There are many other forms, sometimes very complicated, as e.g. a b a b5 a3, a b5 a2 b a6, a3 b a4 b3 a5, &c. (For examples see Metrik, ii, § 335.)
§ 260. The tail-rhyme stanzas shortened by one verse occupy an important position among the five-lined stanzas.
These curtailed forms occur as early as the Middle English period, e.g. in an envoi on the model a a4 b2 a4 b2, forming the conclusion of a poem in six-lined stanzas (a a a4 b2 a4 b2), printed in Wright’s Spec. of Lyr. Poetry, p. 38.
Ich wolde ich were a þrestelcok,
A bountyng oþer a lauerok.
Swete bryd!
Bituene hire curtel ant hire smok
Y wolde ben hyd.
In Modern English the common form of stanza is much employed, consisting of four- and three-foot verses, a a4 b3 a4 b3; there are many varieties of this scheme, as a a b a4 b3, a5 a b4 a5 b3, a a2 b a4 b3, &c. (cf. Metrik, ii, § 336).
A similar form, with shortening in the first half-stanza, also occurs in Middle English poetry, though only as an envoi of another form of stanza, viz, in the Towneley Mysteries (pp. 34–323):