I leaned on the turf,
I looked at a rock
Left dry by the surf;
For the turf, to call it grass were to mock;
Dead to the roots, so deep was done
The work of the summer sun.

For stanzas on the schemes a4 b1 a4 b2 C D2, a b a4 c3 c b2 see ibid. § 464

§ 289. Among seven-line stanzas, both in earlier (Ph. Fletcher, S. Daniel, &c.) and more recent poets (Mrs. Browning, Swinburne, R. Browning, D.G. Rossetti), those which are entirely isometrical occur often. One on the model a b b a b b a5 is met with in S. Daniel’s Epistle to the Angel Spirit of the most excellent Sir Philip Sidney (Poets, iii. 228):

To thee, pure spir’t, to thee alone addrest
Is this joint work, by double int’rest thine:
Thine by thine own, and what is done of mine
Inspir’d by thee, thy secret pow’r imprest:
My muse with thine itself dar’d to combine,
As mortal stuff with that which is divine:
Let thy fair beams give lustre to the rest.

Specimens of stanzas on the schemes a b b a c c c4, a b b a b b a4, a b b a a c c3, a b b a a c c5, a b b a c c a5, and a b c c d d d4, are given in Metrik, ii, §456.

Anisometrical stanzas on the model a b b a in the first part occur only in single examples, one corresponding to the scheme a b b a4 b2 c c4 found in Milton, Arcades, Song I; and another of the form a3 b b5 a3 c c a5 in Mrs. Hemans, The Festal Hour (ii. 247); cf. Metrik, ii, § 466.

Sometimes quite anisometrical stanzas with parallel rhymes occur, especially in the earlier poets, as e.g. in Wyatt, Suckling, Cowley; a stanza of Cowley’s poem, The Thief (Poets, v. 263), has the formula a5 a b b c c4 c5:

What do I seek, alas! or why do I
Attempt in vain from thee to fly?
For, making thee my deity,
I give thee then ubiquity,
My pains resemble hell in this,
The Divine Presence there, too, is,
But to torment men, not to give them bliss.

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 therhyme 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).

Sometimes an unequal part is inserted between two parts of a somewhat similar structure, as in a stanza with the formula a a b c b c d4 d5 in Byron, Translation from Horace (p. 89):

The man of firm and noble soul
No factious clamours can control;
No threat’ning tyrant’s darkling brow
Can swerve him from his just intent;
Gales the warring waves which plough,
By Auster on the billows spent,
To curb the Adriatic main,
Would awe his fix’d, determined mind in vain.

Other stanzas correspond to the schemes a a5 . b b c c3 . d ~ d ~4, a5 a3 a4 . b b4 . c c4 c5, a b5 b3 . a4 a . c c c5, a3 a . b c b c . d d5, a a4 . b4 c ~ c ~2 . d d2 b4, and a5 a2 . b b5 . c c c5 c2. All these forms are met with in earlier poets, as e.g. Donne, Drayton, and Cowley; for specimen see Metrik, ii, § 471

§ 291. A quadripartite structure is sometimes observable in stanzas with four rhymes, especially with a parallel or crossed order, or both combined, as e.g. in a poem by Donne, The Damp (Poets, iv. 37), the scheme being a5 a4 b b5 c c4 d d5:

When I am dead, and doctors know not why,
And my friends’ curiosity
Will have me cut up, to survey each part,
And they shall find your picture in mine heart;
You think a sudden Damp of love
Will through all their senses move,
And work on them as me, and so prefer
Your murder to the name of massacre.

For stanzas of different structure on similar models cf. Metrik, ii, § 472 (a5 a b3 b c5 d3 c2 d4, a5 a b2 b c5 c2 d4 d5, a5 a3 b b5 c c4 d d5, a b a4 b5 c c4 d d5, a a5 b b c d c4 d5, and a4 b5 a4 b3 c d4 c2 d4).

There are other stanzas of this kind which occur in earlier poets, as e. g. Donne, Cowley, and Dryden, or in some of those of later date, as Southey, R. Browning, and Rossetti, one half-stanza having enclosing rhymes and the whole stanza partaking of a tripartite structure. We find, e.g. the form A b b a c d c4 d3 in D. G. Rossetti, A Little While (i. 245):

A little while a little love
The hour yet bears for thee and me
Who have not drawn the veil to see,
If still our heaven be lit above.
Thou merely, at the day’s last sigh,
Hast felt thy soul prolong the tone;
And I have heard the night-wind cry
And deemed its speech mine own.

