Basic Forms*
| Couplet: 2 lines, usually coupled by rhyme |
| Tercet: 3 lines, usually linked with a single
rhyme |
| Quatrain: stanza of four lines, rhymed or
unrhymed |
| Rhyme royal: 7 line iambic pentameter stanza
rhyming ababbcc |
| Ottava rima: 8 line stanza that rhymes
abababcc (introduced into English by Wyatt) |
| Spenserian stanza: 9 line stanza—the first 8 of
which are iambic pentameter, the last an alexandrine
(i.e. iambic hexameter)—that rhymes ababbcbcc |
Sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter verse
Italian sonnet: 8 line octave (2 quatrains), 6 line
sestet (two tercets), with abbaabba cdecde
rhyme scheme
English sonnet: 3 quatrains, 1 couplet, with abab
cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme
Spenserian sonnet: 3 quatrains connected by linking
couplets, and 1 concluding couplet, with abab
bcbc cdcd ee rhyme scheme |
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Feet**
| Iamb (iambic): unstressed, stressed, as in
destroy |
| Anapest (anapestic): unstressed, unstressed,
stressed, as in intervene |
| Trochee (trochaic): stressed, unstressed, as in
topsy |
| Dactyl (dactylic): stressed, unstressed,
unstressed, as in merrily |
| Spondee (spondaic): stressed, stressed, as in
humdrum |
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Metre**
| monometer – line with only 1 foot |
| dimeter – a line with 2 feet |
| trimeter – 3 feet |
| tetrameter – 4 feet |
| pentameter – 5 feet |
| hexameter – 6 feet |
| heptameter – 7 feet |
| octameter – 8 feet |
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| * from Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th ed., lxxi-lxxv |
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| ** from Fussell, Paul. Poetic Meter and Poetic Form.
Toronto: Random House: 1967: 23 - 4. |
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This page composed by R. Cunningham, on Feb. 28, 2005 |