POETRY

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POETRY

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Title: POETRY

1
POETRY

Poetry and Prose. Sound Patterning. Prosody.
Rhymes. Stanza Forms

2
Poetry and Verse

Poetry is one of the subcategories of literature
along
with drama and fiction. In this sense by poetry
lyric
poetry is meant.
Metrical poetry, i.e. verse, differs from prose
in
that the former is rhythmically organized speech
down to the level of syllables, whereas the
latter is
either orderless or follows ordering patterns
other
than syllabic principles.

3
Rhythm

Prose rhythm may use repetitions, parallels of
words, syntactical units, grammar structures,
sentence length, semantic structures.
Prose rhythm does not follow any preset
pattern.

4
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice(1813)from
Chapter 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a
wife.
However little known the feelings or views of
such a man may
be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this
truth is so well
fixed in the minds of the surrounding families,
that he is
considered as the rightful property of some one
or other of
their daughters.
My dear Mr. Bennet,'' said his lady to him one
day, have you
heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?''

5
Austen cont.

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
But it is,'' returned she for Mrs. Long has
just been here,
and she told me all about it.''
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
Do not you want to know who has taken it?'
cried his wife
impatiently.
You want to tell me, and I have no objection to
hearing it.''
This was invitation enough.

6
Austen cont.

Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says
that
Netherfield is taken by a young man of large
fortune from the
north of England that he came down on Monday in
a chaise
and four to see the place, and was so much
delighted with it
that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately that
he is to take
Possession before Michaelmas, and some of his
servants are to
be in the house by the end of next week.''
What is his name?''
Bingley.''
Is he married or single?''
Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man
of large fortune
four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing
for our girls!''

7
Michaelmas

Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the
Archangel (also the Feast of Saints Michael,
Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael, the Feast of the
Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All
Angels) is a day in the Western Christian
calendar which occurs on 29 September.

8
GenesisKing James Bible

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void and
darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon
the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light and there
was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good and
God divided the
light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness
he called
Night. And the evening and the morning were the
first day.

9
Genesis cont.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the
waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the
waters which
were under the firmament from the waters which
were above
the firmament and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the
evening and
the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven
be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear and it
was so.

10
Genesis cont.

10 And God called the dry land Earth and the
gathering
together of the waters called he Seas and God
saw that it was
good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth
grass, the herb
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit
after
his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the
earth and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
yielding seed
after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,
whose seed was in
itself, after his kind and God saw that it was
good.

11
Verse Rhythm

Verse is a patterned succession of syllables
some are strongly emphasized, some are not.
Rhythms of poetry, compared with prose
rhythms, are stylized and artificial, they fall
into
patterns that are more repetitive and
predictable.
Poetic rhythms call attention to themselves.

12
Poetic Rhythm

Literature coded text
Poetic rhythm concentration and intensity
Primordial functions of poetry
naming
possession
healing
Incantatory rhythms, verse spells, healing charms
(an incantation or enchantment is a charm or
spell
created using words)

13
An Old English medical verse-spellagainst poison

This herb is called Stime it grew on a stone,
It resists poison, it fights pain.
It is called harsh, it fights against poison.
This is the herb that strove against the snake
This has strength against poison, this has
strength
against infection,
This has strength against the foe who fares
through
the land.
(Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Sel. and trans. by R. K.
Gordon, rev. ed., London J. M. Dent and Sons,
1954, 93)

14
Verse Rhythm

Rhythm is based on orderly repetition.
Poetic rhythm is based on the regular
alternation of certain syllabic features of the
text.

15
SYLLABLE

A syllable commonly consists of a vocalic peak,
which may be accompanied by a consonantal onset
or coda. In some languages, every syllabic peak
is indeed a vowel. But other sounds can also form
the nucleus of a syllable. In English, this
generally happens where a word ends in an
unstressed syllable containing a nasal or lateral
consonant.
CV / CVC / VC /CCV / CCVC / etc.
Diphtongs, triphtongs vowel sequences in which
two or three components can be heard but which
none the less count as a single vowel
BUT
one syllable hire, lyre, flour, cowered
two syllables higher, liar, flower, coward

16
Prosody(from Wikipedia)

In poetry, meter (metre in British English) is
the basic
rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse.
Many
traditional verse forms prescribe a specific
verse meter, or
a certain set of meters alternating in a
particular order.
The study of meters and forms of versification is
known as
prosody. (Within linguistics, "prosody" is used
in a more
general sense that includes not only poetical
meter but also
the rhythmic aspects of prose, whether formal or
informal,
which vary from language to language, and
sometimes
between poetic traditions.)

