This stanza occurs very frequently (cf. Metrik, ii, § 321), but is rarely formed of trochaic verses.
Another rare variety on the scheme a ~ b3 c4 b3 is found in Mrs. Hemans, The Stream is free (vii. 42), and in M. Arnold’s The Neckan (p. 167).
Similar to the common Poulter’s Measure stanza is another stanza of iambic-anapaestic verses on the formula a a3 b4 a3 (in b middle-rhyme is used, so that the scheme may also be given as a a3 b b2 a3.)We find it in Burns, the a-rhymes being masculine (p. 245) and feminine (p. 218).
Four-lined stanzas of two rhyming couplets of unequal length are fairly common; as e.g. on the model a a5 b b4 in Dryden, Hymn for St. John’s Eve:
O sylvan prophet! whose eternal fame
Echoes from Judah’s hills and Jordan’s stream,
The music of our numbers raise,
And tune our voices to thy praise.
Other schemes that occur are a a4 b b5, a a b4 b5, a a b4 b2, a a4 b3 b2, a4 a2 b b4, a5 a3 b b5; there are even forms with lines of unequal length in each part, as e.g.: a4 a5 b7 b5, a7 a4 b2 b6, a5 a3 b5 b4, a5 a4 b4 b6. For examples see Metrik, ii (§§ 322–4).