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Types of Verse	Stanzas	Sounds of Poetry
Meter & Foot	Rhymes	Rhyme Schemes
*Figures of Speech in Poetry*		More Poem Forms
Limericks	You're a Poet!	to Learning English

Stanzas: Stanzas are simply the divisions of a poem. They are classed by the number of lines they contain. There are several forms or types of stanzas, and they are marked by the rhyme scheme. There are eight basic stanza forms, and many more special ones which are often variations on the basic forms, based on content or a particular rhyme scheme more complicated than the basic stanzas. By no means does this brief look at poetry give ALL the terms or definitions.

Couplet= two-line stanza. A couplet's rhyme scheme is a-a.

Triplet = three-line stanza. The rhyme scheme may be a-a-a, or it may be a-b-a.

Quatrain=four-line stanza. With a rhyme scheme of a-b a-b, this is the most common stanza form in English poetry. Another scheme is a-b c-b. There are more.

Quintet=five-line stanza. One scheme is a-a b-b a. There are others.

Sestet=six-line stanza. A sample scheme is a-b c-b d-d. You notice that this is like a quatrain followed by a couplet.

Septet=seven-line stanza. One scheme can be: a-b-c-c-c-b.

Octave=eight-line stanza. There are all sorts of possibilities for rhyme schemes here. One is a-b a-b c-d c-d.

Spenserian stanza=eight iambic pentameter line, then an alexandrine ( a line of iambic hexameter).

Sonnets= fourteen line stanza with the form and rhyme scheme depending on the type of sonnet--Italian or English.

In the examples below, poems translated into English may not rhyme, depending on the translation. Look at these examples as those of form, not rhyme, in that case.

Couplets: Couplets are found everywhere, from serious to comic, in many

languages. Each couplet may give a complete thought (called a heroic or closed couplet), or they may be part of a larger

image or thought. Some poems are made entirely of couplets, others have couplets as part of a larger, multi-line stanza.

Farsi:

Naala-e
zanjeer-e Majnun arghanoon-e aashiqanast
Zauq-e aan andaza-e gosh-e ulul-albaab neest

The creaking of the chain of Majnun is the orchestra of the lovers,
To appreciate its music is quite beyond the ears of the wise.

Urdu:

poem in Urdu script.

It's compelling beauty makes all men Enjoy the glory of the bloom;

But the eye should take in every view, The brighter shades, the shades of gloom.

Chinese:

The girls go drawing the water from the brook

The men go gathering fire-wood on the hill.

Alive, they are the people of Ch'en Village;

Dead, they become the dust of Ch'en Village.

by Po Chu'l (Ninth Century A.D.)

Hawaiian:

Aia e ka nani i Puaka ilima
Kela ailana noho i ke kai

(There is beauty in Puaka ilima
That island that nestles in the sea)

No kai ka makani la a he Kona
Ha iha i lau la au o ka uka . . .

(From the sea comes the Kona wind
Tearing the leaves from the trees from the upland...)

Medieval to Modern Couplets

One More

Triplets: As with couplets, a triplet (or tercet) can be a stanza by itself, but is generally found within a larger stanza. The usual rhyme scheme for triplets is a-a-a. The tercet comes from Italian poetry, and the first and third lines rhyme. Unrhymed tercets are found very often in modern verse. A triad is a form of poetry made up of three tercets, and is used mostly in Welsh poetry. Triplets can be found in ancient to modern poetry. A complicated form of the triplet is called terza rima. The last example, Ode to the West Wind. is written in this rhyme scheme which is an interwoven scheme. a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d, and so on.

Upon Julia's Clothes

by Robert Herrick

Whenas in silks my Julia goes

Then, then, methinks, how sweetly flows

That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see

That brave vibration, each way free,

O, how that glittering taketh me!

Two More

and another

Quatrains: Rhyme schemes vary in this most common and popular stanza form of English language poetry. They can be a-b-a-b, a-b-b-a, a-a-b-b, a-b-a-c, or any other variation of which you can think. A ballad stanza has a rhyme scheme of a-b-c-b and a specific meter for each line. In blank verse, of course, there is no rhyme scheme at all. Try writing the rhyme schemes for these examples of quatrains:

Richard Cory

Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Century I --

The Prophecies of Nostradamus

Sitting alone at night in secret study;

it is placed on the brass tripod.

A slight flame comes out of the emptiness and

makes successful that which should not be believed in vain.

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Edward FitzGerald Translation.

Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse---and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness---
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.

Georgy Porgy

A Mother Goose Rhyme

Georgy Porgy, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play,
Georgy Porgy ran away.