17
Prosody

Prosodic features of speech
tone
stress / beat /accent
intonation

Chief phonetic correlates
pitch
duration
loudness

18
Pitch

is widely regarded in English as the most
salient determinant of prominence.
When a syllable or a word is perceived as
stressed or emphasized, it is pitch height or
a
change of pitch, more than length or loudness,
that is likely to be mainly responsible.

19
Duration

The duration of syllables depends on both
segment type and the surrounding phonetic
context.
Duration is also constrained by biomechanical
factors part of the reason why the vowel in
English bat, for example, tends to be relatively
long is that the jaw has to move further than in
words like bit or bet.

20
Stress / Beat / Accent

Stress commonly is a conventional label for the
overall prominence of certain syllables relative
to others within a linguistic system.
In this sense, stress does not correlate simply
with loudness, but represents the total effect
of factors such as pitch, loudness and duration.

21
Stress in English

English, sometimes described as a stress
timed language, makes a relatively large
difference between stressed and
unstressed syllables, in such a way that
stressed syllables are generally much longer
than unstressed.

22
Accent

The term ACCENT is sometimes used loosely to
mean stress, referring to prominence in a
general way or more specifically to the
emphasis placed on certain syllables.
The term accent is also used to refer to
relative prominence within longer utterances.

23
Stress / Accent

The terms STRESS and ACCENT in particular are
notoriously ambiguous, and it would be
misleading to suggest that there are standard
definitions.

24
Beat

Beat denote stress with metrical relevance, i.e.
stressed syllables which count in metrical lines
are called beats.

25
English Versification

English poetic rhythm is based on the regular
alternation of
stressed and unstressed syllables. (Duration and
pitch are no
metre creating features.)
Stresses are that of words stresses and marked in
dictionaries
by as in synecdoche /s?n?kd?k?/.
Scansion is the act of determining and
graphically representing
the metrical character of a line of verse.
Stressed syllables are marked by the symbols / or
.
Unstressed syllables /slacks are marked by the
symbol X.

26
Scansion

When I consider how my light is spent
X / X / X / X / X
/
(Milton)
Whose woods these are I think I know
X / X / X / X /
(Frost)
When my mother died I was very young
X X / X / X X / X
/
(Blake)

27
Scansion

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did
meet
X / X / X / X X /
X / X /
(Yeats)
is a division marker or bar between repeated
units of a line broken into sections by a caesura

28
Rhythm and Metre

Rhythm
The rhythmic structure of a poem is formed by
repeating a
basic rhythmical unit of stressed and unstressed
syllables
Metre
Metre grows out of the linguistic rhythms of the
words, it is the
design formed by the rhythms, it is an abstract
pattern.
The general metre and the actual rhythm of a
specific line are
not always identical.

29
Metrical Systems in English1 Accentual/Stressed
Metre

In accentual/stressed metre the number of
accents/stressed syllables is fixed in a line.
However the number of unstressed syllables
is variable. In order to define the actual form
you have to count the number of accents per
line.

30
Metrical Systems in English1 Accentual/Stressed
Metre

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Alliterative
Versification
The basic metrical feature of the line is four
strong stresses
/ / / /
The spaces before and between the stress can be
occupied by
zero, one, two or three syllables, e.g.
X / X X / X X X / /, or X X / X / / X X / X, etc.
Each full line is divided into two half-lines
(hemistichs) by a
caesura
X X / X X / X X / X X /

31
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

The distinctive feature of this metrical form is
its alliteration.
Alliteration is a figure speech, meaning the
repetition of
consonant or vowel sounds at the beginning of
words or
stressed syllables.
It is a very old device which often help create
onomatopoeic
effects, i.e. effects imitating sounds.
Alliteration is a key organizing principle in
Anglo-Saxon verse.

32
Alliteration

Alliteration is the principal binding agent of
Old
English poetry.
Two syllables alliterate when they begin with
the same sound all vowels alliterate together,
but the consonant clusters st-, sp- and sc- are
treated as separate sounds (so st- does not
alliterate with s- or sp-).

33
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

Formal requirements
A long-line is divided into two half-lines.
Half-lines are also known as verses or hemistichs
A heavy pause, or cæsura, separates the two
half-lines.
Each half-line has two strongly stressed
syllables.
The first lift in the second half-line (i.e. the
third stress) is always alliterated with either
or both stressed syllables in the first
half-line.
The second stress in the second half-line, i.e.
the fourth stress does not alliterate.

