Verse sb.

Forms: 1, 4 fers (1 færs, fyrs), 3 Orm. ferrs; 1–4 uers, 1, 3–4, 5–6 Sc., vers, 4–5 wers; 4– verse, 5, 6 Sc., werse; 5 veerse, veerce, 6 vearse, 5–6 Sc. veirs, 6 Sc. veirse. [OE. fers, corresponding to OFris. fers (WFris. fêrs, NFris. fês, etc.), MDu. (Du.) and MLG. vers, OHG., MHG. vers, fers (G. vers), ON. (Da., Sw.) vers, ad. L. versus a line or row, spec. a line of writing (so named from turning to begin another line), verse, f. vertĕre to turn; in ME. reinforced by or newly a. AF. and OF. (also mod.F.) vers (= Pr. vers, It., Sp., Pg. verso) from the same source.

  In OE. (the word being neuter), and to a certain extent in ME., the pl. was the same as the sing.]

  1.  A succession of words arranged according to natural or recognized rules of prosody and forming a complete metrical line; one of the lines of a poem or piece of versification.

c. 900.  trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxiv. (1890), 344. Þa ongon he sona singan in herenesse Godes Scyppendes þa fers [v.r. uers] & þa word þe he næfre ʓehyrde.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., xxxvii. (Z.), 218. Uersificor, ic fersiʓe oððe ic wyrce fers.

c. 1050.  Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 313. Þæt pentimemeris byð þe todælð þæt vers on þam oðrum fet.

c. 1200.  Ormin, Ded. 59. And icc ne mihhte nohht min ferrs Aȝȝ wiþþ Goddspelless wordess Wel fillenn all.

13[?].  Cato, 633, in Minor P. Vernon MS., 609. Þe [= thee] merueyles of þise nakede vers [that] Beoþ maked bi two and two.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blanche, I. 463. He made of ryme ten verses [v.r. vers] or twelue Of a complaynt.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Last Age Ch. (1840), 33. Sibille acordiþ herto þat suche tribulacioun is nyȝe in þes verse.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), ii. 5. As it es contende in þis werse, whilk es here writen.

1479.  Paston Lett., III. 242. Thes too verse afore seyde be of myn own makyng.

1483.  Caxton, Cato, 9. I haue made this lytel book in double verses the whiche conteynen two shorte and utyle sentences for the symple folke.

a. 1513.  Fabyan, Chron. (1516), 200. And for this Scisme thus graciously was endyd, a Vercifier made this verse folowynge: Lux fulsit mundo cessit Felix Nicholao.

1567.  in Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) [p. cxxxiv]. Sing thir four veirs efter euerie Psalme as followis.

1597–8.  Bacon, Ess., Ceremonies (Arb.), 26. Some mens behauiour is like a verse wherein euery sillable is measured.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xv. 316. When … the Spanish Embassadour … had summed up the effect thereof in a Tetrastich, she instantly in one verse rejoined her answer.

1664.  Butler, Hud., II. i. 28. But those that write in Rhime, still make The one Verse for the others sake.

1709.  Hearne, in Chron. R. Gloucester (1724), App. 601. There are eight Verses in the Tale it self, which are not in the common Editions.

a. 1771.  Gray, Observ. Eng. Metre, Wks. 1843, V. 260. The verse of fourteen [syllables] … and verse of six.

1822.  S. Tillbrook, in Southey’s Poet. Wks. (1853), p. xx/2. Eight verses of hexametrical dimensions.

1842.  Penny Cycl., XXII. 370/1. An hexameter verse which has a spondee in the fifth place, is called a spondaic verse.

1895.  A. W. Ward, Pope’s Wks., p. li. The ordinary rule as to the position of the cæsura in the verse.

  b.  In the pl. occas. merging into sense 5.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 14. He hadde many verses techyng folkis to eschewe their propre willes.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, lix. 16. He hes indorsit myn indytting With versis off his awin hand vrytting.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., June, 42. Tho couth I sing of loue, and tune my pype Vnto my plaintiue pleas in verses made.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., III. iii. 34. Cinna. I am Cinna the Poet…. 4[th Cit.] Teare him for his bad verses.

a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, Love’s Convert, IV. v. They do swarm hither with their Verses, like Town-poets on some Lord’s Son’s Wedding-day.

1714.  (title) Rymer’s Translations from Greek, Latin and Italian Poets; with other Verses and Songs.

