Quatrain

BASIC FORMS

: And a few small drops of rain;
: I never had but one true-love
: In cold grave she was lain.

: And a wealthy wife was she;

: She had three stout and stalwart sons,

: And slept with them out at sea.

: In the forests of the night,

: What immortal hand or eye

: Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

abba, also called the ''envelope stanza'' or ''introverted quatrain'' (from Tennyson ''In Memoriam'')

: Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
: By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
: Believeing where we cannot prove;

: Has flung the Stone that puts the stars to flight:
: And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
: The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of light.

SEE ALSO

EXTERNAL LINKS

OTHER FORMS

the ''heroic stanza'' or ''elegiac stanza'' ( Iambic Pentameter s rhyming abab; from Thomas Gray 's "Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard")

: The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,

: The plowman homeward plods his weary way,

: And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

The Shichigon-zekku form used in Chinese and Japanese poetry. Both rhyme and rhythm are key elements, although the former is not restricted to falling at the end of the phrase.

Ballad meter (The examples from "The Unquiet Grave" and "The Wife of Usher's Well" are both examples of ballad meter.)

various Hymn s employ specific forms, such as the ''common meter'', ''long meter'', and ''short meter''.

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