§ 166. Unrimed Stanzas.

Unrimed stanzas, which can be recognized only by the arrangement of the contents and the regular sentence-pause after a certain number of verses, are found in some unrimed alliterative poems of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; cp. Kaluza, Strophische Gliederung in der mittelenglischen rein alliterierenden Dichtung, Engl. Stud. 16, 169–180. Thus The Wars of Alexander (EETS. ES 47) consists of clearly defined sections, each of which contains 24 verses. These are specially marked in the MS. These sections fall into six smaller sections, containing four verses. In the first Passus 11. 1-24, every four consecutive verses have the same alliterating sound (f, l, k, w, vowel, r). Crouned Kinge (EETS 54, 524-29) consists of 9 six-line stanzas, which can be divided into 2X8 or 4X4 verses. The legend De Erkenwalde (HorstAltengl. Legenden, Neue Folge 1881, p. 266 ff.) consists of 11 sections of 32 lines, which fall into smaller sections of 4X8 or 8X4 verses.

mann,

A twelve-line stanza, consisting of 3X4 verses, is found in The Sege of Jerusalem, where, too, every three stanzas form a larger group of 36 lines. Twelve groups of 36 lines compose a chief section of the poem, of which the formula is, therefore, 3×12×3×12 (=1296 verses). The same twelve-line stanza, consisting of three quatrains, is found in Cleanness and Patience, where, as in The Pearl, every set of five stanzas forms a larger

section of 60 verses. Two stanzas of Patience are given in § 159.

Stanzas, which were not clearly defined by the use of rime, easily become confused when frequently copied. In Morte Arthure and other poems there appear traces of a twelve-line stanza, but this cannot with certainty be proved from the texts we have.

The stanza of Sir Gawayn and the Green Knight is made clear by a conclusion (Abgesany) of rimed short lines (a,babag). The opening (Aufgesang) consists of an unfixed number (12-37) of unrimed alliterative lines, which, however, cannot be divided into regular smaller groups of four lines, as the unrimed stanzas, mentioned above; cp. ll. 516 ff.: After be sesoun of somer wyth be soft wyndez Quen zeferus syflez hymself on sedez and erbez, Wela-wynne is be wort þat woxes per-oute, When be donkande dewe dropez of be leuez, To bide a blysful blusch of þe brygt sunne. Bot ben hyzes heruest and hardenes hym sone, Warnez hym for be wynter to waxe ful rype. He dryues wyth droste pe dust for to ryse, Fro pe face of the folde to flyge ful hyge. Wrope wynde of þe welkyn be leuez lancen fro be lynde And al grayes be gres, þenne al rypez and rotez þat ros vpon fyrste, And bus zirnez be 3ere in gisterdayez mony, And wynter wyndez azayn, as be worlde askez

wrastelez with be sunne, and lygten on be grounde, þat grene watz ere.

no sage.

Til mezel-mas mone

Watz cumen wyth wynter wage;

ben þenkkez Gawan ful sone

Of his anious uyage.

NOTE. On the thirteen-line stanza (a b a b a babcdddc), composed of riming-alliterative verses, see § 175.

§ 167. The Rimed Couplet.

In

The simplest form of a rimed stanza is the rimed couplet, i.e. the joining of two consecutive verses by means of rime: a a. This can be looked on as a real stanza only when the sentence closes regularly with the second line, as in Ännchen von Tharau or in Schwab's Der Reiter und der Bodensee. early ME. the sentence ends with the second line in the septenary rimed couplets of Poema Morale, Samaritan Woman etc. (§ 128 ff.), and further in the short rimed couplet of King Horn (§ 116) and Havelok (§ 122). In the sixteenth century we find the same thing in the so-called poulter's measure (§ 228), in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the heroic couplet (§ 213, 227).

But most poets of old and modern times avoid closing the sentence with every couplet, since in long poems this becomes monotonous. In order to avoid this monotony many poets, especially Chaucer, close the sentence with the first verse of the couplet, and allow the second verse to run on into the first verse of the next couplet. Since the verses of the couplet are thus to some extent 'broken' from one another, this means of enlivening the poetic language is called 'rime-breaking' (MHG.

rime brechen).

This must not be confused with

'broken rime' (§ 139).

For examples in Chaucer see §§ 183. 190.

§ 168. Four-line Stanza a abb.

A four-line stanza a abb is formed by combining two rimed couplets. Here, too, of course, a real four-line stanza exists only when the sentence regularly ends with the fourth line. This occurs in many early ME. poems, Poema Morale, Samaritan Woman, King Horn etc. (§ 135). Shelley's Sensitive Plant and Moore's Evening Bells are written in this stanza:

Those evening bells! those evening bells!
How many a tale their music tells

Of youth, and home, and that sweet time
When first I heard their soothing chime.

A more definite end is given to the stanza when the fourth verse is a refrain, which recurs in all the stanzas of the poem, as in Dunbar's Lament for the Makaris:

I that in heill was and gladness

Am trublit now with greit seikness
And feblit wip infirmitee:

Timor mortis conturbat me.

NOTE. As an extension of this stanza we must look on the five-line stanza a abba, used in the pseudo-Chaucerian The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, and later by Dunbar; cp. Schipper Übungsbuch, 8th ed. p. 197:

This hindir nycht, befoir the dawing cleir,
Me thocht Sanct Francis did to me appeir,

With ane religiouss abbeit in his hand,

And said: 'In thiss go cleith the, my serwand,
Reffuss the warld, for thow mon be a freir.'

§ 169. Four-line Stanza a a aa.

The structure of the four-line stanza with a single rime aa aa is clear, since a new rime begins with each stanza. In early ME. we find such stanzas composed of septenaries (a a a a), e.g. in a prayer to the Virgin Mary (Old Engl. Mis., EETS 49, p. 192):

Iblessed be pu lauedi ful of heuene blisse,

Swete flur of paradis moder of mildernisse.
þu praie Jhesu Crist, þi sone, þat he me iwisse,
Ware a londe alswa ic be, þat he me ne imisse,

later also a aaa:

Suete Jesu, king of blysse,

myn huerte loue, min huerte lisse,

þou art suete myd ywisse,

wo is him þat þe shal misse.

(Böddeker, Altengl. Dichtungen, G. L. IV.)

NOTE. The six-line stanza a a a abb must be looked on as an extension of this stanza by means of an added couplet, cp. Minot's satirical poem against the Scots:

Skottes out of Berwik and of Abirdene,

At þe Bannokburn war ze to kene. þare slogh ge many sakles, als it was sene, And now has king Edward wroken it, I wene. It es wrokin, I wene, wele wurth be while; War git with be Skottes, for þai ar ful of gile. Here the opening (Aufgesang) and conclusion (Abgesang) are connected by concatenatio.