1779.  Johnson, L. P., Lyttelton, ¶ 1. The verses cant of shepherds and flocks, and crooks dressed with flowers.

1805.  H. K. White, Lett. to B. Maddock, 18 Oct. I have this week written some very elaborate verses for a college prize.

  c.  With distinguishing terms. (Cf. 6 c.)

1546.  Langley, trans. Pol. Verg. De Invent., I. viii. 16. A songe of Exameter Verses.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 377. To write in heroicall Verses.

1603.  Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1246. A chronicler penning the historie of these affaires in elegiack verses.

1605, 1656.  [see SERPENTINE a. 1 b].

1658.  [see LEONINE a. 2].

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Hexameter, Epic Poems, as the Iliad, Odyssee, Æneid, &c. consist of Hexameter Verses alone. Ibid., Serpentine Verses, are such as begin and end with the same Word.

1756.  J. Warton, Ess. Pope, x. (1782), II. 211. Like Ovid’s Fasti, in hexameter and pentameter verses.

1774.  Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry (1870), 30. The verses which we call Alexandrine.

1815.  [see FESCENNINE a.].

1818.  J. C. Hobhouse, Hist. Illustr. (ed. 2), 442. [Italian] heroic verses have not the advantage of the hexametral length.

  2.  Liturg. = VERSICLE 1. Now rare.

c. 960.  Rule St. Benet, ix. (1885), 33. Cweþe ærest þis fers: Deus in adiutorium meum intende. Ibid., xi. 35. Singe man ærest six sealmas and þonne on ende fers. Ibid (c. 1030), (Logeman), 41. Efter þisum rædingum fylian … syx sealmas mid antiphonam, swa swa þa æreran & mid ferse.

a. 1400.  Prymer (1891), 88. R’. Delyuere me lord. With these thre ueers. V’. Now cryst. V’. Brennynge soules wepiþ [etc.]. V. Schappere of alle þynges.

c. 1450.  Myrr. our Ladye, 114. What is vnderstonded by the thre lessons wyth the Responces & verses folowynge.

a. 1500.  Chaucer’s Dreme, 1806. Many orisones and verses, Withoute note full softely Said were and that full heartily.

1548–9.  (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Pref. Respondes, Verses, vaine repeticions.

1627.  Cosin’s Corr. (Surtees), I. 111. Doth he begin with the Lord’s Prayer; orderly proceeding with the Verses and Responds.

1657.  Sparrow, Rationale, 29. Then follow the Verses, ‘O Lord open Thou our Lips, And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise.’

1762.  Evening-Office of Church (ed. 2), Direct. 3. Then is sung the Hymn with its Verse and Responsory.

1763.  Burn, Eccl. Law, I. 38. The invitatories, responsories, verses, collects, and whatever is said or sung in the quire.

1877.  J. D. Chambers, Div. Worship, 91. The Gradual, Alleluya, and Responsory and Verses.

  † 3.  A clause, sentence or the like; an article of the Creed. Obs.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., l. (Z.), 291. Se þridda hatte distinctio oððe periodos, se belycð þaet fers [v.rr. færs, fyrs]. Ibid. (c. 1000), Pref. Genesis (Grein), 23. Eft stynt on þære bec on þam forman ferse: Et spiritus det ferebatur super aquas.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 75. Þet rihte ileue setten þe twelue apostles on write,… & ec of heom wrat ther of his uers, & sancte peter wrat þet ereste. Ibid., 77. We habbeð bigunnen ou to seggen on englisch hwat biqueþ þe crede, & habbeð ou iseið twa uers.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., V. xi. 3495. Sancte Ierome wrat til hym … Gloria Patri in til twa werse.

1535.  Coverdale, Deut. iv. 13. He declared vnto you his couenaunt, which he commaunded you to do, namely, the ten verses.

1560.  Proude Wyves Pater Noster, 116, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 157. I pray you, gossyp dere, vnderstand well this verse.

  4.  One of the sections of a psalm or canticle corresponding to the compound unit (usually a couplet) of Hebrew poetry. (Now merged in next.)

c. 1200.  Ormin, 11943. Forr þær iss sett an oþerr ferrs Þatt spekeþþ off þe deofell.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 36. Þe vorme psalm is ‘Iubilate’…, þe vifte, ‘Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus’; and in euerichon beoð vif vers.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 34. [He] seide þeos two vers of þe sauter. Ibid., 225. Þe foweles sunge ek here matyns,… & of þe sauter seide þe uers.

c. 1325.  Spec. Gy Warw., 460. Sein Daui seiþ, if þu wolt loke In a vers of þe sauter boke [etc.].

