[§ 643]. Grouped together according to certain rules, measures constitute lines or verses; and grouped together according to certain rules, lines constitute couplets, triplets, stanzas, &c.
The absence or the presence of rhyme constitutes blank verse, or rhyming verse.
The succession, or periodic return, of rhymes constitutes stanzas, or continuous metre as the case may be.
The quantity of rhymes in succession constitutes couplets, or triplets.
The quantity of accents in a line constitutes the nature of the verse, taken by itself.
The succession, or periodic return, of verses of the same length has the same effect with the succession, or periodic return, of rhymes; viz., it constitutes stanzas, or continuous metre, as the case may be.
This leads to the nomenclature of the English metres. Of these, none in any of the trisyllabic measures have recognized and technical names; neither have any that are referable to the measure a x.
[§ 644]. Taking, however, those that are named, we have the following list of terms.
1. Octosyllabics.—Four measures x a, and (unless the rhyme be double) eight syllables. Common in Sir W. Scott's poetry.