A History of English Versification

by J. Schipper

The full reward, and glorious fate,

Which my strong faith shall purchase me,

Then curse thine own inconstancy.

For other specimens in lines of five, three, and four feet see Metrik, ii. 307.

Much less common is the form a b b a b, which occurs e.g. in Coleridge’s Recollections of Love (a b b a b₄).

Five-lined stanzas of crossed rhymes are not very rare; an example of the form a b a b a₄ is found in R. Browning’s The Patriot (iv. 149):

It was roses, roses, all the way,

With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:

The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,

The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,