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XII. 290. Þe glose graunteth vpon þat vers [Ps. xxiii. 4] a gret mede to treuthe.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., V. xi. 3508. Of þe psalmys distyntly Þe ta syde sulde þe fyrst werse say, Þe toþir þe next werse ay Sulde begyn.

c. 1450.  Rewle Sustris Menouresses (1915), 103. Þan þe quere on þat one syde schal take his verse, & þe Quere on þat oþer syde schal take anoþer verse [of Ps. li].

1508.  Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps. cxxx. Wks. (1876), 208. It is also profytable for good & ryghtwyse people ofte to reherse this verse [Ps. cxxx. 1] wherby they may auoyde the grete perylles of this wretched worlde.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 163 b. Yf … for ony necessite, a psalme scape ony persone, or a lesson, or else y^t they omyt one verse or twayne.

  b.  One of the sections into which a chapter of the Bible is divided. Freq. abbreviated as v.

  The practice of dividing the chapters of the Bible into verses, introduced by Stephanus in 1551, was adopted by Whittingham in his New Testament (1557), and followed in the Geneva Bible (1560).

  Chapter and verse: see CHAPTER sb. 10 b.

1560.  Bible (Geneva), To Rdr. The argumentes bothe for the booke and for the chapters with the nombre of the verse are added.

1643.  Caryl, Expos. Job, 178. Verse 2 [of ch. iii.]…. This verse is only a transition into the matter of the next.

1678.  Butler, Hud., III. ii. 1170. One single Red-Coat Sentinel … could disperse Whole Troops, with Chapter rais’d, and Verse.

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., John viii. 3. The last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and the eleven first Verses of this Chapter.

1729.  Law, Serious C., i. 8. That Religion … is to be found in almost every verse of Scripture.

1818.  Horne, Introd. Script. (1834), II. 75. The verses into which the New Testament is now divided.

1847.  Kitto’s Cycl. Bibl. Lit., II. 909, note. The twentieth verse of the tenth chapter of Matthew.

1888.  E. Abbot, Crit. Ess., xx. 465. The first edition of the New Testament divided into our present verses was printed by Robert Stephens at Geneva in 1551.

  Comb.  1855.  I. Taylor, Restor. Belief (1856), 186. A verse-by-verse commentary.

  5.  A small number of metrical lines so connected by form or meaning as to constitute either a whole in themselves or a unit in a longer composition; a stanza.

  In quots. c. 1340 and 1387 applied to elegiac and hexameter couplets. In later use the pl. is sometimes not clearly distinct from 1 b.

c. 1308.  Sat. Kildare, i., in E. E. P. (1862), 153. Þis uers is ful well iwroȝt, hit is of wel furre y-broȝt. Ibid., iii. Þis uers is imakid wel of consonans and wowel.

c. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 246. Of þis Saynt Bernard witnes bers And er þa four wryten in þis vers.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 83. So hit semeþ þat þis vers wolde mene þat þese feyned goddes regneþ … in Chestre.

1502.  Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. xcii. In laude of honour I wrait thir versis thre.

1573–80.  Baret, Alvearie, s.v., A verse: a charme: a prophesie, carmen.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus, Ann., III. xiii. (1622), 83. The Smyrnæans alleaged an oracle of Apollo,… the Tenians a verse [L. carmen] of the same Apollo, commanding them to offer an image and Temple to Neptune.

1601.  Shaks., Twel. N., II. iv. 7. Now good Cesario, but that peece of song, That old and Anticke song we heard last night;… Come, but one verse.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 74, ¶ 5. The Country of the Scotch Warriors, described in these two last Verses [of ‘Chevy Chase’].

1793.  Burns, Lett. to G. Thomson, 7 April. I remember the two last lines of a verse in some of the old songs of ‘Logan Water,’… which I think pretty.

1801.  Busby, Dict. Mus., s.v., In secular music, as a song or ballad, each stanza of the words is a verse.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, xxvi. A young lady proceeded to entertain the company with a ballad in four verses.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiii. 167. It was at once proposed to sing a verse from Schiller’s play.

  b.  Mus. (See quot.)

1801.  Busby, Dict. Mus., Verse, the appellation given to those portions of an anthem meant to be performed by a single voice to each part.

  6.  Without article: Metrical composition, form or structure; language or literary work written or spoken in meter; poetry, esp. with reference to metrical form. Opposed to prose.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 22227. We wat bath thoru stori and wers, Þat þe kingrikes o grece and pers War hefd kingrikes in form tide.