Other similar stanzas correspond to the formulas a a b5 b4 c5 d d4 c5, a5 b b4 a5 c c4 d d5, a4 b b2 a c4 d d2 c3, and a5 b3 a b5 c3 d d5 c3; for examples see Metrik, ii, § 474. Stanzas on the model a ~ b c a ~ c4 B2 d4 D2, or on a b c ~2 d d a b c ~4, are found only in single examples (cf. Metrik, ii, § 476)

§ 292. The most important of the Modern English eight-lined stanzas, however, is an isometrical one on a foreign model, viz. a stanza of hendecasyllabic or rather five-foot verses corresponding to the Italian ottava rima, on the scheme a b a b a b c c. This stanza, which has always been very popular in Italian poetry, was introduced into English by Wyatt and Surrey; in Surrey we have only an isolated specimen, in To his Mistress (p. 32):

If he that erst the form so lively drew
Of Venus’ face, triumph’d in painter’s art;
Thy Father then what glory did ensue,
By whose pencil a Goddess made thou art,
Touched with flame that figure made some rue,
And with her love surprised many a heart.
There lackt yet that should cure their hot desire:
Thou canst inflame and quench the kindled fire.

The stanza was often used by Wyatt, Sidney, and Spenser for reflective poems, and by Drayton and Daniel for epic poems of some length. In modern literature it has been used by Frere, Byron (Beppo, Don Juan), Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Longfellow, and others (cf. Metrik, ii, § 579).

§ 293. Stanzas of nine lines either show a combination of parallel with crossed or enclosing rhymes, as in the forms a a b c b c d d d4, a5 b a4 b5 b5 c4 c5 d d5 (Rhyme-Royal + rhyming couplet), a b5 b a4 c3 c c d d5, a4 a b b5 c4 c5 d4 d d5, a4 b a3 c4 b3 d b c4 D1 &c. (for specimens see Metrik, ii, §§ 477 and 479), or, in some of the later poets, they consist of parts of modified tail-rhyme stanzas combined with other forms, as in the following stanza (a ~3 b4 a ~ b3 c c2 d3 a ~ d3) of a song by Moore:

Love thee, dearest? love thee?
Yes, by yonder star I swear,
Which thro’ tears above thee
Shines so sadly fair;
Though often dim,
With tears, like him,
Like him my truth will shine,
And—love thee, dearest? love thee?
Yes, till death I’m thine.

Other stanzas of Moore and others have the formulas a a b a b c c c4 d3 (Burns, p. 216), a b ~ a a4 b ~3 c d d4 c3, a a b4 c2 b4 c2 d d4 c2, a4 b3 a a4 c ~3 c ~ d ~ d ~2 b3 &c. (cf. Metrik, ii, § 478)

§ 294. The ten-line stanzas are also based mostly on a combination of earlier strophic systems. Thus in Campbell’s well-known poem, Ye Mariners of England (p. 71), the Poulter’s Measure rhythm is observable, the scheme being a ~ b3 c4 d3 . e4 f3 . e2 F3 G4 F3:

Ye Mariners of England!
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved, a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!
Your glorious standard launch again
To match another foe!
And sweep through the deep,
While the stormy winds do blow;
While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.

Similar stanzas occurring in the works of earlier poets, as Sidney and Spenser, correspond to the schemes a6 b a b b5 c c4 d2 b5 d2, a5 a2 b ~ c b ~ c D ~ D ~ E E3, &c. But generally speaking most of the earlier poets, as e.g. Donne, Cowley, and Suckling, prefer a simpler order of rhymes, the schemes being a a3 b b . c5 c c4 . d d d5, a4 a b b5 c c4 d d e e5, a5 a a2 b b c d d3 e e5, &c.; the more modern poets (Moore, Wordsworth, Swinburne), on the other hand, are fond of somewhat more complicated forms, as a4 b ~ b ~2 a a4 c ~ c ~2 d a d4, a b a4 b3 c c5 d e3 d4 e3, a b b4 a3 c d d e d4 d3, &c. (For specimens cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 480, 481.) A fine form of stanza corresponding to the formula a b c b c5 a3 d e e d5 is used by M. Arnold in his poem The Scholar Gipsy, and another on the scheme a a3 b c c b5 d3 e d e5 in Westminster Abbey, p. 479.

