Men without Love have oft so cunning grown
That something like it they have shewn,
But none who had it, ev'r seem'd to have none.
Love's of a strangely open, simple kind,
Can no Arts or Disguises find,
But thinks none sees it, 'cause it self is blind.Cowl.
In the Stanzas of 4 Verses, the Rhyme may be intermix'd in two different manners; for either the 1st and 3d Verse may rhyme to each other, and by consequence the 2d and 4th, and this is call'd Alternate Rhyme; or the 1st and 4th may rhyme, and by consequence the 2d and 3d.
But there are some Poems in Stanzas of four Verses, where the Rhymes follow one another, and the Verses differ in number of syllables only; as in Cowley's Hymn to the Light, which begins thus,
First born of Chaos! who so fair didst come
From the old Negro's darksom Womb:
Which, when it saw the lovely Child,
The melancholy Mass put on kind Looks and smil'd.
But these Stanzas are generally in Alternate Rhyme, and the Verses consist either of 10 Syllables; as,
She ne'er saw Courts, but Courts could have undone
With untaught Looks and an unpractis'd Heart:
Her Nets the most prepar'd could never shun;
For Nature spread them in the scorn of Art.Dav.
Or of 8; as,