Daughter of memory, immortal muse,Calliope; what poet wilt thou choose,Of Anna’s name to sing?To whom wilt thou thy fire impart,Thy lyre, thy voice, and tuneful art;Whom raise sublime on thy aethereal wing,And consecrate with dews of thy Castalian spring?
Daughter of memory, immortal muse,Calliope; what poet wilt thou choose,Of Anna’s name to sing?To whom wilt thou thy fire impart,Thy lyre, thy voice, and tuneful art;Whom raise sublime on thy aethereal wing,And consecrate with dews of thy Castalian spring?
Daughter of memory, immortal muse,
Calliope; what poet wilt thou choose,
Of Anna’s name to sing?
To whom wilt thou thy fire impart,
Thy lyre, thy voice, and tuneful art;
Whom raise sublime on thy aethereal wing,
And consecrate with dews of thy Castalian spring?
The Antistrophe.
Without thy aid, the most aspiring mindMust flag beneath, to narrow flights confin’d,Stiving to rise in vain:Nor e’er can hope with equal laysTo celebrate bright virtue’s praise.Thy aid obtain’d, ev’n I, the humblest swain,May climb Pierian heights, and quit the lowly plain.
Without thy aid, the most aspiring mindMust flag beneath, to narrow flights confin’d,Stiving to rise in vain:Nor e’er can hope with equal laysTo celebrate bright virtue’s praise.Thy aid obtain’d, ev’n I, the humblest swain,May climb Pierian heights, and quit the lowly plain.
Without thy aid, the most aspiring mind
Must flag beneath, to narrow flights confin’d,
Stiving to rise in vain:
Nor e’er can hope with equal lays
To celebrate bright virtue’s praise.
Thy aid obtain’d, ev’n I, the humblest swain,
May climb Pierian heights, and quit the lowly plain.
The Epode.
High in the starry orb is hung,And next Alcides’ guardian arm,That harp to which thy Orpheus sungWho woods, and rocks, and winds could charm;That harp which on Cyllene’s shady hill,When first the vocal shell was found,With more than mortal skillInventor Hermes taught to sound:Hermes on bright Latona’s son,By sweet persuasion won,The wondrous work bestow’d;Latona’s son, to thineIndulgent, gave the gift divine;A god the gift, a god th’ invention show’d.
High in the starry orb is hung,And next Alcides’ guardian arm,That harp to which thy Orpheus sungWho woods, and rocks, and winds could charm;That harp which on Cyllene’s shady hill,When first the vocal shell was found,With more than mortal skillInventor Hermes taught to sound:Hermes on bright Latona’s son,By sweet persuasion won,The wondrous work bestow’d;Latona’s son, to thineIndulgent, gave the gift divine;A god the gift, a god th’ invention show’d.
High in the starry orb is hung,
And next Alcides’ guardian arm,
That harp to which thy Orpheus sung
Who woods, and rocks, and winds could charm;
That harp which on Cyllene’s shady hill,
When first the vocal shell was found,
With more than mortal skill
Inventor Hermes taught to sound:
Hermes on bright Latona’s son,
By sweet persuasion won,
The wondrous work bestow’d;
Latona’s son, to thine
Indulgent, gave the gift divine;
A god the gift, a god th’ invention show’d.
The most celebrated among the later Pindaric Odes formed on similar principles are Gray’s odesThe Progress of Poesy(Poets, x. 218) andThe Bard(ib. 220). References to other odes are given inMetrik, ii, § 527.
In dramatic poetry M. Arnold attempted to imitate the structure of the different parts of the Chorus of Greek tragedy in his fragmentAntigone(p. 211), and more strictly in his tragedyMerope(p. 350). It would lead us too far, however, to give a detailed description of the strophic forms occurring there.
With regard to other lyrical pieces in masques and operas (also of an unequal-membered strophic structure) and with regard to cantata-stanzas and other stanzas differing among themselves, in other poems which cannot be further discussed here, we must refer the reader to §§ 528–31 of our larger work.
§306. Origin of the English Sonnet.In early Provençal and French poetry certain lyric poems are found which were calledSon, sometimesSonet, although they had neither a fixed extent, nor a regulated form. But the Sonnet[197]in its exact structure was introduced into French, Spanish, and English poetry from Italian, and as a rule on the model, or at least under the influence, of Petrarch’s sonnets. In English literature, however, the sonnet in part had a more independent development than it had in other countries, and followed its Italian model at first only in the number and nature of the verses used in it. Generally speaking, the Italian and the English sonnet can be defined as a short poem, complete in itself, consisting of fourteen five-foot (or eleven-syllabled) iambic lines, in which a single theme, a thought or series of thoughts, is treated and brought to a conclusion. In the rhyme-arrangement and the structure of the poem, however, the English sonnet, as a rule, deviates greatly from its Italian model, and the examples in which its strict form is followed are comparatively rare.
§307.The Italian Sonnet consists of two parts distinguished from each other by difference of rhymes, each of the parts having its own continuous system of rhymes. The first part is formed of two quatrains (basi), i.e. stanzas of four lines; the second of two terzetti (volte), stanzas of three lines. The two quatrains have only two, the terzetti two or three rhymes.
