While the battle rages loud and long,
And the stormy winds do blow.
Similar stanzas occurring in the works of earlier poets, as Sidney and Spenser, correspond to the schemes a6 b a b b5 c c4 d2 b5 d2, a5 a2 b ~ c b ~ c D ~ D ~ E E3, &c. But generally speaking most of the earlier poets, as e.g. Donne, Cowley, and Suckling, prefer a simpler order of rhymes, the schemes being a a3 b b . c5 c c4 . d d d5, a4 a b b5 c c4 d d e e5, a5 a a2 b b c d d3 e e5, &c.; the more modern poets (Moore, Wordsworth, Swinburne), on the other hand, are fond of somewhat more complicated forms, as a4 b ~ b ~2 a a4 c ~ c ~2 d a d4, a b a4 b3 c c5 d e3 d4 e3, a b b4 a3 c d d e d4 d3, &c. (For specimens cf. Metrik, ii, §§ 480, 481.) A fine form of stanza corresponding to the formula a b c b c5 a3 d e e d5 is used by M. Arnold in his poem The Scholar Gipsy, and another on the scheme a a3 b c c b5 d3 e d e5 in Westminster Abbey, p. 479.
§ 295. Stanzas of eleven lines do not frequently occur in earlier poetry, and for the most part simple forms are employed, e.g. a b4 a b c d5 c d4 e e5 e4, a5 a b4 b5 c4 d3 c4 d3 e e4 e5, a a b b4 c3 d5 d3 c e e e5, &c.; the more recent poets, however, as Moore, Wordsworth, and R. Browning, have usually preferred a more intricate arrangement, as a ~ b c ~ d d a ~ b c ~2 e e e4, a b c4 b3 d e f f4 e3 g g4, a4 b3 a b c4 d3 c4 d3 e2 e3 e4. The last scheme occurs in a song by Moore:
How happy once, tho’ wing’d with sighs,
My moments flew along,
While looking on those smiling eyes,
And list’ning to thy magic song!
But vanish’d now, like summer dreams,