English Verse. Raymond Macdonald Alden
from Harleian MS. 3253; Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 206.)
Listeth, lordes, in good entent,
And I wol telle verrayment
Of mirthe and of solas;
Al of a knyght was fair and gent
In bataille and in tourneyment,
His name was sir Thopas …
An elf-queen wol I love, y-wis,
For in this world no womman is
Worthy to be my make
In toune;
Alle othere wommen I forsake,
And to an elf-queen I me take
By dale and eek by doune!
(Chaucer: Sir Thopas, from Canterbury Tales. ab. 1385.)
The tail-rime stanza had become a favorite for the metrical romances of the fourteenth century; but Chaucer evidently saw its inappropriateness for long narrative poems, and ridiculed it—with certain other elements of the romances—in this Rime of Sir Thopas. The Host is made to interrupt the story:
"'Myn eres aken of thy drasty speche;
Now swiche a rym the devel I beteche!
This may wel be rym dogerel', quod he."
My patent pardouns, ye may se,
Cum fra the Cane of Tartarei,
Weill seald with oster schellis;
Thocht ye have na contritioun,
Ye sall have full remissioun,
With help of buiks and bellis.
(Sir David Lindsay: Ane Satyre of the Three Estates. ab. 1540.)
Seinte Marie! levedi briht,
Moder thou art of muchel miht,
Quene in hevene of feire ble;
Gabriel to the he lihte,
Tho he brouhte al wid rihte
Then holi gost to lihten in the.
Godes word ful wel thou cnewe;
Ful mildeliche thereto thou bewe,
And saidest, "So it mote be!"
Thi thone was studevast ant trewe;
For the joye that to was newe,
Levedi, thou have merci of me!
(Quinque Gaudia. In Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, vol. i. p. 51.)
Here the principle of the tail-rime is extended to four tail-verses. See also the specimen on p. 111, below.
All, dear Nature's children sweet,
Lie 'fore bride and bridegroom's feet,
Blessing their sense!
Not an angel of the air,
Bird melodious or bird fair,
Be absent hence.
(Song from The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Shakspere and Fletcher. pub. 1634.)
Fair stood the wind for France,
When we our sails advance,
Nor now to prove our chance
Longer not tarry;
But put unto to the main,
At Caux, the mouth of Seine,
With all his martial train,
Landed King Harry.
(Drayton: Agincourt. ab. 1600.)
I am a man of war and might,
And know thus much, that I can fight,
Whether I am i' th' wrong or right,
Devoutly.
No woman under heaven I fear,
New oaths I can exactly swear,
And forty healths my brains will bear
Most stoutly.
(Sir John Suckling: A Soldier. ab. 1635.)
The stanzas that follow show various combinations and applications of the same principle—the use of shorter verses in connection with longer.
A wayle whyte ase whalles bon,
A grein in golde þat goldly shon,
A tortle þat min herte is on,
In toune trewe;
Hire gladshipe nes never gon,
Whil y may glewe.
(Song from Harleian MS. 2253; Böddeker's Altenglische Dichtungen, p. 161.)
Of on that is so fayr and briȝt,
velut maris stella, Briȝter than the day is liȝt, parens et puella; Ic crie to the, thou se to me, Levedy, preye thi sone for me, tam pia, That ic mote come to the Maria.
(Hymn to the Virgin, from Egerton MS. 613. In Mätzner's Altenglische Sprachproben, vol. i. p. 53.)
Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel's as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' e'en devotion!
(Burns: To a Louse on a Lady's Bonnet. 1786.)
O goodly hand,
Wherein doth stand
My heart distract in pain;
Dear hand, alas!
In little space
My life thou dost restrain.
(Sir Thomas Wyatt: In Tottel's Songs and Sonnets. pub. 1557.)
Old Ocean's praise
Demands my lays;
A truly British theme I sing;
A theme so great,
I dare compete,
And join with Ocean, Ocean's king.
(Edward Young: Ocean, an Ode. 1728.)
No more, no more
This worldly shore
Upbraids me with its loud uproar!
With dreamful eyes
My spirit lies
Under the walls of Paradise!
(Thomas Buchanan Read: Drifting. ab. 1850.)
In these stanzas a pair of long lines bind together the first and second parts of the composition, just as the short lines do in the original rime couée.
Young was and is universally condemned for choosing this form of stanza for his odes. He was led to do so by his admiration for the passage in Dryden's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, running:
"Assumes the god,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres."
Here, said Young, Dryden was expressing "majesty"; hence, since he wished his odes to be majestic, he used the short, choppy measure throughout. (See his Introductory Essay to his Odes, in Chalmers's English Poets, vol. xiii.) On the other hand, the stanza as used by Read has been almost universally admired.
Hail,