. Engraving by Pierre Landry from 1672 after a lost painting by
Nicolaes Maes.Under the portrait, a quatrain by
Guy Patin. • The
heroic stanza or
elegiac stanza consists of the
iambic pentameter, with the
rhyme scheme of \mathrm{ABAB}. An example can be found in the following of
Thomas Gray's "
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". The curfew tolls 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. • The
hymnal stanza consists of alternating rhymes with the
iambic trimeter and the
iambic tetrameter, with a rhyme scheme of \mathrm{ABCB}. An example can be found in
Robert Burns, "
A Red, Red Rose". O, my luve’s like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June; O, my luve’s like the melodie That's sweetly played in tune. • The
memoriam stanza consists of the
iambic tetrameter and a rhyme scheme of \mathrm{ABBA}. An example can be found in
Alfred Lord Tennyson's "
In Memoriam A.H.H.". So word by word, and line by line, The dead man touch’d me from the past, And all at once it seem’d at last The living soul was flash’d on mine. • An
envelope stanza is a
stanza that starts and ends a poem with little change of wording, although this term is also used on stanzas that have a symmetrical rhyme scheme of \mathrm{ABBA}. An example can be found in
William Blake's "
The Tyger". (These are the first and last stanzas of the poem) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ... Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry • The
ballad stanza consists of the
iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of \mathrm{ABCB} (see
ballad stanza for more details). An example can be found in “
La Belle Dame sans Merci” by
John Keats. I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci Thee hath in thrall!’ • The
Ruba'i form of rhymed quatrain was favored by
Persian-language poet
Omar Khayyám, among others. This work was a major inspiration for
Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The ''ruba'i
was a particularly widespread verse form: the form rubaiyat'' reflects the plural. One of FitzGerald's verses may serve to illustrate: Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing. ==See also==