336 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. [July 
Here both the first and the third lines are trebled. Supposing the first only 
to have been trebled— 
Sweet Sussex owl, so trimly dight, 
With feathers, like a ladj r bright, 
Thou sing’st alone, sitting by night, 
Te whit, te whoo ! 
Thy note rolls forth as dies the light, 
Te whit, te whoo ! 
and the result is the famous Burns metre, the origin of which has been so 
much questioned. 
The second line of the verse may be reduced to a single unit 
Queen, for whose house my fathers fought, 
With hopes that rose and fell, 
Red star of boyhood’s fiery thought, 
Farewell. 
And seeing this, the question arises, may even that single unit be dropped, 
and the stanza end with a half-verse ? Almost certainly it may. Christina 
Rossetti has a stanza— 
The year stood at its equinox 
And bluff the north was blowing, 
A bleat of lambs came from the flocks, 
Green hardy things were growing: 
I met a maid with shining locks 
Where milky kine were lowing. 
Supposing the last line to be omitted— 
The year stood at its equinox, 
And bluff the north was blowing, 
A bleat of lambs came from the flocks, 
Green hardy things were growing; 
I met a maid with shining locks. 
Having first heard the full stanza it will doubtless sound incomplete; not 
unpleasing, but incomplete. But listen— 
Who is Silvia ? What is she 
That all our swains commend her ? 
Holy, fair, and wise is she, 
The heavens such grace did lend her, 
That she might admired be. 
That is the whole stanza. Is it complete or incomplete—pleasing or 
unpleasing ? I find it both incomplete and pleasing. 
Is she kind as she is fair ? 
For beauty li ves with kindness : 
Love doth to her eyes repair, 
To help him of his blindness ; 
And, being helped, inhabits there. 
Then to Silvia let us sing, 
That Silvia is excelling; 
She excels each mortal thing 
Upon the dull earth dwelling : 
To her let us garlands bring- 
(Our adoration telling ?) 
The stanza is one of Shakespeare’s wood-notes wild. He leaves it at a 
certain point before the song is quite finished, trusting to the imagina¬ 
tion of the hearer for the full rounding of the song ; and rarely is his 
