Stanza Forms

Stanza Forms
Stanza• is really a thought unit that corresponds to a paragraph in prose. There are a number of standard stanza forms, composed of a certain number of lines of a definite number of feet, and a definite pattern of rhyme.
Blank verse
• is the least complex unit. It is not exactly a stanza form because it based on the single line, any number of which maybe used to make up a poem.
• Blank verse line is of iambic pentameter.
• Blank verse does not rhyme. This stanza form used in long poems.

Heroic couplet consists of two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter.
Ballad stanza is a stanza of four lines; the first and third are tetrameter, the second and fourth are trimester. Extra-unaccented syllables are frequent. The second and fourth lines rhyme, the first and third do not.
Rhyme Royal is a stanza of seven iambic pentameter lines with definite rhyme scheme. In indicating rhyme scheme here and in other stanza forms we use this system: lines that rhyme with each other are given identical letters – all lines that rhyme with the first rhyming line are lettered a, with the second rhyming line, b, etc. The rhyme scheme of rhyme royal is a b a b b c c.
Ottava rima is consists of eight iambic pentameter lines rhyming a b a b a b cc.
Spenserian stanza is made up of nine lines – the first eight in iambic pentameter, the last of iambic hexameter (that is, of six iambic feet).
Sonnet is a lyric form that has been popular since the Italian poet Petrarch perfected it. Sonnets have written in groups, called, naturally enough, sonnet sequences. It is composed of fourteen iambic pentameter lines.
Terza Rima consists of stanzas of three iambic pentameter lines each (tercets). Each linked to the next by the rhyme scheme, which is: a b a, b c b, c d c, d e d, etc.
Free Verse is different from any of the forms previously mentioned: it has no rhyme and it follows no regular meter. Its lines may be, an often are, of varying length.