erfully made.'"

Numerous examples of the four-line stanza have already been given.

_Rhyme royal_ is a seven-line stanza invented by Chaucer. As will be
seen from the following example, it is made up of iambic pentameter
lines, the first four forming a quatrain of alternate rhymes, the fifth
line repeating the rhyme of the fourth, and the last two lines forming a
rhyming couplet. Its scheme is _a b a b b c c_, in which the same
letters indicate rhymes.

"For lo! the sea that fleets about the land,
And like a girdle clips her solid waist,
Music and measure both doth understand,
For his great crystal eye is always cast
Up to the moon, and on her fixeth fast;
And as she circles in her pallid sphere,
So danceth he about the centre here."

_Ottava rima_ is composed of eight iambic pentameter verses with
alternate rhymes, except the last two lines, which form a rhymed
couplet. Byron's "Don Juan" is written in this stanza. The scheme of
rhyme is _a b a b a b a c_.

"'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home;
'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
Our coming, and look brighter when we come;
'Tis sweet to be awakened by the lark
Or lulled by falling waters; sweet the hum
Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds,
The lisp of children, and their earliest words."

The _Spenserian stanza_, invented by Edmund Spenser and employed by him
in the "Faerie Queene," is a difficult but effective form of poetry. It
consists of nine verses, the first eight being iambic pentameter, and
the ninth line iambic hexameter, or Alexandrine. Its rhyme scheme is _a
b a b b c b c c_. The following from Byron's "Childe Harold" will serve
for illustration:

"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell,
To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled."

The principal hymn stanzas are known as _long meter_, _common meter_,
and _short meter_. The _long-meter_ stanza is composed of