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A sequence of lines within a poem are often separated into sub-units, the stanza. Two aspects of stanza form are particularly relevant for the analysis of poetry: First, a stanza form is always used to some purpose, it serves a specific function in each poem. There are no general rules about such functions, the student or critic analysing the poem has to decide in each case afresh which is the function in the particular poem he or she is dealing with. (For an example of function see the SO WHAT section below). Second, well-known stanza forms stand in a certain tradition. The sonnet for instance started its career in English poetry as a love poem. When John Donne starts using the sonnet for religious topics he places himself within a tradition of love poetry. The very choice of the form contributes to the intensely personal explorations of the speaker's relation to God in Donne’s religious sonnets. It is thus useful to be aware of the origin and history of a stanza form, since this enables one to judge whether a poet makes use of a tradition or writes against it. (See Saintsbury 1923 for a comprehensive and Fussell 1967 for a slightly shorter overview of the historical dimensions of certain stanza forms). There are a great number of different stanza forms available to a poet writing in the English (and that generally means European) tradition. The main ones are given in the following list. Stichic verse is a continuous run of lines of the same length and the same metre. Most narrative verse is written in such continuous lines. Lyric poetry, because it is closer to song, usually uses stanzas.
Blank verse is a non-rhyming iambic pentameter, usually stichic. Under the influence of Shakespeare it became a widely used verse form for English dramatic verse, but it is also used, under the influence of Milton, for non-dramatic verse.
Couplet is the name for two rhyming lines of verse following immediately after each other. The heroic couplet, popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries consists of two lines of rhyming iambic pentameter. An octosyllabic couplet is also sometimes called a short couplet. The regular metre and the rhyme pattern of the couplet, usually with end-stopped lines, provides comparatively small units (two lines in fact) in which to make a point. Especially eighteenth-century poets used the form to create satirical contrasts within the couplet. In the following example from Pope’s Imitations of Horace especially the lines “To prove, that Luxury could never hold; / And place, on good security, his Gold” present a blatant contradiction between words and action in a completely harmonious (regular metre, noticeable rhyme) poetic form. In consequence the reader notices the contradiction somewhat belatedly, almost as an afterthought. The effect is that of thinly disguised satire.
A tercet, sometimes also called a triplet, is a stanza with three lines of the same rhyme (aaa or two rhyming lines embracing a line without rhyme (axa).
The terza rima is a variant of the tercet famously used by Dante in his Divine Comedy. The terza rima uses a chain rhyme, the second line of each stanza rhymes with the first and the third line of the next stanza (aba bcb cdc etc.)
The quatrain is one of the most common and popular stanza forms in English poetry. It is a stanza comprising four lines of verse with various rhyme patterns. When written in iambic pentameter and rhyming abab it is called heroic quatrain:
Tennyson used a quatrain rhyming abba for his famous poem In Memoriam A.H.H. and the stanza form has since derived its name from this poem – the Memoriam stanza:
The ballad stanza is a variant of the quatrain. Most commonly, lines of iambic tetrameter alternate with iambic trimeter (also called chevy-chase stanza after one of the oldest poems written in this form). The rhyme scheme is usually abcb, sometimes also abab.
The rhyme royal is a seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter which rhymes ababbcc. It is called rhyme royal because King James I of Scotland used it, though he was not the first to do so; Chaucer employed the stanza in Troilus and Criseyde much earlier.
The ottava rima derives from Italian models like the terza rima and the sonnet do; it is a stanza with eight lines rhyming abababcc. The most famous use of the stanza form in English poetry was made by Byron in Don Juan, who skillfully employs the stanza form for comic effect; in the following example the last line renders the slightly pompous lovesickness of the first seven lines quite ridiculous.