§ 295. Stanzas of eleven lines do not frequently occur in earlier poetry, and for the most part simple forms are employed, e.g. a b4 a b c d5 c d4 e e5 e4, a5 a b4 b5 c4 d3 c4 d3 e e4 e5, a a b b4 c3 d5 d3 c e e e5, &c.; the more recent poets, however, as Moore, Wordsworth, and R. Browning, have usually preferred a more intricate arrangement, as a ~ b c ~ d d a ~ b c ~2 e e e4, a b c4 b3 d e f f4 e3 g g4, a4 b3 a b c4 d3 c4 d3 e2 e3 e4. The last scheme occurs in a song by Moore:

How happy once, tho’ wing’d with sighs,
My moments flew along,
While looking on those smiling eyes,
And list’ning to thy magic song!
But vanish’d now, like summer dreams,
Those moments smile no more;
For me that eye no longer beams,
That song for me is o’er.
Mine the cold brow,
That speaks thy alter’d vow,
While others feel thy sunshine now.

§ 296. Stanzas of twelve lines are more frequent, possibly on account of the symmetrical arrangement of the stanza in equal parts, twelve being divisible by three. They are constructed on different models, e.g. a a5 b3 b a5 c3 d5 d c4 c5 e e5, a a4 b ~ b ~ c3 c2 d3 d2 e f3 f1 e3, a4 b2 b1 a3 c ~4 d ~4 c ~2 e ~ e ~ f ~ f ~3 (bob-verse stanzas), a b4 c ~ c ~2 a4 b3 d d e4 f2 f4 e5, &c., occurring in earlier poets, such as Donne, Browne, Dryden, &c. Similar stanzas, partly of a simpler structure (a b b a5 a6 c c4 b5 d d e4 e5,a ~ b a ~ b3 c c4 d d3 e ~ f3 e ~ f2, and a a4 b2 c c4 b1 b4 a2 D E ~ F E4 ~), are found in modern poetry; the last scheme, resembling the tail-rhyme stanza, occurring in Tennyson (p. 12):

A spirit haunts the year’s last hours
Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers:
To himself he talks;
For at eventide, listening earnestly,
At his work you may hear him sob and sigh
In the walks;
Earthward he boweth the heavy stalks
Of the mouldering flowers:
Heavily hangs the broad sunflower
Over its grave i’ the earth so chilly;
Heavily hangs the hollyhock,
Heavily hangs the tiger-lily.

Many other examples are quoted in Metrik, ii, §§ 484–6. For several stanzas of a still greater extent, but of rare occurrence, which need not be mentioned in this handbook, see ibid., §§ 487–90.

CHAPTER VII
THE SPENSERIAN STANZA AND FORMS DERIVED FROM IT

§ 297. One of the most important Modern English stanzas is the Spenserian, so called after its inventor. This stanza, like the forms discussed in the last chapter, but in a still greater degree, is based on an older type. For it is not, as is sometimes said, derived from the Italian ottava rima (cf. § 292), but, as was pointed out by Guest (ii. 389), from a Middle English eight-lined popular stanza of five-foot verses with rhymes on the formula a b a b b c b c, which was modelled in its turn on a well-known Old French ballade-stanza (cf. § 269). To this stanza Spenser added a ninth verse of six feet rhyming with the eighth line, an addition which was evidently meant to give a very distinct and impressive conclusion to the stanza.

As a specimen the first stanza of the first book of the Faerie Queene, where it was used for the first time, may be quoted here:

A gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
The cruell markes of many a bloody fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield.
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:
Full jolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

This euphonious stanza became very popular and has been used by many of the chief Modern English poets, as e.g. by Thomson, The Castle of Indolence; Shenstone, The School-Mistress; Burns, The Cotter’s Saturday Night; Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage; Shelley, The Revolt of Islam.

The great influence it had on the development of the different forms of stanza, especially in the earlier Modern English period, is proved by the numerous imitations and analogous formations which arose from it.

§ 298. All the imitations have this in common that they consist of a series of two to ten five-foot lines followed by a concluding line of six (or rarely seven) feet.

John Donne, Phineas Fletcher, and Giles Fletcher were, it seems, the inventors of those varieties of stanza, the shortest of which consist of three or four lines on the schemes a a5 a6, a b a5 b6, and were used by Rochester, Upon Nothing (Poets, iv. 413), and Cowper (p. 406). A stanza of five lines, however, on the model a b a b5 b6 occurs in Phineas Fletcher’s Eclogue II.

The favourite six-lined stanza with the formula a b a b c c5 (cf. § 267, p. 327) was often transformed into a quasi-Spenserian stanza a b a b c5 c6 by adding one foot to the last line, as e.g. by Dodsley in On the Death of Mr. Pope (Poets, xi. 103), Southey, The Chapel Bell (ii. 143), and others; cf. Metrik, ii, § 493.