The usual rhyme-arrangement in the quatrains isa b b a a b b a, more rarelya b b a b a a b(rima chiusa). There are, however, also sonnets with alternate rhymes,a b a b a b a bora b a b b a b a(rima alternata); but the combination of the two kinds of rhyme,a b a b b a a bora b b a a b a b(rima mista), was unusual. In the second part, consisting of six lines, the order of rhymes is not so definitely fixed. When only two rhymes are used, which the old metrists, as Quadrio (1695–1756), the Italiancritic and historian of literature, regarded as the only legitimate method, the usual sequence isc d c d c d(crossed rhymes,rima alternata). This form occurs 112 times in those of Petrarch’s[198]sonnets which have only two rhymes in the last part, their number being 124; in the remaining twelve sonnets the rhyme-system is eitherc d d c d corc d d d c c. In the second part of Petrarch’s sonnets three rhymes are commoner than two. In most cases we have the formulac d e c d e, which occurs in 123 sonnets, while the schemec d e d c eis met with only in 78 sonnets. The three chief forms, then, of Petrarch’s sonnet may be given with Tomlinson[199]as built on the following models:
a b b a a b b a c d e c d e,a b b a a b b a c d c d c d,a b b a a b b a c d e d c e.
In the seventy-second and seventy-fourth sonnet we have the unusual schemesc d e e d candc d e d e c. The worst form, according to the Italian critics, was that which ended in a rhyming couplet. This kind of ending, as we shall see later on, is one of the chief characteristics of the specifically English form of the sonnet.
The original and oldest form of the sonnet, however, as recent inquiries seem to show, was that with crossed rhymes both in the quatrains and in the terzetti, on the schemea b a b a b a b c d c d c d. But this variety had no direct influence on the true English form, in which a system of crossed rhymes took a different arrangement.
An essential point, then, in the Italian sonnet is the bipartition, the division of it into two chief parts; and this rule is so strictly observed that a carrying on of the sense, or the admission ofenjambementbetween the two main parts, connecting the eighth and ninth verse of the poem by a run-on line, would be looked upon as a gross offence against the true structure and meaning of this poetic form. Nor would a run-on line be allowed between the first and the second stanza; indeed some poets, who follow the strict form of the sonnet, do not even admitenjambementbetween the first and the second terzetto, although for the second main part of the poem this has never become a fixed rule.
The logical import of the structure of the sonnet, as understood by the earlier theorists, especially Quadrio, is this: Thefirst quatrain makes a statement; the second proves it; the first terzetto has to confirm it, and the second draws the conclusion of the whole.
§308.The structure of this originally Italian poetic form may be illustrated by the following sonnet, equally correct in form and poetical in substance, in which Theodore Watts-Dunton sets forth the essence of this form of poetry itself:
The Sonnet’s Voice.
A metrical lesson by the sea-shore.
Yon silvery billows breaking on the beachFall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear,The while my rhymes are murmuring in your earA restless lore like that the billows teach;For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reachFrom its own depths, and rest within you, dear,As, through the billowy voices yearning here,Great nature strives to find a human speech.A sonnet is a wave of melody:From heaving waters of the impassioned soulA billow of tidal music one and wholeFlows in the ‘octave’; then, returning free,Its ebbing surges in the ‘sestet’ rollBack to the deeps of Life’s tumultuous sea.
Yon silvery billows breaking on the beachFall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear,The while my rhymes are murmuring in your earA restless lore like that the billows teach;For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reachFrom its own depths, and rest within you, dear,As, through the billowy voices yearning here,Great nature strives to find a human speech.A sonnet is a wave of melody:From heaving waters of the impassioned soulA billow of tidal music one and wholeFlows in the ‘octave’; then, returning free,Its ebbing surges in the ‘sestet’ rollBack to the deeps of Life’s tumultuous sea.
Yon silvery billows breaking on the beachFall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear,The while my rhymes are murmuring in your earA restless lore like that the billows teach;For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reachFrom its own depths, and rest within you, dear,As, through the billowy voices yearning here,Great nature strives to find a human speech.
Yon silvery billows breaking on the beach
Fall back in foam beneath the star-shine clear,
The while my rhymes are murmuring in your ear
A restless lore like that the billows teach;
For on these sonnet-waves my soul would reach
From its own depths, and rest within you, dear,
As, through the billowy voices yearning here,
Great nature strives to find a human speech.
A sonnet is a wave of melody:From heaving waters of the impassioned soulA billow of tidal music one and wholeFlows in the ‘octave’; then, returning free,Its ebbing surges in the ‘sestet’ rollBack to the deeps of Life’s tumultuous sea.
A sonnet is a wave of melody:
From heaving waters of the impassioned soul
A billow of tidal music one and whole
Flows in the ‘octave’; then, returning free,
Its ebbing surges in the ‘sestet’ roll
Back to the deeps of Life’s tumultuous sea.