The Spenserian stanza, famously used by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene, has nine lines rhyming ababbcbcc, the first eight lines are iambic pentameter, the last line is an alexandrine, which breaks the slight monotony of the pentameters and is often employed to emphasise a point. Here is Spenser’s description of the Redcross Knight; the last line emphasises the knight’s valour (he feared nothing but everyone feared him):
One distinguishes between two main rhyme patterns in the sonnet: The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet is divided into an octave or octet (eight lines) rhyming abbaabba and a sestet rhyming cdecde or some variation (for example cdccdc). Very often this type of sonnet develops two sides of a question or a problem and a solution, one in the octave and, after a turn often introduced by ‘but’, ‘yet’ or a similar conjunction that indicates a change of argument, another in the sestet. In the following sonnet the speaker laments his inability to serve God on account of his blindness in the octave, but in the sestet takes courage again from the thought that God will not expect more of him than he can do and that his best servitude is to bear his lot in patience. Milton varies the form slightly by placing the turn (“but”) in the last line of the octave.
The English or Shakespearean sonnet usually falls into three quatrains and one final couplet. The rhyme pattern is most commonly abab cdcd efef gg. In the English sonnet the turn often occurs in the concluding couplet, which operates rather like a punch line, as in the following example. The first twelve lines lament the all-powerful and destructive influence of time, but the couplet ventures to express some hope that writing poetry might in fact overcome this and preserve the poet’s love forever.
An important variant of the English sonnet is the Spenserian sonnet which links the quatrains with rhymes: abab bcbc cdcd ee.
The limerick is used mainly for nonsense verse. It consists of five lines, two longer ones (trimeter, one trochaic foot, two anapaests), two shorter ones (anapaestic dimeter) and another trimeter (one trochee, two anapaests). Edward Lear, one of the most famous limerick- and nonsense verse writers, insisted that the first and the fifth line of the limerick should end with the same word, usually a place name.
The villanelle has a rather intricate verse and rhyme pattern. It originated in France and reproduces the circular patterns of a peasant dance. The villanelle has five tercets rhyming aba and a final quatrain rhyming abaa. The lines of the first tercet provide a kind of refrain, a recurring repetition of one or more lines. Thus the first line of the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth tercet, the third line of the first tercet is repeated as the last line of the third and the fifth tercet. (One really needs to look at the example to work this out.) Both lines (first and third line of first tercet) form the last two lines of the concluding quatrain. A famous example is Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do not go gentle into that good night”, where the highly organised and artificial but also playful form of the villanelle at first seems to contrast starkly with the poem’s topic: the sick and dying father. But the form, which has to bend language into this disciplined playfulness, effectively helps to express the speaker’s overwhelming desire to instil a spirit of resistance and a new passion for living in his father. [die wiederholten Zeilen line 1, line 2, line 3, jeweils farbig machen.]
Quite frequently poets combine various forms or employ no regular formal rhyme pattern, though rhyme and metre are nonetheless used. John Milton’s poem Lycidas for instance is written in an irregular form: The iambic pentameter is at irregular intervals interspersed with a trimeter. John Donne frequently combines various forms into a regular composite form. For instance The Canonization, a poem with five stanzas of nine lines each varies iambic pentameter with iambic tetrameter and a concluding line in iambic trimeter. The speaker is obviously in a temper because people interfere with his love life. The rapid change between pentameter and tetrameter expresses his irritation and the irregular flow of speech is conveyed as he switches between the slightly slower pentamenter and the slightly quicker tetrameter. The final trimeter brings the stanza to an emphatic (because notably shorter) conclusion.
What are the last two lines of a poem called?A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse.
What are 4 lines in a poem called?Quatrain Definition with Examples. In poetry, a quatrain is a verse with four lines. Quatrains are popular in poetry because they are compatible with different rhyme schemes and rhythmic patterns.
What type of rhyme has a rhyming word within a line?In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines. By contrast, rhyme between line endings is known as end rhyme.
What is a group of lines called in a poem?Stanza. A grouping of lines separated from others in a poem. In modern free verse, the stanza, like a prose paragraph, can be used to mark a shift in mood, time, or thought.
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