14[?].  Chaucer’s Sompn. T., 297 (Harl. MS.). Schortly may no man, by rym and vers, Tellen her thoughtes, thay ben so dyvers.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., V. xi. 3492. This Damasyus … Couth mak rycht weill in metyre vers.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 50. That Verse farre exceedeth Prose in the knitting vp of the memory, the reason is manifest.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvi. 141. In antient time, before letters were in common use, the Lawes were many times put into verse.

1696.  Prior, Secretary, 16. Athens…, Where people knew love, and were partial to verse.

1728.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Stanza, For though we speak Verse on the Stage, ’tis still presumed we are speaking Prose.

1779.  Johnson, L. P., Dryden (1868), 186. To write verse, is to dispose syllables and sounds harmonically by some known and settled rule.

1827.  Pollok, Course T., III.

1883.  R. Noel, in Contemp. Rev., Nov., 709, note. We find … much nakedly argumentative ratiocinative verse, but that is not, strictly speaking, poetry at all.

  personif.  1580.  Spenser, Lett. to Harvey, Wks. (1912), 636. Unhappy Verse,… Make thy selfe fluttring wings of thy fast flying Thought.

c. 1645.  Milton, Sonn. to Lawes, 9. Thou honour’st Verse, and Verse must lend her wing To honour thee.

  b.  Freq. in verse, in metrical form. Also fig. (quot. 1390).

c. 1315.  Shoreham, VII. 191. O god hyt hys, and stent in uers Ine þulke song [= Athanasian Creed].

1340.  Ayenb., 128. He wenþ libbe yet uourti yer, ase zayþ elyuans ine uers of þe dyaþe.

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 3. For Dronkeschipe is so divers, It may no whyle stonde in vers.

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VI. x. 859. His epitaphi þan in werse Wryttyn þus men may rahers.

1483.  Caxton, Cato, 3. Two partyes—the fyrst is in prose and the second in verse.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xxxii. 43. I will no lesingis put in vers.

1557.  Tottel’s Misc., To Rdr. That to haue wel written in verse … deserueth great praise [etc.].

1586.  W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 30. Thinking nothing to be learnedly written in verse, which fell not out in ryme.

1643.  Caryl, Expos. Job, 178. Job breaths out his passion in verse, and in verse receives his answer.

1689.  Prior, Ep. to Fleetwood Shephard, 97. In Verse or Prose, We write or chat.

1762–71.  H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 132. The Introduction to knowledge, partly in verse and partly in prose.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, II. 124. In Crete and at Sparta … the maxims of the constitution were delivered in verse.

1841.  W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 272. The Romans choose this form … for conveying their feelings in verse.

  c.  With distinguishing terms. (Cf. 1 c.)

  Adonic, Alexandrine, blank, elegiac, heroic(al, hexameter, Leonine, Saturnian verse, etc.: see those words.

1552.  Huloet, s.v., Verse heroicall, or of sixe feete, versus heroicus.

1585.  Jas. VI., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 68. For flyting, or Inuectiues, vse … Rouncefallis, or Tumbling verse.

1685.  Dryden (title), The twenty-ninth Ode of the third Book of Horace; paraphrased in Pindarick Verse.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 39, ¶ 5. Aristotle observes, that the Iambick Verse in the Greek Tongue was the most proper for Tragedy.

1855.  Milman, Lat. Chr., XIV. iv. VI. 488. An interminable length of harsh hexameter, or of elegiac verse.

  7.  The metrical or poetical compositions of a particular author, etc.; a certain amount of metrical work or poetry considered as a whole.

1586.  W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 32. Lydgate…, surely for good proportion of his verse … comparable with Chawcer.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., V. i. 101. Thus your Verse Flow’d with her Beautie once.

c. 1715.  Pope, Ep. Jervas, 1. This Verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse This, from no venal or ungrateful Muse.

1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. xxxii. Till to her lips in measured frame The minstrel verse spontaneous came.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 401. The verse of Waller still breathed the sentiments which had animated a more chivalrous generation.

1906.  Lit. World, 15 Nov., 487/2. Some of the poems are spoiled by … hate of England…. Had it been omitted the verse would have been improved.

  † b.  A particular style of meter or versification.

1586.  W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 30. A singuler gyft in a sweete Heroicall verse. Ibid., 34. Master D. Phaer … had the best peece of Poetry whereon to sette a most gallant verse.

