Types of Stanzas

Types of Stanzas

Stanza

• A group of lines making up a single unit, similar to a paragraph in prose writing

• Stanzas have names based on how many lines long they are

Names of Stanzas

• Couplet - A stanza of two lines, usually rhyming

• Tercet - a stanza of three lines

• Quatrain - A stanza of four lines

• Quintain - A stanza of five lines

• Sestet - A stanza of six lines

• Septet - A stanza of seven lines

• Octave - A stanza of eight lines

A Sonnet

• A 14 line stanza poem

• Shakesperean Sonnet - A closed form consisting of fourteen lines of rhyming iambic pentameter, three quatrains and one couplet

• Iambic Pentameter - Ten syllables divided into Five Iambs