It was changed into a stanza of seven lines on the scheme a b a b c c5 c6 by Donne, The Good Morrow (Poets, iv. 24) by the addition of a seventh line rhyming with the two preceding lines.

Much more artistic taste is shown by the transformation of the seven-lined rhyme royal stanza a b a b b c c5 (cf. § 268) into a quasi-Spenserian stanza a b a b b c5 c6 in Milton’s On the Death of a Fair Infant.

By the addition of a new line rhyming with the last couplet this form was developed into the eight-lined stanza a b a b b c c5 c6 employed in Giles Fletcher’s Christ’s Victory and Triumph.

Omitting some rarer forms (cf. Metrik, ii, § 495) we may mention that Phineas Fletcher transformed the ottava rima a b a b a b c c5 into a quasi-Spenserian stanza of the form a b a b a b c5 c6, and that he also extended the same stanza to one of nine lines (a b a b a b c c5 c6) by adding one verse more. Other nine-line quasi-Spenserian stanzas occurring occasionally in modern poets, e.g. Mrs. Hemans, Shelley, and Wordsworth, correspond to a b a a b b c c5 c6, a b a b c d c d5 d6, a b a b c c b d5 d6, a a b b c c d d5 d6. (For specimens see Metrik, ii, § 496.) A stanza of ten lines on the scheme a b a b c d c d e5 e6 was invented by Prior for his Ode to the Queen (Poets, vii. 440); but it is not, as he thought, an improved, but only a simplified form of the old Spenserian scheme:

When great Augustus govern’d ancient Rome,
And sent his conquering bands to foreign wars;
Abroad when dreaded, and belov’d at home,
He saw his fame increasing with his years;
Horace, great bard! (so fate ordain’d) arose,
And, bold as were his countrymen in fight,
Snatch’d their fair actions from degrading prose,
And set their battles in eternal light:
High as their trumpets’ tune his lyre he strung,
And with his prince’s arms he moraliz’d his song.

This stanza has been used by some subsequent poets, e.g. by Chatterton, who himself invented a similar imitation of the old Spenserian form, viz. a b a b b a b a c5 c6. Other stanzas of ten lines are a b a b b c d c d5 d6, a b b a c d d c e5 e6, a b a b c c d e e5 d6. (For specimens see Metrik, ii, § 497.) A stanza of eleven lines on the scheme a b a b c d c d c d5 d6 occurs in Wordsworth in the Cuckoo-clock (viii. 161)

§ 299. Amongst the stanzaic formations analogous to the Spenserian stanza, which for the most part were invented by the poets just mentioned, two different groups are to be distinguished; firstly, stanzas the body of which consists of four-foot (seldom three-foot) verses, a six-foot final verse being added to them either immediately or preceded by a five-foot verse; secondly, stanzas of anisometrical structure in the principal part, the end-verse being of six or sometimes of seven feet.

The stanzas of the first group consist of four to ten lines, and have the following formulas: four-lined stanzas, a b c4 b6 (Wordsworth); five lines, a b a b3 b6 (Shelley); six lines, a b a a b3 b6 (Ben Jonson), a b a b4 c5 c6 (Wordsworth, Coleridge), a a3 b5 c c3 b6 (R. Browning); seven lines, a ~ b b a ~ c c4 c7 (Mrs. Browning); eight lines, a b a b c c d4 d6 (Gray, Wordsworth), a a b b c c d4 d6 (John Scott), a a b b c c4 d5 d6 (Coleridge); nine lines, a b a b c d c4 d5 c6 and a b a b c c d d4 d6 (Akenside), a b a b b c b c4 c6 (Shelley, Stanzas written in Dejection, i. 370); ten lines, a b a b c d c d4 e5 e6 (Whitehead).

As an example we quote a stanza of nine lines from Shelley’s poem mentioned above:

I see the Deep’s untrampled floor
With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore,
Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
I sit upon the sands alone,
The lightning of the noon-tide ocean
Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

For other examples see Metrik, ii, §§ 499–503..

