournament of Tottenham (Ritson’s Anc. Songs, i. 85–9) is written in a similar form of stanza with the formula A A A A4 b c c c b2; the cauda consisting of five verses with two stresses only.
This form of stanza is further developed by connecting the halves of the long lines with each other by the insertion of rhymes in the same way as in the stanzas of isometrical verses. An example may be seen in Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 153, the scheme being A A A A4 b b1 b2 or A A A A4 b1 b2 b4 (or, with the longer lines broken up, A B A B A B A B2 c c1 c2, or A B A B A B A B2 c1 c2 C4, &c.).
Similar stanzas, especially those on the model A A A A4 b1 c c c2 b2 (A B A B A B A B2 c1 d d d2 c2) were much used in the mystery plays, as e.g. in the Towneley Mysteries (pp. 20–34), even when in the dialogue the single lines are divided between different speakers (cf. Metrik, i, pp. 390–1).
The four-stressed long lines sometimes alternate with Alexandrine and Septenary verses. In these plays stanzas of an eight-lined frons consisting of long verses, rhyming crosswise and corresponding to A B A B A B A B4 c1 d d d2 c2 are also common:
Other stanzas, the first cauda-verse of which has four beats (on the scheme A B A B A B A B C4 d d d c2), were also very much in vogue. Stanzas of this kind occur in the poems Golagros and Gawane, The Buke of the Howlat, Rauf Coilȝear, and The Awntyrs of Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne (S. T. S. vol. 28; cf. § 61). An interesting variety of the common form (with a five-lined cauda) we have in the poem Of sayne John the Euangelist (E. E. T. S., 26, p. 87). The stanza consists of an eight-lined frons of crossed rhymes and a cauda formed by a six-lined tail-rhyme stanza[192] of two-beat verses, on the scheme A B A B A B A B4 c c d c c d2.
As to the rhythmical structure of the half-verses used in the cauda of the stanza cf. the explanations given in § 64.
§ 266. The bob-wheel stanzas[193] were preserved in the North in Scottish poetry (e.g. Alex. Montgomerie) up to the Modern English period.[194] It is not unlikely that they found their way from this source into Modern English poetry, where they are also met with, though they have not attained any marked popularity.
It must, however, be kept in mind that the Modern English bob-wheel stanzas are not a direct imitation of the Middle English. Sometimes they were influenced probably by the odes, as there is a marked likeness between these two forms, e.g. in two stanzas of Donne (Poets, iv. 24 and 39) on the schemes A B A B C C4 d d1 D4 and A2 A5 B4 C C5 B4 d1 D E E5; or in a stanza of Ben Jonson in an ode to Wm. Sidney (Poets, iv. 558) on the model A5 B4 c c1 B3 a d d e2 E5, and in another in The Dream (iv. 566), A A4 B3 C C4 A5 A4 B3 b1 D D3 E E4 B5.
In this and other cases they consist of even-measured, seldom of four-stressed verses, as e.g. in Suckling, who seems to have been very fond of these forms of stanza; cf. the following stanza on the model A A4 B3 c c1 b2 (Poets, iii. 736):
Other bob-wheel stanzas in Suckling show the schemes A A4 a2 b b3 (ib. iii. 740), A A A4 B B5 c2 c1 C D4 d2 (ib. iii. 729), A A B B4 c1 c d2 D5 (ib. 739).
More similar to the older forms is a stanza of a song in Dryden formed after A A B B C4 d d e e2 e3 (p. 339).
In Modern poetry such stanzas are used especially by Burns, Scott, and sometimes by Moore. So we have in Burns a fine simple stanza on the model A4 B3 A4 B3 c1 B3, similar to the Shoreham stanza (cf. § 264):
Similar stanzas occur in Moore on the formula A4 B3 A4 B3 a1 B3 in Then fare thee well, on A4 B ~3 A4 B ~3 c1 B ~3 in Dear Fanny. Other stanzas by the same poet have a somewhat longer cauda, as A4 B ~3 A4 B ~3 c ~ c ~ d ~ d ~1 A4 C ~3 or A B ~ A B ~ C ~ C ~4 d d2 E F ~ E F ~4.
