stanza forms Flashcards
couplet
two lines
rhyme a-a
triplet
three lines
usually rhymes a-a-a
quatrain
four lines
rhymes in various forms
quintet
five lines
rhymes in various forms
sestet
six lines
sometimes used to refer to last six lines of a sonnet
septet
seven lines
octave
eight lines
sometimes used to refer to the first eight lines of a sonnet
heroic couplet
consists of two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within two lines
1 sentence, 2 rhymes
terza rima
three-line stanza
1 sentence, a-b-a rhyme
limerick
a five line nonsense poem
ballad stanza
consists of four lines with a rhyme scheme of a-b-c-b
rime royal
a stanza consisting of seven lines
named after King James 1 of Schottland
ottava rima
eight iambic pentameter lines
borrowed from the Italians
spenserian stanza
a nine-line stanza
named from Edmund Spenser
sonnet
fourteen-line stanza