§ 300. Greater variety is found in the second group; they have an extent of four up to sixteen lines and mostly occur in poets of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries (Donne, Ben Jonson, Cowley, Rowe, Akenside, &c.), rarely in the nineteenth century. Stanzas of four lines are, a5 a b4 b6 (Poets, v. 236), a a4 b5 b6 (ib. xi. 1207); of five lines, a5 a b3 b4 a6 (ib. v. 281), a b a5 b4 b6 (ib. ix. 312), &c.; of six lines, a4 b5 a4 b c5 c6 (ib. xi. 130), a4 b3 a4 b3 c5 c6 (ib. x. 722), a a4 b3 c c4 b6 (ib. xi. 1070; tail-rhyme stanza), a b5 a4 b c5 c6 (Tennyson, The Third of February); of seven lines, a3 b5 b3 a4 c c3 c6 (Poets, v. 413), a b a b5 b3 c5 c6 (Mrs. Hemans, Easter Day, vii. 165, with rhymes in the rhyme royal order; of eight lines, a a3 b5 c c3 b5 d4 d6 (Milton, Hymn on the Nativity, ii. 400; tail-rhyme + d4 d6), a5 b2 a b5 c3 d5 c3 d7 (Poets, iv. 36), a5 a4 b b5 c d c4 d6 (ib. v. 432), a b4 b c a5 d d4 c6 (ib. ix. 794), a b a b c5 c3 d5 d6, and a b5 a4 b3 c5 d4 d3 c6 (Wordsworth, Artegal and Elidure, vi. 47, and ’Tis said that some have died for love, ii. 184, beginning with the second stanza).

The following stanza from the last-mentioned poem may serve as a specimen:

Oh move, thou Cottage, from behind that oak!
Or let the aged tree uprooted lie,
That in some other way yon smoke
May mount into the sky:
The clouds pass on; they from the heavens depart.
I look—the sky is empty space;
I know not what I trace;
But when I cease to look, my hand is on my heart.

Stanzas of nine lines, especially occurring in Donne, have the formulas a b b5 a3 c c c4 d5 d6 (Poets, iv. 29), a a b b c5 c d4 d5 d7 (ib. 36), a2 b b a5 c c2 d d5 d7 (ib. 31), a a b b b5 c d d4 c6 (ib. vii. 142), &c.; of ten lines, a a4 b b c c5 d4 d d5 d6 (ib. iv. 28), a a b c c4 b2 d e d5 e6 (ib. ix. 788), a b a b5 c c d d4 e5 e6 (Shelley, Phantasm of Jupiter in Prometheus Unbound); of twelve lines, a b a b5 c c d d e e5 f5 f6 (Poets, xi. 588); of thirteen lines, a b ~4 a5 b ~3 c4 c5 d d2 e5 e2 f5 e2 f6 (Ben Jonson, Ode to James, Earl of Desmond, ib. iv. 572); of fifteen lines, a b a b c5 d d4 d6 c e c e d f5 f6 (Shelley, Ode to Liberty, i. 360–9); of sixteen lines, a b a b a b a b5 c c3 b5 d d3 b5 e4 e6 (Swinburne, New-Year Ode to Victor Hugo (Midsummer Holiday, pp. 39–63).

This last stanza has an exceedingly fine structure, consisting of an isometrical first part and an anisometrical tail-rhyme stanza + an anisometrical rhyming couplet, forming the last part:

Twice twelve times have the springs of years refilled
Their fountains from the river-head of time,
Since by the green sea’s marge, ere autumn chilled
Waters and woods with sense of changing clime,
A great light rose upon my soul, and thrilled
My spirit of sense with sense of spheres in chime,
Sound as of song wherewith a God would build
Towers that no force of conquering war might climb.
Wind shook the glimmering sea
Even as my soul in me
Was stirred with breath of mastery more sublime,
Uplift and borne along
More thunderous tides of song,
Where wave rang back to wave more rapturous rhyme
And world on world flashed lordlier light
Than ever lit the wandering ways of ships by night.

The three stanzas last quoted, as well as some of the shorter ones occurring in Akenside, Rowe, &c., were also used for odes, and in this way the affinity of formations like these with the odic stanzas to be discussed in the next chapter becomes apparent.

CHAPTER VIII
THE EPITHALAMIUM STANZA AND OTHER ODIC STANZAS

§ 301. The Spenserian stanza stands in unmistakable connexion with Spenser’s highly artistic and elaborate Epithalamium stanza (Globe Ed. 587–91) inasmuch as the last line, That all the woods may answer and their echo ring, repeated in each stanza as a burden together with the word sing which ends the preceding verse, has six measures, the rest of the stanza consisting of three- and five-foot lines.

Like the Spenserian stanza, the Epithalamium stanza has given rise to numerous imitations.