A stanza used by Sir Walter Scott in To the Sub-Prior (p. 461) is formed on the model A A B B4 c1 c2 C4, the frons consisting of four-stressed verses:
Most of these stanzas admit of being looked upon as tripartite on account of the bipartite structure of the frons.
Other stanzas may be viewed as consisting of three unequal parts (if not regarded as bipartite); such, for instance, is the stanza on the scheme (a) ~ A ~ (b) ~ B ~4 c1 (d) D4 b ~1 e e e c c2 C4 occurring in Shelley’s Autumn, A Dirge (iii. 65), where the symbols (a)and (b) denote middle rhymes.
Stanzas of this kind are met with also in modern poetry, as e.g. in Thackeray, Mrs. Browning, and Rossetti (cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 353, 354).
§ 267. In the anisometrical stanzas (which might, as being the older species, have been treated of first) the distinction between the first and the last part of the stanza (frons and cauda) is marked as a rule by a difference of metre in them; in isometrical stanzas, on the other hand, the distinction between the two parts depends solely on the arrangement of the rhyme. For this reason certain six-lined stanzas consisting of two equal parts and a third of the same structure (the formula being a a b b c c4 or the like), which now and then occur in the Surtees Psalter (e.g. Ps. xliv, st. 5), cannot strictly be called tripartite.
Stanzas like these are, however, not unfrequent in Modern English poetry, as e.g. in a song of Carew’s (Poets, iii. 292):
For an account of many other stanzas of the same or similar structure (consisting of trochaic four-foot lines, iambic-anapaestic lines of four stresses, or lines of five, six, and seven measures), see Metrik, ii, §§ 355, 356.
It is only rarely that we find stanzas formed on the scheme a a a a b b (e.g. in the Surtees Psalter, xlix. 21; in Ben Jonson, Poets, iv. 574); or on the formula a a b b a b4, as in Swinburne, Poems, i. 248.
One form, analogous to the stanza first mentioned in this section and used pretty often in Modern English, has crossed rhymes a b a b a b. It occurs with four-foot verses in Byron, She walks in Beauty:
The same stanza of trochaic or iambic-anapaestic metres of three or five measures is also frequently met with (cf. Metrik, ii, § 358).
The tripartite character of a strophe appears somewhat more distinctly in stanzas formed on the scheme a b a b b b, or a b a b b x (cf. Metrik, ii, §359).
The only stanzas, however, that are in the strictest sense to be regarded as tripartite are those in which the first and the last part are clearly distinguished by the arrangement of rhymes, as e.g. in the type a b a b c c. This stanza is very popular in Modern English poetry; in the Middle English period, however, we find it very rarely used, as e.g. in the Coventry Mysteries, p. 315.
In Modern English it occurs e.g. in Surrey, A Prayse of his Love (p. 31):
This form of stanza is used with lines of the same metres by many other poets, e.g. by M. Arnold, pp. 195, 197, 256, 318. Similar stanzas of four-foot trochaic (cf. p. 285), or of four-stressed verses, and especially of five-foot verses, are very popular. They are found e.g. in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, M. Arnold’s Mycerinus (first part, p. 8), &c. (cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 360, 361).
Similar stanzas, however, in which the frons precedes the versus, according to the formula a a b c b c (cf. p. 285), do not occur frequently; a rare form, also, is that in which the cauda is placed between the two pedes (cf. p. 285 and Metrik, ii, §362)
§ 268. Still more popular than the six-lined stanzas, both in the Middle and in the Modern English periods, are those of seven lines, which are modelled on Old French lyric poetry, the prevailing type being that of an Old French ballade-stanza, viz. a b a b b c c. But it is not before the middle of the fifteenth century that we meet with an example of this stanza consisting of four-foot verses, viz. in Lydgate’s Minor Poems (Percy Society, 1840), p. 129; a specimen of four-stressed verses occurs in the Chester Plays, pp. 1–7 and pp. 156–8. We may, however, take it for granted that this form of stanza was known long before that time, since four-foot verses were used much earlier than those of five feet, and a six-lined stanza of five-foot verses occurs (for the first time, so far as we know) as early as in Chaucer’s Compleynte of the Dethe of Pite, and subsequently in many other of his poems (e.g. Troylus and Cryseyde, The Assembly of Fowles, The Clerkes Tale) and in numerous other poems of his successors, e.g. in The Kingis Quair by King James I of Scotland. It has been sometimes maintained that this stanza was called rhyme royal stanza because that royal poet wrote his well-known poem in it; this, however, is not so. Guest long ago pointed out (ii. 359) that this name is to be derived from the French term chant-royal, applied to certain poems of similar stanzas which were composed in praise of God or the Virgin, and used to be recited in the poetical contests at Rouen on the occasion of the election of a ‘king’. Chaucer’s verses to Adam Scrivener are of this form and may be quoted as a specimen here (after Skeat’s text, p. 118):
In Modern English this beautiful stanza was very popular up to the end of the sixteenth century; Shakespeare, e.g., wrote his Lucrece in it; afterwards, however, it unfortunately fell almost entirely out of use (cf. Metrik, ii, § 364).
