its own emptiness? ("A Bronze Head" 1–7) Other meters Although in English verse the rhyme royal stanza is overwhelmingly composed in iambic pentameter, occasionally other lines are employed. Thomas Wyatt used iambic dimeter in his Revocation: What should I say? —Since Faith is dead, And Truth away From you is fled? Should I be led With doubleness? Nay! nay! mistress. (1–7) Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem On an Icicle that Clung to the Grass of a Grave used anapestic tetrameter instead of iambic pentameter: Oh! take the pure gem to where southerly breezes, Waft repose to some bosom as faithful as fair, In which the warm current of love never freezes, As it rises unmingled with selfishness there, Which, untainted by pride, unpolluted by care, Might dissolve the dim icedrop, might bid it arise, Too pure for these regions, to gleam in the skies. (1–7) Other languages Outside English-speaking countries rhyme royal was never very popular. It was used in French poetry in the 15th century. Sometimes it occurred in Spanish and Portuguese poetry. Saint John of the Cross wrote the poem Coplas hechas sobre un éxtasis de harta contemplación. Portuguese playwright and poet Gil Vicente used rhyme royal scheme in his Villancete (in the English translation by Aubrey Fitz Gerald Aubertine, the rhyme scheme of the original text is altered): The villancete is similar in form to the Italian ballata mezzana (used by Guido Cavalcanti) or to the Spanish glosa. It consists of three stanzas: the first is a short envoi, followed by two seven-line stanzas. Danish poet Adam Oehlenschläger used rhyme royal in one poem in his Nordens guder. In Eastern Europe, rhyme royal is extremely rare. Polish poet Adam Asnyk used it in the poem Wśród przełomu (At the breakthrough). In Czech literature František Kvapil wrote the poem V hlubinách mraků (In Depths of Darkness) in rhyme royal. References External links They flee from me that Sometime did me Seek Rhyming dictionary Poetic forms Rhyme Stanzaic form