The centre of my rest, my stay,
Love’s all in all to me, myself a worm.
Similar stanzas both with this and other arrangements of rhymes (as e. g. a b a5 b3, a b a4 b2, a b a3 b5) are very popular. A specimen of the first of these formulas is found in M. Arnold’s Progress (p. 252), and one of the second in his A Southern Night (p. 294). For other examples see Metrik, ii, §§ 326–7.
More rarely a short verse begins the stanza (e.g. a3 b a b5 in Mrs. Hemans, The Wish, vi. 249), or is placed in the middle on the scheme a5 b2 a b5 (as in G. Herbert, Church Lock and Key, p. 61). For specimens see Metrik, ii, §§ 328, 329.
Stanzas of one isometrical and another anisometrical half are not frequently met with; a specimen of the form a b4 a5 b2 is found in G. Herbert’s Employment (p. 51).
More common are stanzas of two anisometrical halves; in this case either the two middle or the isolated verses are generally isometrical; e.g. on the scheme a5 b a4 b3 in G. Herbert, The Temper (p. 49):
How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rymes
Gladly engrave thy love in steel,
If what my soul doth feel sometimes,
My soul might ever feel!