The same form of stanza, composed of two-, three-, or four-foot verses also occurs almost exclusively in the Early Modern English period (cf. ib., § 363).
Some varieties of this stanza, mostly formed of three-, four-, and five-foot verses, correspond to the schemes a b a b c c b4 (e.g. in Akenside, Book I, Ode iii), a b a b c b c5 (Spenser, Daphnaïda, p. 542), a b a b c b c2 (R. Browning, vi. 41). Other stanzas of seven lines are a b a b c c a4, a a b b c c a4, a a b b a c c4, a b a b C d C3, a a b b c c c4, a b a b c c c4, a b a b c c c5, a b a c c d d5 (for specimens see Metrik, ii, §§ 365, 366).
§ 269. Eight-lined isometrical stanzas are also frequently used in the Middle and Modern English period, though not so often as those of six and seven lines.
The scheme a b a b b a b a, formed from the simple equal-membered stanza of eight lines a b a b a b a b, it would seem, by inversion of the last two couplets, is rare in Middle English. We find it in the Digby Plays, consisting of four-foot verses. In Modern English, too, it is not very common; we have an example in Wyatt, e.g. pp. 118, 135, and another in the same poet, formed of five-foot verses (a b a b b a b a5), p. 135.
Much more in favour in the Middle as well as in the Modern English period is the typical form of the eight-lined stanza, corresponding to the scheme a b a b b c b c. It is formed from the preceding stanza by the introduction of a new rhyme in the sixth and eighth verses, and it had its model likewise in a popular ballade-stanza of Old French lyrical poetry.
In Middle English poetry this stanza is very common, consisting either of four-stressed verses (e.g. in The Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathia, E. E. T. S., vol. 44, and On the death of the Duke of Suffolk, Wright’s Polit. Poems, ii. 232) or of four-foot or five-foot verses. As an example of the form consisting of four-foot verses we may quote a stanza from Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 246:
Many other examples occur in later poetry, e.g. in Minot, Lydgate, Dunbar, Lyndesay, in Wyatt, p. 119, Burns, p. 59, Walter Scott, p. 160, &c.
Similar stanzas of two-stressed and three-foot verses are only of rare occurrence; we find them e.g. in Percy’s Rel. II. ii. 3; Wyatt, p. 41.
The same stanza, consisting of five-foot verses, was used by Chaucer in his A B C, the first stanza of which may be quoted here:
Chaucer uses the same stanza in some other minor poems, and also in The Monkes Tale; besides this we find it often in Lydgate, Dunbar, Kennedy; more rarely in Modern English poetry; e.g. in Spenser’s Shepheard’s Cal., Ecl. XI, S. Daniel’s Cleopatra, &c.
Now and then some other eight-lined stanzas occur, e.g. one with the formula a b a b b c c bin Chaucer’s Complaynt of Venus, and in the Flyting by Dunbar and Kennedy. The scheme a a b b c d c d is used in a love-song (Rel. Ant. i. 70–4). In the Modern English period we have stanzas on the schemes a ~ b a ~ b c c d ~ d ~4 (in Sidney, Psalm XLIII), a b a b c c c b4 (Scott, Helvellyn, p. 472), a ~ b a ~ b c ~ c ~ d ~ d ~2 (Moore); cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 369–71.
