"Indeed I must confess When Souls mix 'tis a Happiness, But not compleat 'till Bodies too combine, And closely as our Minds together join. But half of Heav'n the Souls in Glory taste } 'Till by Love in Heav'n at last } Their Bodies too are plac'd." }
Or, on the contrary, the three first may rhyme, and the four last be in rhymes that follow one another; as,
"From Hate, Fear, Hope, Anger, and Envy free, } And all the Passions else that be, } In vain I boast of Liberty: } In vain this State a Freedom call, Since I have Love; and Love is all. Sot that I am! who think it fit to brag That I have no Disease besides the Plague."—_Cowley._
Or the first may rhyme to the two last, the second to the fifth, and third and fourth to one another; as,
"In vain thou drowsy God I thee invoke, For thou who dost from Fumes arise, Thou who Man's Soul dost overshade With a thick Cloud by Vapours made, Canst have no Pow'r to shut his Eyes, Or Passage of his Spirits to choak, Whose Flame's so pure, that it sends up no Smoak."—_Cowley._
Or lastly, the four first and two last may be in the following rhyme, and the fifth a blank verse; as,
"Thou robb'st my Days of Bus'ness and Delights, Of Sleep thou robb'st my Nights. Ah lovely Thief! what wilt thou do? What, rob me of Heav'n too! Thou e'en my Prayers dost from me steal, And I with wild Idolatry Begin to God, and end them all in thee."—_Cowley._
The stanzas of nine and of eleven syllables are not so frequent as those of five and seven. Spenser has composed his "Fairy Queen" in stanzas of nine verses, where the first rhymes to the third, the second to the fourth, fifth and seventh, and the sixth to the last; but this stanza is very difficult to maintain, and the unlucky choice of it reduced him often to the necessity of making use of many exploded words; nor has he, I think, been followed in it by any of the moderns, whose six first verses of the stanzas that consist of nine are generally in rhymes that follow one another, and the three last a triplet; as,
"Beauty, Love's Scene and Masquerade, So well by well-plac'd Lights, and Distance made; False Coin! with which th' Imposter cheats us still, The Stamp and Colour good, but Metal ill: Which light or base we find, when we Weigh by Enjoyment, and examine thee. For tho' thy Being be but Show, 'Tis chiefly Night which Men to thee allow, And chuse t' enjoy thee, when thou least art thou." —_Cowley._