four iambic
tetrameter lines, rhyming either alternately or in couplets; as,

"Wide as the world is Thy command;
Vast as eternity Thy love;
Firm as a rock Thy truth must stand,
When rolling years shall cease to move."

The _common-meter_ stanza contains four iambic lines, the first and
third being tetrameter, and the second and fourth trimeter. The rhymes
are alternate; as,

"Eternity, with all its years,
Stands present to Thy view;
To Thee there's nothing old appears,
To Thee there's nothing new."

The _short-meter_ stanza consists of four iambic lines, the first,
second, and fourth being trimeter, and the third tetrameter. The rhymes
are alternate; as,

"Let good or ill befall,
It must be good for me;
Secure of having Thee in all,
Of having all in Thee."

+53. Blank Verse.+ Unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter
measure, is known as _blank verse_. It is our ordinary epic and dramatic
verse, as exemplified in Shakespeare and Milton. Blank verse has greater
freedom than rhymed verse, but the attainment of a high degree of
excellence in it is scarcely less difficult. It approaches the ease and
freedom of prose, and perhaps for that reason it is apt to sink below a
high level of poetry.

Apart from its diction and meter, the harmony of blank verse depends
upon two things,--namely, its _pauses_ and its _periods_. The
rhythmical pause occurring in a line is called a _caesura_. Though
usually falling near the middle of the line, the caesural pause may occur
at any point, and sometimes there may be two caesuras. There is generally
a rhythmical pause at the end of a verse, and when this pause is
stressed by a completion of the sense the line is said to be
"end-stopt"; but if the sense awaits completion in the following verse,
the line is said to be "run-on." The French name _enjambement_ is
sometimes used to designate a "run-on" line. The following extract from
Thomson will serve to illustrate the caesural pauses, as well as
"end-stopt" and "run-on" lines:

"These as they change, | Almighty Father, | these
Are but the varied God. | The rolling year
Is full of thee. | Forth in the pleasant Spring
Thy beauty walks, | thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; | the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, | and every heart, is joy.