It cannot be said that one fixed form of stanza is employed throughout the whole extent of Spenser’s Epithalamium. It rather consists of two main forms of stanza, viz. one of eighteen lines (st. i, ii, iv, v, vi, x, xvi, xxi, xxiii), and one of nineteen lines (st. iii, vii, viii, ix, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xvii, xviii, xix, xx, xxii), whereas one stanza, the fifteenth, has only seventeen lines. In the arrangement of rhymes there are also sporadic varieties: cf. e.g. iv and ix.

The arrangement of verse, however, is always similar in both groups. The main part of the stanza consists of five-foot verses, the succession of which is interrupted three times by three-foot ones, the final verse of the stanza having six measures. In the stanza of eighteen lines the usual arrangement is a b a b c5 c3 d c d e5 e3 f g g f5 g3 r5 R6. In those of nineteen lines it is a b a b c5 c3 d c d e5 e3 f g g f h5 h3 r5 R6. The scheme of the stanza of seventeen lines is a b a b c5 c3 d c d e f f g h5 h3 r5 R6.

The two following stanzas (ii, iii) may be quoted as specimens of the two chief forms:

Early, before the worlds light-giving lampe
His golden beame upon the hils doth spred,
Having disperst the nights unchearefull dampe,
Doe ye awake; and, with fresh lustyhed,
Go to the bowre of my beloved love,
My truest turtle dove;
Bid her awake; for Hymen is awake,
And long since ready forth his maske to move,
With his bright Tead that flames with many a flake,
And many a bachelor to waite on him,
In theyr fresh garments trim.
Bid her awake therefore, and soone her dight,
For lo! the wished day is come at last,
That shall, for all the paynes and sorrowes past,
Pay to her usury of long delight:
And, whylest she doth her dight,
Doe ye to her of joy and solace sing,
That all the woods may answer, and your eccho ring.
Bring with you all the Nymphes that you can heare
Both of the rivers and the forrests greene,
And of the sea that neighbours to her neare;
Al with gay girlands goodly wel beseene.
And let them also with them bring in hand
Another gay girland,
For my fayre love, of lillyes and of roses,
Bound truelove wize, with a blue silke riband.
And let them make great store of bridal poses,
And let them eeke bring store of other flowers
To deck the bridale bowers.
And let the ground whereas her foot shall tread,
For feare the stones her tender foot should wrong,
Be strewed with fragrant flowers all along,
And diapred lyke the discoloured mead.
Which done, doe at her chamber dore awayt,
For she will waken strayt;
The whiles doe ye this song unto her sing,
The woods shall to you answer, and your Eccho ring.

These stanzas evidently consist of three or four unequal parts, the two first parts (ll. 1–6, 7–11) being connected by rhyme. There is a certain similarity between them, the chief difference being that the second pes, as we may call it, is shortened by one verse. With the third part, a new system of verses rhyming together commences, forming a kind of last part (downsong or cauda); and as the final couplet of the stanza is generally closely connected in sense with this, the assumption of a tripartite division of the stanza is preferable to that of a quadripartite division.

§ 302. Stanzas of this kind have also been used by later poets in similar poems. But all these imitations of the Epithalamium stanza are shorter than their model. As to their structure, some of them might also be ranked among the irregular Spenserian stanzas, as they agree with those in having a longer final verse of six or seven measures. But as a rule, they have—not to speak of the similarity of theme—the combination of three- and five-foot verses in the principal part, on the model, it seems, of Spenser’s Epithalamium stanza.

Stanzas of this kind (eight lines up to fourteen) occur in Donne and Ben Jonson; the schemes being—

of eight lines: a b a b5 c3 c2 d3 d6 (Poets, iv. 588);
of eleven lines: a5 a b4 b5 c3 c d d e e5 E7 (ib. iv. 19);
of twelve lines: a4 a b c c b d e5 e3 d f5 F6 (ib. 16);
of fourteen lines: a5 a b4 b5 c3 d d c5 e4 e f f g5 G6 (ib. 15).

For specimens see Metrik, ii, § 512.

