§ 149. In Modern English the Alexandrine is also found in a long-lined rhyming form, as, for instance, in the sixteenth century in certain poems by Sidney, but notably in Drayton’s Polyolbion.
The Modern English Alexandrine is particularly distinguished from the Middle English variety by the fact that the four types of the Middle English Alexandrine are reduced to one, the caesura being regularly masculine and the close of the line nearly always so; further by the very scanty employment of the Teutonic rhythmical licences; cf. the opening lines of the Polyolbion (Poets, iii. pp. 239 ff.):
Of Álbion’s glórious ísle | the wónders whílst I wríte,
The súndry várying sóils, | the pléasures ínfiníte,
Where héat kills nót the cóld, | nor cóld expéls the héat,
The cálms too míldly smáll, | nor wínds too róughly gréat, &c.
Minor caesuras seldom occur, and generally in the second hemistich, as, e.g., minor lyric caesuras after the first foot:
Wise génius, | bý thy hélp || that só I máy descrý.
240 a;