A History of English Versification

by J. Schipper

Ant bohte vs wiþ is wounde,

Þe loue of hym vs haueþ ymaked sounde,

Ant yeast þe grimly gost to grounde.

Euer ant oo, nyht ant day, hi haueþ vs in is þohte,

He nul nout leose þat he so deore bohte.

This stanza is also interesting on account of its regular use of masculine rhymes in the first and in the third line, and of feminine rhymes in the others. The structure of the five-measured verses employed in this stanza has been referred to before (§ [153]).

Very often both main parts, the upsong and the downsong, have crossed rhymes in Modern English, e.g. in a form of stanza with the scheme a₅ b₃ a₅ b₃ c d₅ c₃ d₂ in Southey, To a Spider (ii. 180):

Spider! thou need’st not run in fear about

To shun my curious eyes;

I wont humanely crush thy bowels out,