There are also eight-lined stanzas formed by combination with tail-rhyme stanzas, as a a b a a b c c4, a a b c c d d b4, but they are not frequent; a stanza corresponding to the formula a a b a a b c c4 we have in Spenser, Epigram III (p. 586); and the variety a a b c c d d b4 (the cauda being enclosed by the pedes) occurs in Moore.
The same peculiarity we find in stanzas formed on the scheme A A b c b c A A4 (Moore), or a a b c b c d d4 (Wordsworth, ii. 267); cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 372, 373
§ 270. Stanzas of a still larger compass are of rare occurrence in Middle English poetry. A nine-lined stanza corresponding to the formula a a b a a b b c c5 we have in Chaucer’s Complaynt of Mars; it seems to be formed from the rhyme royal stanza, by adding one verse to each pes; but it might also be looked upon as a combination with the tail-rhyme stanza. Another stanza of this kind, with the formula a a b a a b b a b5, is used in Chaucer’s Complaynt of Faire Anelyda and in Dunbar’s Goldin Targe.
A similar stanza, corresponding to the formula a a b c c b d b d4, occurs in Modern English poetry in John Scott, Ode XII. Other stanzas used in the Modern English period are formed with parallel rhymes, as e. g. on the scheme a a a b b b c c c4 (Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake, p. 187); forms with crossed rhymes throughout or partly are also used, as e.g. by Wyatt, p. 121, according to the formula a b a b c c c d d5:
As to other schemes (a b a b b c d c d5, a b a b b c b c c5, a b a b c d c d R4, a b a b c d c d d4, &c.) cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 374–6
§ 271. A Middle English stanza of ten lines, similar to those of nine lines, is used by Chaucer in the Envoy to his Complaynt of Mars and Venus (a a b a a b b a a b5); another on the model a b a b b c c b b b4is found in a poem Long Life (E. E. T. S., 49, p. 156, quoted in Metrik, i. p. 421).
Some of the Modern English stanzas again are formed by combination with different varieties of the tail-rhyme stanza, as e.g. one according to the formula a a b ~ c c b ~ d d e e4 in Prior, The Parallel (Poets, vii. 507):
A stanza of trochaic verses corresponding to a similar scheme, viz. a a b c c b d d d b4, is used by Tennyson in The Window (p. 284).
Sometimes the scheme is a b a b c c d e e d4 (where there are two pedes forming a frons, and a tail-rhyme stanza equivalent to two versus), as in Akenside, Book I, Ode II (Poets, ix. 773).
Some stanzas, on the other hand, have a parallel arrangement of rhymes, a a b b c c d d e E (e E being the cauda) as in Walter Scott, Soldier, Wake (p. 465); or more frequently crossed rhymes, a b a b c d c d e e5, a b a b c d c d e e4, the first eight verses forming the upsong (pedes); or with a four-lined upsong a a b b c d c d e e4, a a b b c d d e d e3, a b a b b c c d c D5. The last-mentioned form has been used several times by Swinburne, e.g. Poems, ii, pp. 126, 215, 219, &c., in his ballads. For specimens see Metrik, ii, §§ 379–81.
§ 272. Stanzas of eleven lines are very scarce in Middle English poetry, if used there at all, and even in Modern English very few examples occur. A stanza of Swinburne’s may be mentioned here, imitated from an Old French ballade- (or rather chant-royal) stanza, corresponding to the formula a b a b c c d d e d E5 and used in a Ballad against the Enemies of France (Poems, ii. 212). Cf. Metrik, ii, §382.
Twelve-lined stanzas are much more frequently used, even in Middle English poetry; one of four-foot verses according to the scheme a b a b a b a b b c b C (the stanzas being connected into groups by concatenatio) occurs in the fine fourteenth-century poem, The Pearl. Another of four-stressed verses corresponding to the formula a b a b a b a b c d c d we have in Wright’s Polit. Songs, p. 149; one of four-foot verses together with other forms of stanzas (a b a b a b a b a b a b, a b a b c d c d e f e f) we have in the poem on the Childhood of Christ (ed. Horstmann, Heilbronn, 1878).
