Stanza Forms Flashcards
Couplet
Two line stanza
Triplet
Three line stanza
Quatrain
Four line stanza
Sestet
Six line stanza
Septet
Seven line stanza
Octave
Eight line stanza
Heroic couplet
Consist of two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within the two lines
Iambic pentameter lines
Terza rima
Three line stanza form with an interlaced/ interwoven rhyme scheme : a-b-a b-c-b
Usually iambic pentameter
Limerick
Five line nonsense poem with an anapestic meter
A-a-b-b
The first second and fifth lines have three stressed and the third and fourth have two stresses
Ballad stanza
Four lines with a-b-c-b
First and third lines are tetrameter and second and fourth are trimeter
Rime Royal
Stanza consisting of seven lines in iambic pentameter rhyming a-b-a-b-b-c-c called so bc King James used it
Ottava rima
Eight iambic pentameter lines with a rhyme scheme of a b a b a b c c
Form that was borrows from the Italians in
Sonnet
14 lines stanza with iambic pentameter lines
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
Divided between eight lines using times arranged a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a
And six lines with two or three rimes c-d-c-d-c-d
Division with a division of thought
A reflected meaning
English or Shakespearean sonnet
Three quatrains and a concluding couplet
A-b-a-b
Metaphorical statements of one idea and the couplet an application
Villanelle
Five tercets and a quatrain in which the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alter aren’t at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain
Elegy
Poem that mourns death of an individual the absence of something deeply loved or the transience of mankind
Lyric
Most widely used
So diverse in its format that a rigid definition is impossible
Ode
An exalted complex rapturous lyric poem written about a dignified lofty subject
Stanza
Division of a poem
