Stanza Stanza A verse in a poem A

Stanza

Stanza • A verse in a poem. • A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem. • An arrangement of a certain number of lines, usually two or more, sometimes having a fixed length, rhyme scheme, forming a division of a poem.

The Function of Stanzas in Poetry • Serve a range of functions in a poem. • To group ideas or images that belong together. • Some poets play with the suggestion of silence that a stanza break implies, and still others use stanzas and the white spaces that divide them to create visual interest.

Types of stanza Couplet Sestet Triplet Septet Quatrain Octave Quintet Spenserian

The Couplet Definition • A couplet is a set of two lines that usually rhyme. • In a formal (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. • In a run-on (open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.

The Couplet The Closed Couplet By thee was Pluto charm’d so well While rapture seiz’d the sons of hell -(Freneau) The Open Couplet: That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. -(Robert Browning)

The Triplet Definition • A triplet is a set of three lines that may or may not rhyme. • A poetic triplet is a tercet in which all three lines follow the same rhyme, a, a, a.

The Triplet Example He claps the crag with crooked hands, Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinklrd sea beneath him crawls, He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. (Tennyson)

Quatrain Definition A quatrain is a set of four lines that may or may not rhyme. Having an independent and separate theme. Often one line consists of alternating rhyme, existing in a variety of forms.

Quatrain Example The tolls curfew the knell of parting day, 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. (Thomas Gray)

Quintet Definition Stanza that contains of five lines with different kinds of scheme.

Quintet As a beauty I may not a star, There are others more handsome by far; But my face I don’t mind it, For I am behind it, It’s the people in front that I jar (Anthony Euwer)

The Sestet Definition Stanza that contains six lines.

The Example By W. H. Davies Here’s an example from A butterfly, That on rough, hard rock Happy can live; Friendliness and all alone On this unsweetened stone Now let my bed be hard, No care take it; I’ll make my joy like this Small Butterfly; Whose happy heart has power To make a stone a flower

The Septet Definition Stanza that contains seven lines.

The Empty Nurse One song leads on to another, One friends to another friend; So I’ll travel along With a friend a song I’ll travel along Ten thousand strong To the end. But if all songs should fail me And friend fall after friend, I’ll still have you, O tried and true I’ll still have you, And a stone in my shoe To the end. by Gibson

Octave Definition Stanza that contains eight lines. Octave contains some varities with different shceme of rhyme.

Resume By Dorothy Parker Razors pain you Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause camp. Guns aren’t lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful You might as well life

Spenserian Definition Stanza that contains eight lines. Octave contains some varities with different shceme of rhyme. The rhyme of this stanza is a-b-b-c-c. This stanza came from Edmund Spenser, the first person who used this stanza in his poem Faerie Queene.

Lo I the man, Whose Muse whilome Did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds, Am now enforst a far unfitter taske For trumpets sterne to change Mine Oaten reeds, And sing of Knights and Ladies Faerie Queene Gentle deeds; Whose prayses having slept in Silence long, Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds To blazon broad emongst her Learned throng: Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song