But it is chiefly in Modern English poetry that stanzas of twelve lines are very common, especially stanzas consisting of three equal parts, with crossed rhymes. In some of these there is no difference at all in the structure of the three parts, as e.g. in a stanza by Prior (Poets, vii. 402) on the model a b a b c d c d e f e f4; while in others the refrain (consisting of the four last verses) forms the cauda, as e.g. in Moore’s Song on the Birthday of Mrs. ——:
Now and then certain modifications of this form of stanza are met with, especially stanzas the four-lined refrain of which forms not only the end, but also the beginning, of the stanza (but as a rule only in the first stanza, the others having the refrain only at the end); e.g. A B A B c d c d A B A B3 (st. 1), d e d e f g f g A B A B3. (st. 2), h i h i k l k l A B A B3 (st. 3), in Moore, Drink to her.
In other poems Moore uses this type of stanza with lines of four stresses, as in Drink of this cup, and with lines of two stresses, as in When the Balaika. For some rarely occurring stanzas of this kind see Metrik, ii, §§ 385, 386.
A stanza of thirteen lines corresponding to the formula a b a b b c b c d e e e d4 occurs in the Middle English poem The Eleven Pains of Hell (E. E. T. S., 49, p. 210). Another one on the scheme a ~ a ~ B c ~ c ~ B d ~ d ~ d ~ b e ~ e ~ B3 we have in Moore, Go where glory waits thee.
As to stanzas of fifteen and eighteen lines see Metrik, ii, § 387.
§ 273. As mentioned before (§ 267) the anisometrical stanzas of the tripartite class, being older, might have been dealt with before the isometrical stanzas. This chronological order of treatment, however, would have been somewhat inconvenient in practice, as it would have involved the necessity of discussing many of the more complicated stanzas before the shorter and simpler ones, most of which do not occur in Middle English, but in Modern poetry only. Moreover, the absence of certain simple and short forms of stanza constructed in accordance with the principles which were generally adopted in the Middle English period is a purely accidental circumstance, which is liable at any moment to be altered by the discovery of new texts.
In the following paragraphs, therefore, the stanzas belonging to this chapter are discussed according to their arrangement of rhymes and to the length of the lines of which they are composed.
We begin with certain stanzas of six lines, the first part (the frons or ‘upsong’) of which is isometrical, the arrangement of rhymes being parallel.
A pretty stanza with the scheme a a b b3 c c4 presents itself in the song The Fairy Queen (Percy’s Rel. III. ii. 26):
For similar stanzas conforming to the schemes a a b b4 c c5, a a b b c4 c5, a a b b c ~ c ~5, a a b b6 c ~ c ~5, a a b b c4 c3 (in Moore, The Wandering Bard), &c., see Metrik, ii, § 389.
Another group is represented by stanzas of six rhyming couplets of unequal length, as a5 a4 b5 b4 c5 c4 (Sidney, Psalm XXXIX), a6 a3 b6 b3 c6 c3 (id. Psalm II); or a5 a2 b5 b2 c c5, a4 a5 b4 b5 c c4, frequently used by Herbert and Cowley, or a5 a4 b b3 c5 c4, a a b4 b3 c c4 (in Moore, St. Senanus and the Lady), the two pedes enclosing the cauda (cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 390–2).
Similar stanzas with crossed rhymes occur pretty often, especially stanzas of three Septenary verses broken up by inserted rhyme, according to the formula a4 b ~3 a4 b ~3 a4 b ~3, as in Moore, The Gazelle:
For other specimens see Metrik, ii, § 393
§ 274. More popular are stanzas of a more distinctly tripartite character, formed on the scheme a b a b c c (which occurs also in the isometrical group). These stanzas are used in many various forms, as e. g. one in Cowper, Olney Hymns (p. 25), like a b a b3 c c4:
Numerous other examples are quoted in Metrik, ii, § 394, together with similar stanzas formed according to the schemes a b ~ a b ~3 c c4, a b a b3 C C4, a ~ b a ~ b3 c c5, a b a b4 c c5, a ~ b a ~ b4 c c6, &c.
The reverse order with regard to the length of the verses in the pedes and the cauda is also not uncommon, as e.g. in stanzas on the schemes a b a b c5 c4, a b a b c5 c3, a b a b5 c4 c5, &c.