One More

Quintets: Like quatrains, quintets ( also known as quintains or cinquains) can have several rhyme schemes. One of the most popular is a-a-b-b-a. (see also Limericks)

Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

by A. E. Housman

These, in the day when heaven was falling,
The hour when Earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay

One More

Sestets: A sestet (or sextain) is sometimes used when referring to the last six lines of a sonnet. (see Sonnets) Some possible rhyme schemes are: a-b-a-b-a-b, a-b-b-a-b-a-, a-b-e-a-b-c, a-b-c-a-c-b, a-b-a-c-b-a. Which rhyme schemes do the following poems use?

The Unknown Love

by Raymond Chandler

When the evening sun is slanting,

When the crickets raise their chanting,

And the dewdrops lie a-twinkling on the grass,

As I climb the pathway slowly,

With a mien half proud, half lowly,

O'er the ground your feet have trod I gently pass.

Round the empty house I wander,

Where the ivy now is fonder

Of your memory than those long gone away;

And I feel a sweet affection

For the plant that lends protection

To the window whence you looked on me that day.

The Freedom of the Moon

by Robert Frost

I've tried the new moon tilted in the air
Above a hazy tree-and-farmhouse cluster
As you might try a jewel in your hair.
I've tried it fine with little breadth of luster,
Alone, or in one ornament combining
With one first-water start almost shining.

I put it shining anywhere I please.
By walking slowly on some evening later,
I've pulled it from a crate of crooked trees,
And brought it over glossy water, greater,
And dropped it in, and seen the image wallow,
The color run, all sorts of wonder follow.

One more, written as a social comment on a certain type of society matron during World War II, in Britain.

EXAMPLE

Septets: This stanza form is not used as much as some others. Notice that the rhyme scheme for the first example is a a-a-a, b-b, c-c. A rime royal is a form of a septet which is in iambic pentameter and has a rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b-b-c-c.

from Lover's Complaint

by William Shakespeare

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw
The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage
Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age

This example is in the rime royal style.

EXAMPLE

Octaves: An octave is sometimes used when referring to the first eight lines of a sonnet. Just like the other longer stanzas, the rhyme schemes are numerous. Some common ones are: a-b-a-b-a-b-a-b, a-b-a-b-c-c-d-d, a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d, a-a-a-b-c-c-c-d, a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c. Ottava rima is a special kind of octave stanza originating in Italy. Its rhyme scheme is always a-b-a-b-a-b-c.

Two examples of octaves: (The Lord Byron poem is ottava rima.)

from Don Juan:

Lord Byron

But man is a carnivorous production,

And must have meals, at least one meal a day;

He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction,

But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey;

Although his anatomical construction

Bears vegetables, in a grumbling way,

Your labouring people think beyond all question

Beef, veal, and mutton, better for digestion.

Resume

Dorothy Parker

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live

Spenserian Stanza: This is a nine-line stanza which has eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last in iambic hexameter, also called an alexandrine. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c.

from The Faerie Queen

by Edmund Spenser

Like as a ship, that through the Ocean wyde
Directs her course vnto one certaine cost,
Is met of many a counter winde and tyde,
With which her winged speed is let and crost,
And she her selfe in stormie surges tost;
Yet making many a borde, and many a bay,
Still winneth way, ne hath her compasse lost:
Right so it fares with me in this long way,
Whose course is often stayd, yet neuer is astray.

Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet: A fourteen-line stanza which is made up of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The octave makes a statement or states a problem and the sestet summarizes the statement or gives an answer to the problem. The rhyme scheme is a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a for the octaves and either c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-d-c-d for the sestet.

Holy Sonnets: Death Be Not Proud

by John Donne

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
   Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
     Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
     From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
     And soonest our best men with thee do go,
     Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
     Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
   And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
   And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
   And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
   One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Time Does Not Bring Relief

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go,—so with his memory they brim!
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, "There is no memory of him here!"
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

English or Shakespearean Sonnet: This fourteen-line stanza has three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.

Sonnet 130

William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lip's red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hair be wires, black wires grow on her head;
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses I see in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, she treads on ground.
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

by e. e. cummings

if (touched by love's own secret) we, like homing
through welcoming sweet miracles of air
(and joyfully all truths of wing resuming)
selves, into infinite tomorrow steer

--souls under whom flow (mountain valley forest)
a million wheres which never may become
one (wholly strange; familiar wholly) dearest
more than reality of more than dream--

how should contented fools of fact envision
the mystery of freedom? yet,among
their loud exactitudes of imprecision,
you'll (silently alighting) and i'll sing

while at us very deafly a most stares
colossal hoax of clocks and calendars

A Few More Poem Forms: There are many more verse forms. Here are some of them. (See also You're A Poet!)