Although the run-on line between the terzetti is perhaps open to a slight objection, the rhyme-arrangement is absolutely correct, the inadmissible rhyming couplet at the end of the poem being of course avoided. Other sonnets on the sonnet written in English, German, or French, are quoted inMetrik, ii, § 534
§309.The first English sonnet-writers, Wyatt and Surrey, departed considerably from this strict Italian form, although they both translated sonnets written by Petrarch into English. Their chief deviation from this model is that, while retaining the two quatrains, they break up the second chief part of the sonnet, viz. the terzetti, into a third quatrain (with separate rhymes) and a rhyming couplet. Surrey went still further in the alteration of the original sonnet by changing the arrangement and the number of rhymes in the quatrains also, whereas Wyatt, as a rule, in this respect only exceptionally deviated from the structure of the Italian sonnet. The greater part of Wyatt’s sonnets (as well as Donne’s, cf.Metrik, ii, § 541) have thereforethe schemeabba abba cddc ee, whereas other forms, as e.g.abba abba cd cd eeoccur only occasionally (cf.Metrik, ii, § 535).
This order of rhymes, on the other hand, was frequently used by Sir Philip Sidney, who on the whole followed the Italian model, and sometimes employed even more accurate Italian forms, avoiding the final rhyming couplet (cf. ib. § 538). He also invented certain extended and curtailed sonnets which are discussed inMetrik, ii, §§ 539, 540
§310.Of greater importance is Surrey’s transformation of the Italian sonnet, according to the formulaabab cdcd efefgg. This variety of the sonnet—which, we may note in passing, Surrey also extended into a special poetic form consisting of several such quatrains together with a final rhyming couplet (cf.Metrik, ii, § 537)—was very much in favour in the sixteenth and at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Samuel Daniel, and above all Shakespeare, wrote their sonnets mainly[200]in this form, sometimes combining a series of them in a closely connected cycle. As a specimen of this most important form we quote the eighteenth of Shakespeare’s sonnets:
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;But thy eternal summer shall not fadeNor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Commonly the concluding couplet contains an independent thought which gives a conclusion to the poem. In certain cases, however, the thought of the previous stanza is carried on in the closing couplet by means of a run-on line, as is the case in Nos. 71, 72, 108, 154, &c. Sometimes, of course, a run-on line connects different portions of the sonnet also, as e.g. Nos. 114, 129, 154, &c. The rhymes, as a rule, are masculine, but not exclusively so.
§311.Meanwhile, another interesting form had been introduced, perhaps by the Scottish poet, Alex. Montgomerie,[201]which was subsequently chiefly used by Spenser. When about seventeen Spenser had translated the sonnets of the French poet, Du Bellay, in blank verse, and thereby created the rhymeless form of the sonnet, which, however, although not unknown in French poetry, was not further cultivated. About twenty years later he re-wrote the same sonnets in the form introduced by Surrey. Some years after he wrote a series of sonnets, calledAmoretti, in that peculiar and very fine form which, although perhaps invented by Montgomerie, now bears Spenser’s name. The three quatrains in this form of the sonnet are connected byconcatenatio, the final verse of each quatrain rhyming with the first line of the next, while the closing couplet stands separate. The scheme of this form, then,a b a b b c b c c d c d e e; it found, however, but few imitators (cf.Metrik, ii, §§ 542, 543, 559, note 1).
The various forms of Drummond of Hawthornden’s sonnets had also no influence on the further development of this kind of poetry and therefore need not be discussed here. It may suffice to say that he partly imitated the strict Italian form, partly modified it; and that he also used earlier English transformations and invented some new forms (cf.Metrik, ii, §§ 547, 548)
§312.A new and important period in the history of sonnet writing, although it was only of short duration, began with Milton. Not a single one of his eighteen English and five Italian sonnets is composed on the model of those by Surrey and Shakespeare or in any other genuine English form. He invariably used the Italian rhyme-arrangementa b b a a b b ain the quatrains, combined with the strict Italian order in the terzetti:c d c d c d,c d d c d c,c d e c d e,c d c e e d,c d e d c e; only in one English and in three Italian sonnets we find the less correct Italian form with the final rhyming couplet on the schemesc d d c e e,c d c d e e.
One chief rule, however, of the Italian sonnet, viz. the logicalseparation of the two main parts by a break in the sense, is observed by Milton only in about half the number of his sonnets; and the above-mentioned relationship of the single parts of the sonnet to each other according to the strict Italian rule (cf. pp.372–3andMetrik, ii, § 533, pp. 839–40) is hardly ever met with in Milton. He therefore imitated the Italian sonnet only in its form, and paid no regard to the relationship of its single parts or to the distribution of the contents through the quatrains and terzets. In this respect he kept to the monostrophic structure of the specifically English form of the sonnet, consisting, as a rule, of one continuous train of thought.
Milton also introduced into English poetry the playful variety of the so-called tail-sonnet on the Italian model (Sonetti codati), a sonnet, extended by six anisometrical verses, with the schemea b b a a b b a c d e d e c5c3f f5f3g g5(cf.Metrik, ii, § 549), which, however, did not attract many imitators (Milton, ii. 481–2).
After Milton sonnet-writing was discontinued for about a century. The poets of the Restoration period and of the first half of the eighteenth century (Cowley, Waller, Dryden, Pope, Gay, Akenside, Young, Thomson, Goldsmith, Johnson, and others) did not write a single sonnet, and seem to have despised this form of poetry (cf.Metrik, ii, § 550)
§313.When sonnet-writing was revived in the second half of the eighteenth century by T. Edwards, who composed some fifty sonnets, by Gray, by Benjamin Stillingfleet, T. Warton, and others of less importance, as well as by Charlotte Smith, Helen M. Williams, Anna Seward, the male poets preferred the strict Italian form, while the poetesses, with the exception of Miss Seward, adopted that of Surrey and Shakespeare (cf.Metrik, ii, § 551).
