Those moments smile no more;
For me that eye no longer beams,
That song for me is o’er.
Mine the cold brow,
That speaks thy alter’d vow,
While others feel thy sunshine now.
§ 296. Stanzas of twelve lines are more frequent, possibly on account of the symmetrical arrangement of the stanza in equal parts, twelve being divisible by three. They are constructed on different models, e.g. a a5 b3 b a5 c3 d5 d c4 c5 e e5, a a4 b ~ b ~ c3 c2 d3 d2 e f3 f1 e3, a4 b2 b1 a3 c ~4 d ~4 c ~2 e ~ e ~ f ~ f ~3 (bob-verse stanzas), a b4 c ~ c ~2 a4 b3 d d e4 f2 f4 e5, &c., occurring in earlier poets, such as Donne, Browne, Dryden, &c. Similar stanzas, partly of a simpler structure (a b b a5 a6 c c4 b5 d d e4 e5,a ~ b a ~ b3 c c4 d d3 e ~ f3 e ~ f2, and a a4 b2 c c4 b1 b4 a2 D E ~ F E4 ~), are found in modern poetry; the last scheme, resembling the tail-rhyme stanza, occurring in Tennyson (p. 12):
A spirit haunts the year’s last hours
Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers:
To himself he talks;