But presently makes night!
Like winter’s shortliv’d bright,
Or summer’s sudden gleams;
How much more dear, so much less lasting beams.
Similar stanzas have the schemes a b a b b3 c c5, a b a b c b4 c2, a b a b c c4 R2, a b a b c c4 C5, a b a b c c4 b3, a b a b4 c c2 a4, &c. For examples see Metrik, ii, §§ 401–3.
In many stanzas the first and the last part (frons and cauda) are anisometrical. Thus Donne, Cowley, and Congreve furnish many examples of the formulas a5 b4 a5 b4 c c4 b5, a ~4 b6 a ~4 b5 c c3 c4, a4 b5 a4 b5 c c2 b4, and later poets make frequent use of similar stanzas composed of shorter lines after the model of the following by Congreve, Poets, vii. 546 (a4 b ~3 a4 b ~3 c c4 b ~3):
Tell me no more I am deceived,
That Cloe’s false and common;
I always knew (at least believ’d)
She was a very woman;