Not long afterwards another very popular and prolific sonnet-writer, William Lisle Bowles, followed in some of his sonnets the strict Italian model (cf.Metrik, ii, § 552), but also wrote sonnets (towards the end of the eighteenth century) on a scheme that had previously been used by Drummond, viz.a b b a c d d c e f f e g g, this formula representing a transition form from the Italian to Surrey’s sonnet, with enclosing rhymes in the quatrains instead of crossed rhymes (cf.Metrik, ii, § 546, p. 860).
Bowles’s example induced S. T. Coleridge to write his sonnets, which in part combined in the quatrains enclosing and crossed rhyme (a b b a c d c d e f e f g gora b a b c d d c e f f e f e; cf.Metrik, ii, § 553).
Similar, even more arbitrary forms and rhyme-arrangements,the terzetti being sometimes placed at the beginning (e.g. No. 13,a a b c c b d e d e f e f e) of the poem, occur in Southey’s sonnets, which, fine as they sometimes are in thought, have in their form hardly any resemblance to the original Italian model except that they contain fourteen lines. They had, however, like those of Drummond, no further influence, and therefore need not be discussed here (cf.Metrik, ii, § 554)
§314.A powerful impulse was given to sonnet-writing by Wordsworth, who wrote about 500 sonnets, and who, not least on account of his copiousness, has been called the English Petrarch. He, indeed, followed his Italian model more closely than his predecessors with regard to the form and the relationship of the different parts to each other.
The usual scheme of his quatrains isa b b a, a b b a, but there is also a form with a third rhymea b b a, a c c a, which frequently occurs. The rhyme-arrangement of the terzetti is exceedingly various, and there are also a great many sub-species with regard to the structure of the first part. Very often the first quatrain has enclosing rhymes and the second crossed rhymes, or vice versa; these being either formed by two or three rhymes. As the main types of the Wordsworth sonnet the following, which, however, admit of many variations in the terzetti, may be mentioned:a b b a b a b a c d e c e d(ii. 303),a b b a a b a b c d e e d c(viii. 57),a b a b b a a b c d c d c d(vi. 113),a b a b a b b a c d d c d c(viii. 29),a b b a a c a c d e e d e d(vii. 82),a b b a c a c a d e d e e d(viii. 109) ora b b a c a c a d e d e f f(viii. 77), &c.,a b a b b c c b d e f e f d(vii. 29). There are of this type also forms in which the terzetti have the structured d f e e f(vii. 334), ord e f d e f(viii. 68), &c., anda b a b a c a c d e d e d e(viii. 28). Cf.Metrik, ii, § 555.
Very often Wordsworth’s sonnets differ from those of the Italian poets and agree with the Miltonic type in that the two chief parts are not separated from each other by a pause[202]; and even if there is no run-on line the train of thought is continuous. For this reason his sonnets give us rather the impression of a picture or of a description than of a reflective poem following the Italian requirements, according to which the sonnet should consist of: assertion (quatrain i), proof (quatrain ii), confirmation (terzet i), conclusion (terzet ii) (cf. p. 373). The following sonnet by Wordsworth, strictlyon the Italian model in its rhyme-arrangement, may serve as an example:
With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;Some lying fast at anchor in the road,Some veering up and down, one knew not why.A goodly Vessel did I then espyCome like a giant from a haven broad;And lustily along the bay she strode,Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,Yet I pursued her with a Lover’s look;This ship to all the rest did I prefer:When will she turn, and whither? She will brookNo tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:On went She, and due north her journey took.
With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;Some lying fast at anchor in the road,Some veering up and down, one knew not why.A goodly Vessel did I then espyCome like a giant from a haven broad;And lustily along the bay she strode,Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,Yet I pursued her with a Lover’s look;This ship to all the rest did I prefer:When will she turn, and whither? She will brookNo tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:On went She, and due north her journey took.
With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh,
Like stars in heaven, and joyously it showed;
Some lying fast at anchor in the road,
Some veering up and down, one knew not why.
A goodly Vessel did I then espy
Come like a giant from a haven broad;
And lustily along the bay she strode,
Her tackling rich, and of apparel high.
This Ship was nought to me, nor I to her,
Yet I pursued her with a Lover’s look;
This ship to all the rest did I prefer:
When will she turn, and whither? She will brook
No tarrying; where She comes the winds must stir:
On went She, and due north her journey took.
Sonnets, however, like the following, entitledA Parsonage in Oxfordshire(vi. 292), give to a still greater extent the impression of monostrophic poems on account of the want of distinct separation between the component parts:
Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,Is marked by no distinguishable line;The turf unites, the pathways intertwine;And, wheresoe’er the stealing footstep tends,Garden, and that Domain where kindreds, friends,And neighbours rest together, here confoundTheir several features, mingled like the soundOf many waters, or as evening blendsWith shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,Waft fragrant greetings to each silent grave;And while those lofty poplars gently waveTheir tops, between them comes and goes a skyBright as the glimpses of eternity,To saints accorded in their mortal hour.
Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,Is marked by no distinguishable line;The turf unites, the pathways intertwine;And, wheresoe’er the stealing footstep tends,Garden, and that Domain where kindreds, friends,And neighbours rest together, here confoundTheir several features, mingled like the soundOf many waters, or as evening blendsWith shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,Waft fragrant greetings to each silent grave;And while those lofty poplars gently waveTheir tops, between them comes and goes a skyBright as the glimpses of eternity,To saints accorded in their mortal hour.
Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends,
Is marked by no distinguishable line;
The turf unites, the pathways intertwine;
And, wheresoe’er the stealing footstep tends,
Garden, and that Domain where kindreds, friends,
And neighbours rest together, here confound
Their several features, mingled like the sound
Of many waters, or as evening blends
With shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,
Waft fragrant greetings to each silent grave;
And while those lofty poplars gently wave
Their tops, between them comes and goes a sky
Bright as the glimpses of eternity,
To saints accorded in their mortal hour.
The strophic character of many sonnets is still more visible both in Wordsworth and some earlier poets (as e.g. Sidney or Shakespeare) when several consecutive sonnets on the same subject are so closely connected as to begin with the wordsButorNor, as e.g. in Wordsworth’sEcclesiastical Sonnets(XI, XV, XVIII, XXIII); or when sonnets (cf. the same collection, No. XXXII) end like the Spenserian stanza in an Alexandrine. This peculiarity, which, of course, does not conform to the strict and harmonious structure of the sonnet, and is found as early as in a sonnet by Burns (p. 119), sometimes occurs in later poets also.[203]Wordsworth has had an undoubtedly great influence on the further development of sonnet-writing, which is still extensively practised both in England and America.
§315.None of the numerous sonnet-writers of the nineteenth century, however, brought about a new epoch in this kind of poetry. They, as a rule, confined themselves to either one or other of the four chief forms noted above, viz.:
1. The specifically English form of Surrey and Shakespeare, used e.g. by Keats, S. T. Coleridge, Mrs. Hemans, C. Tennyson Turner, Mrs. Browning, M. Arnold (pp. 37, 38) (cf.Metrik, ii, § 566).
2. The Wordsworth sonnet, approaching to the Italian sonnet in its form or rather variety of forms; it occurs in S. T. Coleridge, Hartley Coleridge, Sara Coleridge, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Lamb, Tennyson, D. G. Rossetti, M. Arnold (pp. 1–8) (cf. ib. §§ 561–2).
3. The Miltonic form, correct in its rhymes but not in the relationship of its different parts to one another, used by Keats, Byron, Aubrey de Vere, Lord Houghton, Mrs. Browning, Rossetti, Swinburne, and others (cf. ib. § 563).
4. The strict Italian form, as we find it in Keats, Byron, Leigh Hunt, Aubrey de Vere, Tennyson, Browning, Mrs. Browning, Austin Dobson, Rossetti, Swinburne, M. Arnold (pp. 179–85), and most poets of the modern school (cf. ib. §§ 564–5).
§316.Themadrigal, an Italian form (It.mandriale,madrigale, frommandraflock), is a pastoral song, a rural idyl. The Italian madrigals of Petrarch, &c., are short, isometrical poems of eleven-syllable verses, consisting of two or three terzetti with different rhymes and two or four other rhyming verses, mostly couplets:a b c a b c d d,a b a b c b c c,a b b a c c d d,a b b c d d e e,a b b a c c c d d,a b a c b c d e d e,a b b c d d e e f f,a b b c d d e f f g g.
The English madrigals found in Sidney and especially in Drummond resemble the Italian madrigals only in subject; in their form they differ widely from their models, as they consist of from fifteen to five lines and have the structure of canzone-stanzas of three- and five-foot verses. The stanzas run on an average from eight to twelve lines. As a specimen the twelfth madrigal of Drummond (Poets,iv. 644), according to the formulaa3a5b3a5b3b5c5c3d d5, may be quoted here:
Trees happier far than I,Which have the grace to heave your heads so high,And overlook those plains:Grow till your branches kiss that lofty sky,Which her sweet self contains.There make her know mine endless love and pains,And how these tears which from mine eyes do fall,Help you to rise so tall:Tell her, as once I for her sake lov’d breath,So for her sake I now court lingering death.
Trees happier far than I,Which have the grace to heave your heads so high,And overlook those plains:Grow till your branches kiss that lofty sky,Which her sweet self contains.There make her know mine endless love and pains,And how these tears which from mine eyes do fall,Help you to rise so tall:Tell her, as once I for her sake lov’d breath,So for her sake I now court lingering death.
Trees happier far than I,
Which have the grace to heave your heads so high,
And overlook those plains:
Grow till your branches kiss that lofty sky,
Which her sweet self contains.
There make her know mine endless love and pains,
And how these tears which from mine eyes do fall,
Help you to rise so tall:
Tell her, as once I for her sake lov’d breath,
So for her sake I now court lingering death.
