Information AboutStanzas |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT STANZA | |
| poetic form | |
|
In traditional English-language poems, stanzas can be identified and grouped together because they share a Rhyme Scheme or a fixed number of lines (as in Distich / Couplet , Tercet , Quatrain , Cinquain/quintain , Sestet ). In much modern poetry, stanzas may be arbitrarily presented on the printed page because of publishing conventions that employ such features as white space or punctuation. One of the most common manifestations of stanzaic form in poetry in English (and in other Western-European languages) is represented in texts for Church Hymns , such as the first three stanzas (of nine) from a poem by Isaac Watts (from 1719) cited immediately below (in this case, each stanza is to be sung to the same hymn-tune, composed earlier by William Croft in 1708): Our God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home. Under the shadow of Thy throne Thy saints have dwelt secure; Sufficient is Thine arm alone, And our defense is sure. Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame, From everlasting Thou art God, To endless years the same. '' {Link without Title} '' Less obvious manifestations of stanzaic form can be found as well, as in Shakespeare 's Sonnet 116, which, while printed as a whole unit in itself, can be broken into stanzas with the same rhyme scheme as follows: |
|
|