Rime enchainee is kind of a "chain rhyme" in which the last word of each line and the first word of the next have to rhyme, and the last word of the poem has to rhyme with the first. Here is an example:

The Squaddie

Men who live as danger's mate,

Fate alone must rule their lives.

Wives, and home, with all their pleasures,

Measures not against the game.

Fame escapes them, with its laurels

Floral tributes are not theirs.

Dares to do and dares to win,

Into battle once again.

~214

A rondeau is from France and was popular before the 17th century. It has 13 lines of tetrameter in three stanzas, with an unrhymed refrain ending the second and third stanzas. This refrain is derived form the words of the first line of the first stanza. Notice the rhyme scheme in the example.

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Villanelles have six stanzas consisting of five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a quatrain (four-line stanza) There are only two rhymes in the usual villanelle.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse me, bless me, now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light!

Another Example

Pantoums are poems that have a fixed form of four-line stanzas whose lines rhyme alternately, and with the second and fourth lines of each stanza repeated to become the first and third lines of the next stanza. The first and third lines of the first stanza then form the second and fourth of the last stanza, but in reverse order, so that the opening and closing lines of the poem are the same. The pantoum is from Malaysia, and was adopted by European writers. It sounds complicated until you realize you really only need four couplets for a four-stanza poem.

Difficult to find a friend,

One who sees the good inside you

Always with you to the end

One who's bond is always true.

One who sees the good inside you

Forgives each weak and petty sin

One who's bond is always true

Always with you--thick and thin.

Forgives each weak and petty sin,

Discards the flaws and loves the rest

Always with you--thick and thin.

Full acceptance with no test.

Discards the flaws and loves the rest

Always with you to the end.

Full acceptance with no test.

Difficult to find a friend.

~214

Sestinas are a fixed poem form of six 6-line (usually unrhymed) stanzas. The tricky bit is that the words at the end of each of the lines in the first stanza are repeated in each succeeding stanza in a rotating order. For even more confusion, the middle and end words of each of the lines should be used in the concluding tercet (three-line poem). This is the ending word order:

A. 1- 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
B. 6 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 4 - 3
C. 3 - 6 - 4 - 1 - 2 - 5
D. 5 - 3 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 4
E. 4 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 6 - 2
F. 2 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 3 - 1
Concluding tercet:
middle of first line - 2, end of first line - 5
middle of second line - 4, end of second line - 3
middle if third line - 6, end of third line - 1

As you can see, in the second stanza, the last word of the first line is the same word as the last word of the sixth line of stanza 1.

The last word of the second line is the same as the last word of the first line of stanza 1, and so on.

In the ending tercet, the last word of the second line of the first stanza is in the middle of the first line of the tercet.

The last word in the first line of the tercet is the last word in the fifth line of stanza 1. If you think this sounds complicated--it is. But rather fun to play with also.

Look at this example to get a better idea of how a sestina is constructed.

Example

The sapphic stanza has four lines. The first three lines are each eleven syllables long, and the last line is five syllables. The rhythm or "feet" of the lines are very specific also. The first three lines of the sapphic must have this rhythm: DAH dah | DAH dah | DAH dah dah | DAH dah | DAH dah.( see the eleven syllables?). The last, shorter line has this rhythm: DAH dah dah | DAH dah. As far as I could discover, there are no set number of stanzas in a sapphic.

Example

The kyrielle is a French verse form that generally has eight-syllable rhyming couplets. The couplets are sometimes in quatrains (four-line stanzas) and have a refrain (sometimes one word, sometimes a full line--the second line of the couplet or the full last line quatrain).

Kyrielle

by John Payne

A lark in the mesh of the tangled vine,
A bee that drowns in the flower-cup's wine,
A fly in sunshine,--such is the man.
All things must end, as all began.

A little pain, a little pleasure,
A little heaping up of treasure;
Then no more gazing upon the sun.
All things must end that have begun.

Where is the time for hope or doubt?
A puff of the wind, and life is out;
A turn of the wheel, and rest is won.
All things must end that have begun.

Golden morning and purple night,
Life that fails with the failing light;
Death is the only deathless one.
All things must end that have begun.

Ending waits on the brief beginning;
Is the prize worth the stress of winning?
E'en in the dawning day is done.
All things must end that have begun.

Weary waiting and weary striving,
Glad outsetting and sad arriving;
What is it worth when the goal is won?
All things must end that have begun.

Speedily fades the morning glitter;
Love grows irksome and wine grows bitter.
Two are parted from what was one.
All things must end that have begun.

Toil and pain and the evening rest;
Joy is weary and sleep is best;
Fair and softly the day is done.
All things must end that have begun.

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