Other madrigals have the following schemes (the first occurring twice in Sidney and once in Drummond, while the rest are found in Drummond only):
fifteen lines,a3a5b3c5c3b5b3d5d3e e5d3e f f5; fourteen lines,a a3a5b3c5b3c d5e e3d f5d3f5; thirteen lines,a a3b5c c3b5c3d d5e3f e f5; twelve lines,a2b5b3a5c d3d c5c e3f f5; eleven lines,a3b c a5b d3d e e f f5; ten lines,a b3b a5a c b3c d d5; nine lines,a3a5b c b3c c d d5; eight lines,a3a5b b c3c d d5; seven lines,a b a3c c5a3b5; six lines,a b b a c3c5; five lines,a b b3a b5. For specimens of these and other madrigals in Drummond cf.Metrik, ii, § 508
§317.Some poems in Drummond’s and Sidney’s works entitled epigrams consist, as a rule, of two or more five-foot verses, rhyming in couplets. In Sidney there are also short poems resembling these in subject, but consisting of one-rhymed Alexandrines. We have also one in R. Browning (iii. 146) of seven one-rhymed Septenary verses; several others occur in D. G. Rossetti (ii. 137–40) of eight lines on the schemesa a4b b4a a4b b4styled Chimes (cf.Metrik, ii, §§ 570, 571.)
§318.Theterza-rima. Of much greater importance is another Italian form, viz. a continuous stanza of eleven-syllable verses, the terza-rima, the metre in which Dante wrote his Divina Commedia. It first appears in English poetry in Chaucer’s Complaint to his Lady, second and third part,[204]but may be said to have been introduced into English literature by Wyatt, who wrote satires and penitential psalms in this form (Ald. ed. pp. 186–7, 209–34), and by Surrey in hisDescription of the restless state of a Lover(Ald. ed. p. 1). The rhyme-system of the terza-rima isa b a b c b c d c, &c. That is to say, the first and third lines of the first triplet rhyme together, while the middle line has a different rhyme which recurs in the first and third line of the second triplet; and in the same manner the first and third lines of each successive triplet rhyme with the middle line of the preceding one, so as to form a continuous chain of three-line stanzas of iambic five-foot verses till the end of the poem, which is formed by a single line added to the last stanza and rhyming with its second line.
The first stanzas of Surrey’s poem may be quoted here:
The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green,Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness;Once have the winds the trees despoiled clean,And once again begins their cruelness;Since I have hid under my breast the harmThat never shall recover healthfulness.
The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green,Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness;Once have the winds the trees despoiled clean,And once again begins their cruelness;Since I have hid under my breast the harmThat never shall recover healthfulness.
The sun hath twice brought forth his tender green,
Twice clad the earth in lively lustiness;
Once have the winds the trees despoiled clean,
And once again begins their cruelness;
Since I have hid under my breast the harm
That never shall recover healthfulness.
The winter’s hurt recovers with the warm;The parched green restored is with shade;What warmth, alas! may serve for to disarmThe frozen heart, that mine in flame hath made?What cold again is able to restoreMy fresh green years,&c., &c.
The winter’s hurt recovers with the warm;The parched green restored is with shade;What warmth, alas! may serve for to disarmThe frozen heart, that mine in flame hath made?What cold again is able to restoreMy fresh green years,&c., &c.
The winter’s hurt recovers with the warm;
The parched green restored is with shade;
What warmth, alas! may serve for to disarm
The frozen heart, that mine in flame hath made?
What cold again is able to restore
My fresh green years,&c., &c.
The terza-rima has not the compact structure of the sonnet, as in each of its stanzas a rhyme is wanting which is only supplied in the following stanza. For this reason it seems to be especially adapted for epic or reflective poetry.
Comparatively few examples of this form are met with in English poetry, as e.g. in Sidney, S. Daniel, Drummond, Milton, and Shelley (cf.Metrik, ii, § 572).
In Sidney and R. Browning (iii. 102) we also find a variety of the terza-rima consisting of four-foot verses, and in Browning some others formed of four-stressed verses (iv. 288).
Some similar rhyme-systems of three lines, occurring in Sidney and Drummond, are of less importance (cf. ib., § 573)
§319.Certain other varieties of the terza-rima, although found in recent poets, need only be briefly noticed here.
One of four lines on the modela a b a5b b c b5c c d c5, &c., occurs in Swinburne,Poems, ii. 32, 34, 239; another on the schemea a b a5, c c b c5, d d e d5, &c., ib. i. 13; a third one, following the formulaa b c3b2, a b c3b2, a b c3b2, calledTriads, ib. ii. 159 (cf.Metrik, ii, § 564).
Five-lined forms, similar to the terza-rima, occur in Sidney, e.g.abcdd, efghh, iklmm, the rhymeless lines being connected by sectional rhyme, the stanzas themselves likewise by sectional rhyme; another on the modela5b3c5c3B5, B5d3e5e3D5, D5f3g5g3F5; and a third on the schemea3a5b c3b5, c3c5d e3d5, e3e5f g3f5, &c. A related form,a b a b c4, c d c d e4, ... y z y z z4, is found in Mrs. Browning (iv. 44). For specimen cf.Metrik, ii, § 575.
A terza-rima system of six lines may be better mentioned in this section than together with the sub-varieties of the sextain, as was done inMetrik, ii, §578; they pretty often occur in Sidney, e.g.Pansies, ix (Grosart, i. 202), on the schemesa b a b c b, c d c d e d, e f e f g f, v w v w x w, ... x y x y z y y.