Stanzas of this kind are met with chiefly in the earlier Modern English poets, e.g. in Cowley and Herbert. Shorter lines also are used, e.g. in stanzas corresponding to the formulas a b a b4 c c3, a b a b4 c c2; stanzas like these also occur later, e.g. in Moore. In Cowley, now and then, a stanza is found with a preceding frons (on the scheme a a5 b c b c4). In Moore we find yet another variety (in Poor broken flower), the cauda of which is enclosed by the pedes (according to the formula a ~ b5 c c3 a ~ b5).
Another group of stanzas is to be mentioned here, the verses of which are of different length in the first part, admitting of many various combinations. Especially stanzas of Septenary rhythm in the first part are very popular, as e.g. in Cowper’s fine poem The Castaway (p. 400), on the scheme a4 b3 a4 b3 c c4:
There are many varieties of this form of stanza, as e.g. a4 b3 a4 b3 c c5, a4 b3 a4 b3 c4 c5, a3 b2 a3 b2 c4 c5, a4 b2 a4 b2 c c4, a5 b4 a5 b4 c c5; a3 b4 a3 b4 c c4, a2 b4 a2 b4 c c5. All these different schemes were chiefly used by the earlier Modern English poets, as Browne, Carew, Cowley, Waller, and Herbert. (See Metrik, ii, § 397).
There are some other stanzas of allied structure which may be regarded as extensions of the Poulter’s Measure by the addition of a second Alexandrine or Septenary verse, their formulas being a b c b3 d4 d3 or a b3 c4 b3 d4 d3. For examples see Metrik, ii, § 398.
§ 275. Stanzas of seven lines are very common, and have many diverse forms. In the first place may be mentioned those which have parallel arrangement of rhymes, and in which the frons is isometrical. Some of these forms, used chiefly by the earlier poets, as Cowley, Sheffield, and others, have the scheme a a b b c4 c2 c5 or a a b b c4 c a5. Another variety, with alternate four-and two-foot iambic-anapaestic lines according to the formula a a b b4 r r2 R4, occurs in Moore, The Legend of Puck the Fairy:
Stanzas with an anisometrical first part, e.g. on the model a4 a5 b4 b5 c c4 c5in Donne, Love’s Exchange (Poets, iv. 30), are of rare occurrence.
Numerous stanzas of this kind have in part crossed rhymes; we find, e. g., stanzas with the same order of rhymes as in the rhyme royal, on the model a b a b b c3 c5 as in S. Daniel, A Description of Beauty:
Similar stanzas have the schemes a b a b b3 c c5, a b a b c b4 c2, a b a b c c4 R2, a b a b c c4 C5, a b a b c c4 b3, a b a b4 c c2 a4, &c. For examples see Metrik, ii, §§ 401–3.
In many stanzas the first and the last part (frons and cauda) are anisometrical. Thus Donne, Cowley, and Congreve furnish many examples of the formulas a5 b4 a5 b4 c c4 b5, a ~4 b6 a ~4 b5 c c3 c4, a4 b5 a4 b5 c c2 b4, and later poets make frequent use of similar stanzas composed of shorter lines after the model of the following by Congreve, Poets, vii. 546 (a4 b ~3 a4 b ~3 c c4 b ~3):
For examples of other similar stanzas (a4 b3 a4 b3 c c b3, a4 b3 a4 b3 C C3 C5, a3 b4 a3 b4 c c c4, a4 b ~2 a4 b ~2 c c a4, &c.) see Metrik, ii, §§ 404–6.
§ 276. Eight-lined stanzas of various kinds are also very popular. They rarely occur, however, with an isometrical frons, composed of rhyming couplets (a a b b c c d5 d3, a ~ a ~ b ~ b ~4 C ~ C ~2 d ~ d ~4, a a b b c c d4 d5; cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 408, 410); or with enclosing rhymes in the cauda (a a b b c d d4 c5, a a b b4 c d4 d2 c4, ib. § 409); or of an anisometrical structure with parallel rhymes in both parts (ib. § 411).
The usual forms show crossed rhymes; either throughout the whole stanza (in which case the first part is isometrical), or in the first part only. The first form is represented by the following elegant stanza (a b a b5 c4 d ~3 c4 d ~3) in the second of Drayton’s Eclogues (Poets, iii. 590):