A History of English Versification

by J. Schipper

or on a₄ b₃ a₄ b₅ in Milton, Psalm V (vol. iii, p. 24):

Jehovah, to my words give ear,

My meditation weigh;

The voice of my complaining hear,

My king and God, for unto thee I pray.

Stanzas like these are very much in vogue, and may be composed of the most varied forms of verse (cf. Metrik, ii; § 330)

§ 259. Among the five-lined stanzas the first place must be given to those in which the arrangement of rhymes is parallel, as these are found in Middle English as well as in Modern English poetry. A stanza of form a a a₄ b₃ b₆ occurs in Wright’s Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 60:

Wynter wakeneþ al my care,

nou þis leues waxeþ bare;

ofte y sike ant mourne sare,