In Spenser’sPastoral Aeglogueon Sidney (pp. 506–7) a rhyme-system according toa b c a b c5, d b e d f e5, g f h g i h5, k i l k m l5, &c. is met with; in Mrs. Browning (iii. 236) a muchsimpler system, constructed of five-foot lines on the formulaa b a b a b c d c d c d e f e f e f, &c., is used.
A system of ten lines, consisting of five-foot verses (a b a b b c a e d D, D e d e e f d f g G, G h g h h i g i k K, &c., ending in a stanza of four lines,X y x y) occurs in Sidney, pp. 218–20 (221–4, xxxi); cf.Metrik, ii, § 580
§320.Still less popular was another Italian poetical form, thesextain, originally invented by the Provençal poet, Arnaut Daniel, and for the first time reproduced in English poetry by Sidney in hisArcadia.
The sextain consists of eleven-syllabled or rather five-foot verses and has six stanzas of six lines each, and an envoy of three lines in addition. Each of the six stanzas, considered individually, is rhymeless, and so is the envoy. But the end-words of the lines of each stanza from the second to the sixth are identical with those of the lines in the preceding stanza, but in a different order, viz. six, one, five, two, four, three. In the envoy, the six end-words of the first stanza recur, in the same order, alternately in the middle and at the end of the line. Hence the whole system of rhymes (or rather of recurrence of end-words) is as follows:a b c d e f . f a e b d c . c f d a b e . e c b f a d . d e a c f b . b d f e c a + (a) b (c) d (e) f.
The first two stanzas of Sidney’sAgelastus Sestine, pp. 438–9 (426–7, lxxiv), together with the envoy and with the end-words of the other stanzas, may serve to make this clear:
Since wayling is a bud of causefull sorrow,Since sorrow is the follower of evill fortune,Since no evill fortune equals publike damage;Now Prince’s losse hath made our damage publikeSorrow, pay we to thee the rights of Nature,And inward griefe seale up with outward wayling.Why should we spare our voice from endlesse waylingWho iustly make our hearts the seate of sorrow,In such a case, where it appears that NatureDoth adde her force unto the sting of Fortune!Choosing, alas, this our theatre publike,Where they would leave trophees of cruell damage.
Since wayling is a bud of causefull sorrow,Since sorrow is the follower of evill fortune,Since no evill fortune equals publike damage;Now Prince’s losse hath made our damage publikeSorrow, pay we to thee the rights of Nature,And inward griefe seale up with outward wayling.Why should we spare our voice from endlesse waylingWho iustly make our hearts the seate of sorrow,In such a case, where it appears that NatureDoth adde her force unto the sting of Fortune!Choosing, alas, this our theatre publike,Where they would leave trophees of cruell damage.
Since wayling is a bud of causefull sorrow,Since sorrow is the follower of evill fortune,Since no evill fortune equals publike damage;Now Prince’s losse hath made our damage publikeSorrow, pay we to thee the rights of Nature,And inward griefe seale up with outward wayling.
Since wayling is a bud of causefull sorrow,
Since sorrow is the follower of evill fortune,
Since no evill fortune equals publike damage;
Now Prince’s losse hath made our damage publike
Sorrow, pay we to thee the rights of Nature,
And inward griefe seale up with outward wayling.
Why should we spare our voice from endlesse waylingWho iustly make our hearts the seate of sorrow,In such a case, where it appears that NatureDoth adde her force unto the sting of Fortune!Choosing, alas, this our theatre publike,Where they would leave trophees of cruell damage.
Why should we spare our voice from endlesse wayling
Who iustly make our hearts the seate of sorrow,
In such a case, where it appears that Nature
Doth adde her force unto the sting of Fortune!
Choosing, alas, this our theatre publike,
Where they would leave trophees of cruell damage.
The other stanzas have the corresponding rhyme-words in this order:
IIIdamagewaylingpublikesorrowefortuneNatureIVNaturedamageFortunewaylingsorrowepublikeVpublikenaturesorrowdamagewaylingfortuneVIfortunepublikewaylingnaturedamagesorrow
IIIdamagewaylingpublikesorrowefortuneNature
IVNaturedamageFortunewaylingsorrowepublike
Vpublikenaturesorrowdamagewaylingfortune
VIfortunepublikewaylingnaturedamagesorrow
The envoy is:
Since sorrow, then, concludeth all our fortune,With all our deaths shew we this damage publique:His nature feares to dye, who lives still wayling.
Since sorrow, then, concludeth all our fortune,With all our deaths shew we this damage publique:His nature feares to dye, who lives still wayling.
Since sorrow, then, concludeth all our fortune,
With all our deaths shew we this damage publique:
His nature feares to dye, who lives still wayling.
