That she may guiltless of it live:
So perish, that her killing thee
May a Chance-Medley, and no Murder be."—Cowley.
Section VII.—Of Pindaric odes, and poems in blank verse.
The stanzas of Pindaric odes are neither confined to a certain number of verses, nor the verses to a certain number of syllables, nor the rhymes to a certain distance. Some stanzas contain fifty verses or more, others not above ten, and sometimes not so many; some verses fourteen, nay, sixteen syllables, others not above four: sometimes the rhymes follow one another for several couplets together, sometimes they are removed six verses from each other; and all this in the same stanza. Cowley was the first who introduced this sort of poetry into our language: nor can the nature of it be better described than as he himself has done it, in one of the stanzas of his ode upon liberty, which I will transcribe, not as an example, for none can properly be given where no rule can be prescribed; but to give an idea of the nature of this sort of poetry.
"If Life should a well-order'd Poem be,
In which he only hits the White,
Who joins true Profit with the best Delight;
The more heroick Strain let others take,
Mine the Pindarick Way I'll make: