§ 292. The most important of the Modern English eight-lined stanzas, however, is an isometrical one on a foreign model, viz. a stanza of hendecasyllabic or rather five-foot verses corresponding to the Italian ottava rima, on the scheme a b a b a b c c. This stanza, which has always been very popular in Italian poetry, was introduced into English by Wyatt and Surrey; in Surrey we have only an isolated specimen, in To his Mistress (p. 32):
If he that erst the form so lively drew
Of Venus’ face, triumph’d in painter’s art;
Thy Father then what glory did ensue,
By whose pencil a Goddess made thou art,
Touched with flame that figure made some rue,
And with her love surprised many a heart.
There lackt yet that should cure their hot desire:
Thou canst inflame and quench the kindled fire.
The stanza was often used by Wyatt, Sidney, and Spenser for reflective poems, and by Drayton and Daniel for epic poems of some length. In modern literature it has been used by Frere, Byron (Beppo, Don Juan), Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth, Longfellow, and others (cf. Metrik, ii, § 579).