Stanzas similar in subject and structure, but without the longer end-verse, may be treated here, as well as some odic stanzas similar in structure (9–18 lines) and in theme, occurring in earlier poets, as e.g. Sidney, Spenser, John Donne, Samuel Daniel, Ben Jonson, Drummond, and Milton. In Modern English poetry there are only some few examples of such stanzas to be met with in translations of Italian canzones; e.g. in Leigh Hunt. The schemes are as follows. Stanzas of nine lines, a b a b5 b c3 c5 d3 D5 (Sidney, Arcadia, p. 388); of ten lines, a a3 b5 b3 c5 c d d3 e e5 (Ben Jonson, Ode to himself, Poets, iv. 607); of eleven lines, a a4 b3 b4 c3 c5 D3 D2 E3 E2 d5 (ib. 611); of twelve lines, a2 b5 b2 a c c5 d d3 e5 f3 f5 e2 (ib. 572), a3 a b5 b3 c c5 d3 d e5 e3 f f5 (Drummond, ib. 664); of thirteen lines, a b3 a5 c b3 c5 c d e e3 d5 f3 f5 (Sidney, Arcadia, p. 394), a b3 c5 a b3 c5 c d e e3 d5 f3 f5 (S. Daniel, The Pastoral, Poets, iv. 225), agreeing in form with the eleventh of Petrarch’s canzones, Chiare, fresche e dolci acque, translated by Leigh Hunt (p. 394) on the scheme, a a3 b5 c c3 b5 b d d3 e4 e5 f4 f5; of fourteen lines, a b c b a c c5 d d3 c e5 f3 f2 e3 (Milton, Upon the Circumcision, ii. 408); of eighteen lines, a b b a5 a3 c d c d5 d3 e e f e5 f f3 G G5 (Spenser, Prothalamium, p. 605). For examples of these stanzas, partly formed on the model of the Italian canzones, see Metrik, ii, §§ 512–15

§ 303. The English odic stanzas have been influenced too, although only in a general way, by the anisometrical structure of the Greek odes. This, however, was only to a slight extent the case in the so-called Pindaric Odes, as the metres usually employed in them were essentially the same, and retained in their composition the same anisometrical character exhibited by the odic stanzas considered in the preceding paragraphs.

There are, however, two groups of Pindaric Odes, viz. Regular and Irregular, and it is chiefly the latter group to which the preceding remark refers.

The irregular odes were possibly modelled on certain non-strophical poems or hymns, consisting of anisometrical verses throughout, with an entirely irregular system of rhymes. We have an example of them already in the poems of Donne, the inventor or imitator of some odic stanzas mentioned in the previous paragraph; it is in his poem The Dissolution (Poets, iv. 38) consisting of twenty-two rhyming verses of two to seven measures on the model

a3 b4 c5 d ~3 b4 a c5 d ~3 e4 e5 f3 f5 e5 g4 g5 h3 h4 i i5 k3 l2 l k5 k7.

A similar form is found in Milton’s poems On Time (ii. 411) and At a Solemn Music (ii. 412). Other examples taken from later poets are quoted in Metrik, ii, § 523. M. Arnold’s poems The Voice (second half) (p. 36) and Stagirius (p. 38) likewise fall under this head.

To the combined influence of the earlier somewhat lengthy unstrophical odes on the one hand, and of the shorter, strophical ones also composed of anisometrical verses on the other, we have possibly to trace the particular odic form which was used by Cowley when he translated, or rather paraphrased, the Odes of Pindar. Owing to Cowley’s popularity, this form came much into fashion afterwards through his numerous imitators, and it is much in vogue even at the present day.

The characteristic features of Cowley’s free renderings and imitations of Pindar’s odes are, in the first place, that he dealt very freely with the matter of his Greek original, giving only the general sense with arbitrary omissions and additions; and, in the second place, he paid no attention to the characteristic strophic structure of the original, which is a system of stanzas recurring in the same order till the end of the poem, and consisting of two stanzas of identical form, the strophe and antistrophe, followed by a third, the epode, entirely differing from the two others in structure. In this respect Cowley did not even attempt to imitate the original poems, the metres of which were very imperfectly understood till long after his time.

Hence there is a very great difference between the originals and the English translations of Cowley, a difference which is clear even to the eye from the inequality of the number of stanzas and the number of verses in them.

§ 304. The first Nemean ode, e.g. consists of four equal parts, each one being formed of a strophe and antistrophe of seven lines, and of a four-lined epode; twelve stanzas in all. Cowley’s translation, on the other hand, has only nine stanzas, each of an entirely different structure, their schemes being as follows:

I. a a5 b b4 c3 c d6 d4 e e3 e f4 f5 g4 g5, 15 l.
II. a a4 b3 b4 b5 c4 c3 c5 d4 d5 e e4 f3 f3 e5, 15 l.
III. a5 b3 b4 a a5 c3 c4 d e e3 d f ~4 f ~6 g4 g5 g7, 16 l.
IV. a5 a b b4 b c c c5 d3 d5 e e4 e6, 13 l.
V. a a b b c5 c4 c5 d4 e d5 e f f4 g5 g6, 15 l.
VI. a a5 b4 b5 c6 d5 d4 c e f5 f4 f5 g4 g e h5 h7, 17 l.
VII. a5 a3 b5 b4 b5 c3 c6 d4 e3 e6 d5 f f g4 g7, 15 l.
VIII. a2 a b5 b3 c4 c6 d5 d e4 e3 f f4 g6 g h4 h6, 16 l.
IX. a4 a5 b4 b c6 c d4 d5 d e3 e6, 11 l.

Cowley’s own original stanzas and those of his numerous imitators are of a similar irregular and arbitrary structure; cf. Cowley’s ode Brutus (Poets, v. 303), which has the following stanzaic forms:

I. a4 a b5 b4 c c5 c4 c5 d6 d d5 d4 d5 d6, 14 l.
II. a b a a b5 b4 c c d d5 d3 d e4 e5 f3 g3 g4 f6, 17 l.
III. a3 a5 b4 b6 c5 c d4 d d e e5 f f4 g ~5 g ~6, 15 l.
IV. a a a5 b3 b4 a5 a a4 b5 c4 c d5 d4 e6 e5 f4 f6, 17 l.
V. a b5 b4 a6 c2 c5 c4 a c5 c6 d d e4 e5 f3 f g g5 h h4 i i5 i4,, 23 l.

Waller’s ode Upon modern Critics (Poets, v. 650) has the following stanzaic forms:

I. a b b4 a c5 c d4 d5 d4 e f5 f f4 e5 f4 g g h5 i3 i h4 k5 k6, 23 l.
II. a a4 b3 b c c d4 d5 e f f g4 g5 e3 h i4 i5 h k k4, 23 l.
III. a a b b c4 c5 d d e e f f4 e3 f e g4 h5 h g i4 i6,, 21 l.
IV. a b b a4 c c5 d3 d4 e5 d4 d f5 f4 g g5 h4 h5 i i5,, 19 l.
V. a a b b c4 d5 c3 d e5 e6 f5 f4 g5 g h h4 i3 i6,, 18 l.
VI. a4 b3 a b a c c d4 d6 e e4 f f g5 g4 g h5 h i4 i6,, 20 l.

All the stanzas are of unequal length and consist of the most various verses (of three, four, mostly five, even six and seven measures) and arrangements of rhymes. Parallel rhymes are very common; but sometimes we have crossed, enclosing, and other kinds of rhyme, as e.g. the system of the Italian terzina. A characteristic feature is that at the end of the stanza very often three parallel rhymes occur, and that, as a rule, the stanza winds up with a somewhat longer line of six or seven measures, as in the Spenserian and the Epithalamium stanza; but sometimes we also find a short final verse.

To these Irregular Pindaric Odes, besides, belong Dryden’s celebrated odes Threnodia Augustalis and Alexander’s Feast, the latter having a more lyrical form, with a short choral strophe after each main stanza; and Pope’s Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day. A long list of references to similar poems from Cowley to Tennyson is given in Metrik, ii, §§ 516–22; amongst these different forms the rhymeless odic stanzas occurring in Dr. Sayers (Dramatic Sketches), Southey (e.g. Thalaba) and Shelley (Queen Mab) are noticeable.

§ 305. To these Irregular Pindaric Odes strong opposition was raised by the dramatist Congreve, who in a special Discourse on the Pindaric Ode (Poets, vii. 509) proved that Pindar’s odes were by no means formed on the model of such an arbitrary strophic structure as that of the so-called Pindaric Odes which had hitherto been popular in English poetry. To refute this false view he explained and emphasized their actual structure (see § 303), which he imitated himself in his Pindaric Ode addressed to the Queen, written soon after May 20, 1706, and composed in anisometrical rhyming verses. He was mistaken, however, in thinking that he was the first to make this attempt in English. Nearly a hundred years before him, Ben Jonson had imitated Pindar’s odic form on exactly the same principles; in his Ode Pindaric to the memory of Sir Lucius Carey and Sir H. Morison (Poets, iv. 585) we have the strophe (turn), antistrophe (counter-turnnd the epode (stand), recurring four times (cf. Metrik, ii, § 525). Ben Jonson, however, found no followers; so that his attempt had remained unknown even to Congreve. The regular Pindaric Odes by this poet, on the other hand, called forth a great many imitations of a similar kind and structure. For this reason the first three stanzas of Congreve’s Pindaric Ode (Poets, vii. 570) may be quoted here as an example, the scheme of the strophe and antistrophe being a a5 b3 c c4 b5 b6, that of the epode a b a b4 c5 d4 c3 d4 e4 e f g3 g4 f5:

The Strophe.