I know not why, but in that hour to-night, Even as they gazed, a sudden tremor came And thus some boding flashed through either frame, H. H. Milman adopts the following form in a succession of stanzas. God of the thunder, from whose cloudy seat Till Thou the guilty land hast sealed for woe. A certain arrangement of five-foot verse in stanzas of fourteen lines has received the distinctive name of sonnet. The rhymes may be in any order with the limitation that there be only three different endings rhymed on in the first eight lines. My lute, be as thou wert when thou did grow Since that dear voice which did thy sounds approve, But orphan wailings to the fainting ear, Each stroke a sigh, each sound draws forth a tear, For which be silent as in woods before: Or if that any hand to touch thee deign, Like widowed turtle still her loss complain.-DRUMMOND. Here, indeed, there are but two rhyme-endings within the prescribed limits, but it seems there is no regulation against that. Shakspeare, again, invariably constructs his sonnets of three quatrains quite separate in their rhymes, ending the whole with a couplet: let all, then, please themselves in the matter, as their predecessors have done before them. (4.) It may not be amiss to group together a certain class of stanzas that have an additional line final drawn out beyond the others to six-foot length, forming what is commonly known as an Alexandrine. ODE TO THE SKYLARK. Hail to thee, blithe spirit! In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. SHELLEY. PRINCE OF THE PURPLE ISLAND. Look at the sun, whose ray and searching light Soon back he flings the too bold venturing gleam, FLETCHER. Spenser, in the well-known measure called after his name, has used a stanza of nine lines, all likewise of five feet except the closing one. The rhymes are thus arranged, as the example will best show:-1 and 2; 2, 4, 5, and 7; 6, 8, and 9. This form is used by some even for the highest epic occasions, and, indeed, of stanzas for such a purpose it has few if any to rival it. THE ENCHANTED GROUND. Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound Such as at once might not on living ground, For all that pleasing is to living ear Was there consorted in one harmony, Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree.—SPENSER. Of course there is no innate necessity that such a long final line should always be of six feet precisely; here is one of eight. THE LOST BOWER. I rose up in exaltation And an inward trembling heat, Like a garment rustling downwards!-such a silence followed it. MRS. BROWNING. (5.) There remains to notice the stanzas which have their parts composed of different runs, as this beginning in marchmetre, closed with a couplet tripping. The lines being short the change in this instance is hardly noticeable; in the next example, longer in part, the effect can hardly be called pleasing. On his morning rounds the master Searches pasture after pasture, Sheep and cattle eyes with care; And for silence or for talk He hath comrades in his walk; Four dogs, each pair of different breed, Distinguished two for scent, and two for speed. WORDSWORTH. In Shelley's 'Ode to the Skylark,' quoted a little previously a like turn results in a charming effect, but it must be observed that in this the change is an imperceptible one; in the degree that it strikes it displeases. Hence, the greater the difference between the metres the worse the impression, the change from one to the other becoming hard to fall in with, the two seem to clash, and there is a perceptible discordance, as here. Mahadeh earth's lord descending To its mansions comes again, What their fitful lot may be. He has passed through the city, he has looked on them all; And at evening went forth on his journey so free.-AYTOUN. The change in this case is seen to be extreme, and the antagonism consequently very striking. This condemnation of the undue junction of discordant parts in a set stave must not be held to reflect on the allowable blending in the greater ode, to be noticed shortly, where see end of chapter xiv. XII. THE LAY. In one stanzic measure the rhymes are allowed to assume every possible variation of arrangement, the lines generally of two slightly different lengths, one predominant, the stanzas themselves varying greatly in the number of lines. It is proposed to restrict the name lay exclusively to formations of this kind, which indeed have to it almost a native title existing. Nearly every form of stave previously cited here finds itself embodied in longer complicate stanzas; again, almost any combination met with in the lay is found used in independent form. 1. To begin with march-metre. The standard length for the predominant line is four feet, for the other three; with stanzas varying from about sixteen lines to three times that length. An arrangement similar to the lay is to be met with in the short form of three and two feet following, but ditty might be the more appropriate name than lay in this particular in stance. Make no deep scrutiny Rash and undutiful; Past all dishonour, Death has left on her Only the beautiful. Still for all slips of hers, One of Eve's family, Wipe those poor lips of hers Oozing so clammily. Loop up her tresses Escaped from the comb, Where was her home? Who was her father? Who was her mother? Had she a sister? Had she a brother? Or was there a dearer one Still, and a nearer one Yet, than all other?-HOOD. Macaulay in his lays has used a three-foot measure, varied by occasional lines of four. |