[48] It is no doubt significant that the rhythmic pulses which come most naturally to us are in twos and threes and their multiples; while even to beat time in fives requires a special effort. In music 5/8 or 5/4 time is extremely rare. There is an example of the latter in Chopin's Sonata I (the larghetto movement).
[49] On the source and origin of the 5-stress couplet in English, authorities are in disagreement. See Alden, English Verse, pp. 177 ff., and the references there given.
[50] Note Professor Woodberry's praise of the heroic couplet for its simple music, its suppleness, its power of forcing brevity: "the best metrical form which intelligence, as distinct from poetical feeling, can employ." (Makers of Literature, p. 104.)
[51] See Pope's own analysis of his system of verse in a letter to Cromwell, November 25, 1710.
[52] For complete lists and examples of all the various stanzaic forms, the larger works of Alden and Schipper should be consulted.
[53] On its origin and the twenty-five poems in it by seventeen different poets, from Ben Jonson to Clough and Rossetti, before the publication of In Memoriam, see E. P. Morton in Modern Language Notes, 24 (1909), pp. 67 ff.
[54] H. Corson, Primer of English Verse, pp. 70 f.
[55] Early examples may be conveniently found in the Oxford Book of English Verse, Nos. 75, 96, 102, 108,172.
[56] For early examples see again the Oxford Book of English Verse, Nos. 74, 140, 182, 184, 187.
[57] There are two ottava rime in Lycidas, one at the close of the Blind Mouths passage and one at the end of the poem.