  8.  attrib., as verse-book, -craft, -cup, -shot, -wit, etc.; verse anthem (see quots.); † verse-fellow, a fellow or companion verse-maker; verse-service (see quots.).

1801.  Busby, Dict. Mus., *Verse,… the epithet applied to an anthem beginning with verse.

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, 446/1. A verse anthem is one which begins with soli portions as opposed to a full anthem, which commences with a chorus.

1849.  Lytton, Caxtons, 22. Rude songs, modelled from such *verse-books as fell into my hands.

1891.  Boston Even. Transcript, 2 March, 6/5. Most of them [Stoddard’s poems] hint at scholarship, mastery of the technique of verse-craft, and refinement of literary taste.

1894.  Daily News, 20 Oct., 6/1. Her [Louise Chandler Moulton’s] own skill in *versecraft gives her unusual felicity of insight.

1885.  S. Cox, Expositions, xxii. 290. We have kept the best wine in this little *Verse-cup until now.

1592.  Nashe, Four Lett. Confuted, Wks. (Grosart), II. 235. To beare his old *verse-fellow noble M. Valanger company.

1851.  J. S. Adams, 5000 Mus. Terms, 105. *Verse service, a service in which verses are introduced.

1889.  Grove’s Dict. Music (1902), IV. 257. A verse-service or verse-anthem sometimes includes portions set for a voice solo.

1794.  Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1797), II. 13, note. Before they were half finished,… as many of the others as were within hearing or *verse-shot … were all found fast asleep!!!

1668.  Dryden, Evening’s Love, III. i. The prose-wits playing and the *verse wits rooking.

  b.  In the sense ‘composed or written in, consisting of, verse,’ as verse-exercise, miscellany, narrative, -part, -tale, -text, translation, etc.

1685.  Dryden, Sylvæ, Pref. ¶ 1. The hot [prose], which succeeded them, in this volume of Verse Miscellanies.

1687.  Norris, Coll. Misc., Pref. (1699), 4. Thus much for the Verse-part.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit., 23. In verse or prose, or in verse-text aided by prose-comment.

1881.  Encycl. Brit., XII. 19/1. Verse narrative, even when it deals with true events,… is either more or less than history.

1896.  R. Palmer, Mem., I. I. viii. 122. He … gained both the University prizes for verse-exercises.

  c.  Comb. Objective or obj. genitive, as verse-gracer, -merchant, -reciter, -smith, -wright, -writer; verse-making, reading, -repeating ppl. a., -writing; instrumental, as verse-commemorated adj. Also verseward adv.

1842.  S. C. Hall, Ireland, II. 339. The long celebrated and *verse-commemorated month of August.

1881.  W. Wilkins, Songs of Study, 127. *Verse-gracer! deign to grace mine With lucky chosen words.

1811.  Andw. Scott, Poems, p. x. My attachment to *verse-making.

1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 147. A father taught the trade of flute-playing and chorus-leading and verse-making to his son.

1845.  Browning, Lett. (1899), I. 18. The Rialto where *verse-merchants most do congregate.

1585.  Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 31. Ye procure By your lasciuious speache, that fathers sage Defends *verse reading, to their yonger age.

1822.  Shelley, To Jane, The Invitation, 36. You, tiresome *verse-reciter, Care.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Dial. Dead, Wks. 1711, IV. 75. The *Verse-repeating Beaux of Will’s Coffee-House.

1820.  T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 205. Ye *verse-smiths and bard-mechanicians!

1887.  Saintsbury, Hist. Elizab. Lit., i. (1890), 8. The supposed editor … is but a journeyman verse-smith.

1810.  Miss Mitford, Lett., 3 April, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. 99. That feeble *verse-spinner Bloomfield.

1809.  Byron, Bards & Rev., 230. But if, in spite of all the world can say, Thou still wilt *verseward plod thy weary way.

1729.  Savage, Wanderer, I. 335. These scorn (said I) the *verse-wright of their age.

1840.  Pierpont, Airs Palestine, p. v. The pieces that make up this volume will be seen … to be … the wares of a verse-wright, made ‘to order.’

1726.  Swift (title), Advice to the Grub-street *Verse-Writers.

1885.  Pater, Marius, I. vii. 121. A familiar playfulness of the Latin verse-writer in dealing with mythology.

1850.  Thackeray, Pendennis, ii. If he was distinguished for anything it was for *verse-writing.

1884.  Tennyson, Becket, II. ii. So if the city be sick … your lordship would suspend me from verse-writing?