Or of 8; as,
O fairest Piece of well-form'd Earth,
Why urge you thus your haughty Birth;
The Pow'r, which you have o'er us, lies
Not in your Race, but in your Eyes.
Smile but on me, and you shall scorn
Henceforth to be of Princes born;
I can describe the shady Grove,
Where your lov'd Mother slept with Jove;
And yet excuse the faultless Dame,
Caught with her Spouse's Shape and Name;
Thy matchless Form will Credit bring,
To all the Wonders I shall sing.Wall.
Or of 7; as,
Phillis, why should we delay
Pleasures shorter than the Day?
Could we, which we never can,
Stretch our lives beyond their Span.
Beauty like a Shadow flies,
and our Youth before us dies,
and our Youth before us dies,
Or would Youth and Beauty stay,
Love has Wings, and will away.
Love has swifter Wings than Time. Wall.
But the second Verse of the Couplet does not always contain a like number of Syllables with the first; as,
What shall I do to be for ever known,
And make the Age to come my own?
I shall like Beasts and common People dye,
Unless you write my Elegy.Cowl.
SECT. II.
Of the Poems compos'd in Stanzas: And first, of the Stanzas consisting of three, and of four Verses.
In the Poems composed in Stanzas, each Stanza contains a certain number of Verses consisting for the most part of a different number of Syllables: And a Poem that consists of several Stanzas, we generally call an Ode; and this is Lyrick Poetry.