This strict form of the sextain, which in Sidney, pp. 216–17 (219–21, xxx), occurs even with a twofold rhyming system, but, of course, with only one envoy, has, as far as we know, only once been imitated in modern poetry, viz. by E. W. Gosse (New Poems). Cf.Metrik, ii, § 576
§321.Besides this original form of the sextain several other varieties are met with in English poetry. Thus Spenser, in the eighth eclogue of hisShepherd’s Calendar(pp. 471–2), has a sextain of a somewhat different structure, the rhymeless end-words being arranged in this order:a b c d e f. f a b c d e. e f a b c d. d e f a b c. c d e f a b. b c d e f a + (a) b (c) d (e) f. Here the final word of the last verse of the first stanza, it is true, is also used as final word in the first verse of the second stanza, but the order of the final words of the other verses of the first stanza remains unchanged in the second. The same relation of the end-words exists between st. ii to st. iii, between st. iii to st. iv, &c., and lastly between st. vi and the envoy; the envoy, again, has the end-words of the first stanza; those which have their place in the interior of the verse occur at the end of the third measure.
Some other sub-varieties of the sextain have rhyming final words in each stanza.
In Sidney’sArcadia, p. 443 (430–1, lxxvi), e.g. one sextain has the following end-words:light,treasure,might,pleasure,direction,affection. These end-words recur in the following stanzas in the order of the regular sextain; hence st. ii hasaffection,light,direction,treasure,pleasure,might, &c. In this variety, also, the rhyme-words of the envoy occur at a fixed place, viz. at the end of the second measure. Drummond wrote two sextains of the same elegant form.
In Swinburne also (Poems, ii. 46) we have a sextain of rhymed stanzas, the first stanza rhymingday,night,way,light,may,delight. All these recur in the following stanzas in a similar order, though not so strictly observed as in the sextain by Spenser, mentioned above (cf.Metrik, ii, § 577).
One example (probably unique in English poetry) of what is known as theDouble Sextainis found in Swinburne’sThe Complaint of Lisa(Poems, ii. 60–8), a poem in which he has given one of the most brilliant specimens of his skill in rhyming. It consists of twelve twelve-lined stanzas and a six-lined envoy. The first two stanzas rhymea b c A B d C e f E D F,F a f D A C b e c E d B; the envoy on the scheme
(F) E (e) f (C) A (c) d (b) a (D) B;
where the corresponding capital and small letters denote different words rhyming with each other. Cf.Metrik, ii, § 581
§322.Side by side with these well-known poems of fixed form, mostly constructed on Italian models, there are some others influenced by French poetry which have been introduced into English for the most part by contemporary modern poets, as e.g. Swinburne, Austin Dobson, Robert Bridges, D.G. Rossetti, A. Lang, and E.W. Gosse[205]. These are the virelay, roundel, rondeau, triolet, villanelle, ballade, and chant royal. Thevirelayseems to have been in vogue in earlier English poetry. Chaucer, e.g. in hisLegende of good Women, v. 423, says of himself that he had writtenbalades,roundels, andvirelayes. But only isolated specimens of it have been preserved; in more recent times it has not been imitated at all.
According to Lubarsch[206]the virelay consists of verses of unequal length, joined byconcatenatioso as to form stanzas of nine lines on the scheme:a a b a a b a a b, b b c b b c b b c, c c d c c d c c d, &c.Apart from this, however, there were undoubtedly other forms in existence (cf. Bartsch,Chrestomathie de l’ancien français, p. 413). Morris, in the Aldine edition of Chaucer’s Works, vol. vi, p. 305, gives a virelay of two-foot iambic verses in six-lined stanzas on the model
a a a b a a a b, b b b c b b b c c c c d c c c d, &c.
(quotedMetrik, i, § 155)
§323.Theroundel, used by Eustache Deschamps, Charles d’Orléans, and others, was introduced into English poetry, it seems, by Chaucer. But there are only a few roundels of his in existence; one of these occurs inThe Assembly of Fowles(ll. 681–8); if the verses of the burden are repeated, as printed in the Globe Edition, pp. 638–9, it has thirteen lines (a b ba ba ba b ba b b, the thick types showing the refrain-verses):
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake;Seynt Valentyn, that art ful by on lofte,Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshake.Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;Ful blisful mowe they ben when they awake.Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake.
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake;Seynt Valentyn, that art ful by on lofte,Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshake.Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;Ful blisful mowe they ben when they awake.Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake.
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake;
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake
And driven awey the longe nyghtes blake;
Seynt Valentyn, that art ful by on lofte,Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshake.
Seynt Valentyn, that art ful by on lofte,
Thus syngen smale foules for thy sake:
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake.
Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;Ful blisful mowe they ben when they awake.Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,That hast this wintres weders overshakeAnd driven awey the longe nyghtes blake.
Wel han they cause for to gladen ofte,
Sith ech of hem recovered hath his make;
Ful blisful mowe they ben when they awake.
Now welcom, somer, with thy sonne softe,
That hast this wintres weders overshake
And driven awey the longe nyghtes blake.
Three other roundels of Chaucer on the scheme last mentioned have been published lately by Skeat inChaucer’s Minor Poems, pp. 386–7; some other Middle English roundels were written by Hoccleve and Lydgate.
In French the roundel was not always confined to one particular metre, nor did it always consist of a fixed number of verses; the same may be said of the English roundels.
The essential condition of this form, as used by the French poets, was that two, three, or four verses forming a refrain must recur three times at fixed positions in a tripartite isometrical poem consisting mostly of thirteen or fourteen four- or five-foot verses. A common form of the French roundel consisted of fourteen octosyllabic verses on the model
a bb a a ba ba b b aa b.
Conforming to this scheme is a roundel by Lydgate[207]: