Chain Verse.—There is one beautiful poem in so-called chain verse, which has so much likeness to these once-exotic forms that it deserves quotation in full, if only as an example of a native specimen of poetic ingenuity. It has little affinity with the chain verse of French art, as then the one word only grew from each line into the other (La rime Enchaînée).
Dieu des Amans, de mort me garde
Me gardant donne-moi bonheur,
Et me le donnant prend ta darde
Et la prenant navre son coeur
Et le navrant me tiendras seur.
—Clement Marot.
The following hymn was written by John Byrom, and published in vol. ii. of his Posthumous Poems, 1773:—
THE DESPONDING SOUL'S WISH.
My spirit longeth for Thee,
Within my troubled breast,
Although I be unworthy
Of so Divine a Guest.
Of so Divine a Guest
Unworthy though I be,
Yet has my heart no rest,
Unless it comes from Thee.
Unless it comes from Thee,
In vain I look around;
In all that I can see
No rest is to be found.
No rest is to be found
But in thy blessèd love:
Oh, let my wish be crowned,
And send it from above.