Four measures:

V.

Oh húsh thee, my bábie, thy síre was a knight,

Thy móther a lády both lovely and bright:

The woods and the gléns and the towers which we seé,
They all are bélonging, dear bábie, to theé.-SCOTT.

Accent.-On the 3rd, 6th, &c., syllables.

And the sparkles they flásh from their éyes.-DRYDEN.

Four measures:

And the king seized a flambeau with zeál to destroy.—DRYDEN.

§ 272. Lines or verses grouped together constitute stanzas, couplets, triplets, &c. It is only a few of the English metres that are known by fixed names. These are as

1. Common Octosyllabics.-Butler's Hudibras, Scott's poems, The Giaour, and other poems of Lord Byron.

The way was long, the wind was cold,

The minstrel was infirm and old;
His haggard cheek and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy,

The last of all the bards was he

That sung of ancient chivalry.-SCOTT.

2. Elegiac Octosyllabics.—Same as the last; except that

the rhymes are regularly alternate, and the verses arranged in stanzas.

And on her lover's arm she leant,

And round her waist she felt it fold,
And far across the hills they went,

In that new world which now is old:

Across the hills and far away,

Beyond their utmost purple rim,

And deep into the dying day

The happy princess follow'd him.-TENNYSON.

3. Octosyllabic Triplets.-Three rhymes in succession. Generally arranged as stanzas.

I blest them, and they wander'd on;

I spoke, but answer came there none:

The dull and bitter voice was gone.-TENNYSON.

4. Blank Verse.-Five dissyllabic measures, with accents on the even syllable, without rhyme.

All these and more came flocking; but with looks

Downcast and damp, yet such wherein appeared

Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their chief

Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost

In loss itself.-MILTON.

5. Heroic Couplets.-Five measures, as before, with pairs

of rhymes.

O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,

Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free;
Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home:
These are our realms; no limits to our sway;

Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey.-BYRON.

6. Heroic Triplets.—Five measures, as before. rhymes in succession. Arranged in stanzas.

Three

7. Elegiacs.-Five measures, as before; with regularly

alternate rhymes, and arranged in stanzas.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea,

The ploughman homewards plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.-GRAY.

8. Rhymes Royal.-Seven lines of heroics, with the last two rhymes in succession, and the first five recurring at intervals.

This Troilus, in gift of curtesie,

With hauk on hond, and with a huge rout
Of knightes, rode, and did her company,
Passing all through the valley far about;
And further would have ridden out of doubt.
Full faine and woe was him to gone so sone;

But turn he must, and it was eke to doen.-CHAUCER.

This metre was common with the writers of the earlier part of Queen Elizabeth's reign. It admits of varieties. according to the distribution of the first five rhymes.

9. Ottava Rima.—A metre with an Italian name, and borrowed from Italy, where it is used generally for narrative poetry. The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci, the Orlando Innamorato of Bojardo, the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, the Gierusalemme Liberata of Tasso, are all written in this metre. Besides this, the two chief epics of Spain and Portugal respectively, the Araucana and the Lusiados, are thus composed. Hence it is a form of poetry which is Continental rather than English, and naturalized rather than indigenous. The stanza consists of eight lines of heroics, the six first rhyming alternately, the two last in succession. Arrived there, a prodigious noise he hears,

Which suddenly along the forest spread;
Whereat from out his quiver he prepares
An arrow for his bow, and lifts his head;
And lo! a monstrous herd of swine appears,
And onward rushes with tempestuous tread,
And to the fountain's brink precisely pours,

So that the giant 's joined by all the boars.—BYRON.

10. Terza Rima.—Like the last, borrowed both in name and nature from the Italian, and scarcely yet naturalized in England.

The Spirit of the fervent days of old,

When words were things that came to pass, and Thought

Flash'd o'er the future, bidding men behold

Their children's children's doom already brought

Forth from the abyss of Time which is to be,
The chaos of events where lie half-wrought
Shapes that must undergo mortality:

What the great seers of Israel wore within,
That Spirit was on them and is on me;
And if, Cassandra-like, amidst the din

Of conflicts, none will hear, or hearing heed
This voice from out the Wilderness, the sin
Be theirs, and my own feelings be my meed,

The only guerdon I have ever known.-BYRON.

11. Alexandrines.-Six measures; like the last, generally, perhaps always, with rhyme. The name is said to be taken from the fact that early romances upon the deeds of Alexander of Macedon, of great popularity, were written in this metre. One of the longest poems in the English language is in Alexandrines, viz. Drayton's Poly-olbion.

Ye sacred bárds that to your hárps' melódious strings
Sung th' ancient héroes' deeds, the mónuménts of kings;
If, as those Drúids taught who képt the British rítes,
And dwélt in dárksome groves, there cóunselling with sprites,
When thése our souls by deáth our bodies dó forsake,
They instantly agaín to other bodies take,

I could have wish'd your souls redoubled in my breast,

To give my vérse applaúse to tíme's etérnal rést.-DRAYTON.

12. Spenserian Stanza.-A stanza consisting of nine lines, the eight first heroics, the last an Alexandrine.

It hath been through all ages ever seen,

That with the prize of arms and chivalrie
The prize of beauty still hath joined been,
And that for reason's special privitie ;
For either doth on other much rely.
For he meseems most fit the fair to serve
That can her best defend from villanie;
And she most fit his service doth deserve,

That fairest is, and from her faith will never swerve.

SPENSER.

Childe Harold and other important poems are composed in the Spenserian stanza.

13. Service Metre.-Couplets of seven measures. This is the common metre of the Psalm versions. It is also

called Common Measure, or Long Measure. In this metre there is always a pause after the fourth measure, and many grammarians consider that with that pause the line ends. According to this view, the service metre does not consist of two long lines with seven measures each; but of four short ones, with four and three measures each alternately. The Psalm versions are printed so as to exhibit this pause or break.

The Lord descended from above, | and bow'd the heavens most high,
And underneath his feet He cast | the darkness of the sky.
On Cherubs and on Seraphim | full royally He rode,

And on the wings of mighty winds | came flying all abroad.

STERNHOLD AND HOPKINS.

In this matter the following rule is convenient. When the last syllable of the fourth measure in the one verse rhymes with the corresponding syllable in the other, the long verse should be looked upon as broken up into two short ones; in other words, the couplets should be dealt with as a stanza. Where there is no rhyme except at the seventh measure, the verse should remain undivided. Thus:

:

Turn, gentle hermit of the glen, | and guide thy lonely way

To where yon taper cheers the vale | with hospitable ray—

constitute a single couplet of two lines, the number of rhymes being two. But,

Turn, gentle hermit of the dale,

And guide thy lonely way

To where yon taper cheers the vale

With hospitable ray.-GOLDSMITH.

constitute a stanza of four lines, the number of rhymes being four.

14. Ballad Stanza.-Service metre broken up in the way just indicated. Goldsmith's Edwin and Angelina, &c., from which the last stanza was an extract.

15. Poulterer's Measure.-Alexandrines and Service metre alternately.