34
Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Versification cont.

Thus there are the following variants
(A marks an alliterating syllable, X marks a
non-alliterating
syllable)
A A A X
A X A X
X A A X

35
Beowulf Manuscript

Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old
English
heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative
long
lines.
Its composition by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet
is
dated between the 8th and the early 11th century.
The poem appears in what is today called the
Beowulf
manuscript or Nowell Codex (British Library MS
Cotton Vitellius A.xv), along with other works.

The poem is known only from this single
36
Beowulf Manuscript
37
Examples from Beowulf(translated by Michael
Alexander

1. It is a sorrow in spirit for me to say to any
man
A A
A X
2. Then spoke Beowulf, son of Edgeheow
A X
A X
3. A boat with a ringed neck rode in the haven
X A
A X

38
Further examples

Alliterative stress within polisyllabic word
It was not remarked then if a man looked
X A
A X
Vowel alliteration
To encompass evil, an enemy from hell
X A A
X
The ample eaves adorned with gold
A A A
X

39
A twentieth century example - Ezra Pound Canto
I(A free translation of the opening of Odyssey
11)

We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
A A
A X
Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
A A
A X
Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward
X A
A X
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
A X
A X
Circe's this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
A (?) A
A X

40
Ezra Pound(1885-1972)
41
Significance of Sound Patterning

Cohesive and mnemonic function
Primordial and bardic poetry was transmitted
orally, repetitive formal components bound words
together and thus enhanced memorability.
The metrical frame creates a musical body for the
poem it may also contribute to a level of sound
symbolism, onomatopoeia, onomatopoeic words.

42
Stress-VerseNative Metre / Folk Metre

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
They all began to sing.
Now, wasn't that a dainty dish
To set before the King?

43
Sixpence cont.

Sing a song of sixpence,
/ /
A pocket full of rye
/ /
Four and twenty blackbirds
/ /
Baked in a pie.
/ /
Or

44
Sixpence cont.

Sing a song of sixpence,
/ / /
A pocket full of rye
/ / (p)
Four and twenty blackbirds
/ / /
Baked in a pie.
/ / (p)
(p) pause

45
Stress-VerseBallad Metre

Ballad metre is a form of poetry that
alternates lines of four and three beats, often
in
quatrains, rhymed abab.
The anonymous poem Sir Patrick Spens
demonstrates this well.
The alternating sequence of four and three
stresses is called common measure when used
for hymns.

46
Sir Patrick Spens

The king sits in Dumfermline town.
/ / /
/
Drinking the blude-red wine
/ / /
'O whare will I get a skeely skipper,
/ / / /
To sail this new ship of mine?'
/ / /

47
Dunfermline Palace RuinDunfermline was
Scotlands capital in the 11th century
48
Foot-VerseSyllable-Stress Verse /
Accentual-Syllabic Metre

After the Norman Conquest, from the 12th century
on
accentual-syllabic versification started to
appear.
It went hand in hand with strophic construction
and
rhyming line endings.
Out of stressed and unstressed syllables metrical
feet
were created after the pattern of ancient Greek
and
Latin poetry.
In accentual syllabic foot-verse both the number
of
stressed and unstressed syllables are fixed, and
also
their respective positions in the poetic line.

49
Foot VerseStressed / Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Ancient Greek and Latin prosody is quantitative,
i.e.
the regular alternation of syllables is based on
their
duration. Quantitative versification makes
distinction
between long and short syllables.
A syllable is long if the vowel sound in it is
long or if it
Is short but followed by more two or more
consonants.
A syllable is short if the vowel sound in it is
short and
Is followed by zero or one consonant sound.

50
Accentual-Syllabic Metre / Quantitative
Versification

English accentual-syllabic foot-verse is
sometimes
called quantitative. It is, however, is
inaccurate.
But quantitative versification is based on the
quantity, i.e. the duration of a syllable.
Apart from a few technical experiments, duration
of
syllables is not a metre constitutive principle
in English
verse.
Quantitative versification makes metrical feet
using
short and long syllables.

51
Quantitative VersificationMetrical Feet

The foot is the basic metrical unit that
generates a line
of verse in quantitative versification.
The foot is a purely metrical unit there is no
inherent
relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning
or
syntax.
A foot is composed of syllables, the number of
which
is limited.
The feet are classified first by the number of
syllables
in the foot (disyllabic feet have two,
trisyllabic three,
And tetrasyllabic four syllables), and by the
pattern of
vowel lengths.

52
Qualitative vs. quantitative metre(from the
Wikipedia entry on Prosody)

The meter of much poetry of the Western world and
elsewhere is based on particular patterns of
syllables of
particular types. The familiar type of meter in
English
language poetry is called qualitative meter, with
stressed
syllables coming at regular intervals (e.g. in
iambic
pentameter, typically every even-numbered
syllable). Many
Romance languages use a scheme that is somewhat
similar but where the position of only one
particular
stressed syllable (e.g. the last) needs to be
fixed. The
meter of the old Germanic poetry of languages
such as Old
Norse and Old English was radically different,
but still was
based on stress patterns.

53
Qualitative vs. quantitative metre(from the
Wikipedia entry on Prosody)

Many classical languages, however, use a
different
scheme known as quantitative metre, where
patterns are
based on syllable weight rather than stress. In
dactylic
hexameter of Classical Latin and Classical Greek,
for
example, each of the six feet making up the line
was either
a dactyl (long-short-short) or spondee
(long-long), where a
long syllable was literally one that took longer
to pronounce
than a short syllable specifically, a syllable
consisting of a
long vowel or diphthong or followed by two
consonants.
The stress pattern of the words made no
difference to the
meter. A number of other ancient languages also
used
quantitative meter, such as Sanskrit and
Classical Arabic
(but not Biblical Hebrew).

54
Quantitative VersificationMost common feet

(symbols long syllable, ? short syllable)
iamb or iambic foot ?
trochee or trochaic foot ?
anapaest or anapaestic foot ? ?
dactyl of dactylic foot ? ?
spondee or spondaic foot
pyrrhic or pyrrhic foot ? ?
tribrach ? ? ?
molossus
minor ionic ? ?
choriamb ??

55
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

English prosody is based on the regular
alternation of stressed and unstressed
syllables.
Consequently classical Greek and Latin
quantitative metrical feet are translated into
syllable stresses 'long' becomes 'stressed' (or
'accented'), and 'short' becomes 'unstressed
(or 'unaccented').

56
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

For example, an iamb, which is short-long in
classical
meter, becomes unstressed-stressed, as in the
English
word today a trochee is constituted of a
stressed
and unstressed syllable, as in never a dactyl
is
constituted of a stressed syllable followed by
two
unstressed ones, as in yesterday while an
anapaest
is constituted of two unstressed syllables
followed by
a stressed one, as in interrupt. A spondee is
made of
two successive stressed syllables, as in
heartbreak
a pyrrhic is made of two successive unstressed
syllables and the phrase of the.

57
English metrical feet

iamb or iambic foot X /
trochee or trochaic foot / X
anapaest or anapaestic foot X X /
dactyl of dactylic foot / X X
spondee or spondaic foot / /
pyrrhic or pyrrhic foot X X
tribrach X X X
molossus / / /
minor ionic X X / /
choriamb / X X /

58
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

For the scansion of an English poem the standard
Symbols are used (the symbol marks foot
boundary)
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet
(Yeats)
X / X / X / X X /
X / X /
Whose woods these are I think I know.
(Frost)
X / X / X / X
/

59
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Metrical feet add up to poetic lines, which
consequently are
defined in terms of the number and type of poetic
feet they
contain
Monometer one foot
Dimeter two feet
Trimeter three feet
Tetrameter four feet
Pentameter five feet
Hexameter six feet

60
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Thus we can discern
Iambic monometers (i.e. one-stress iambic lines)
Thus I
Pass by
And die
As one
Unknown
And gone
(Robert Herrick Upon His Departure Hence, 1648)

61
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Or anapaestic tetrameters (four-stress anapestic
lines)
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his
head,X / X X / X X /
X X /
That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved so I
said,
X / X X / X
X / X X /
"Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's
bare,
X / X X / X X
/ X X /
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white
hair.
X / X X / X X
/ X X /
(William Blake The Chimney Sweeper)

62
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Or iambic pentameters (five-stress iambic lines)
THERE was a roaring in the wind all night
X / X / X / X / X
/
The rain came heavily and fell in floods
But now the sun is rising calm and bright
The birds are singing in the distant woods
Over his own sweet voice the Stock-dove broods
The Jay makes answer as the Magpie chatters
And all the air is filled with pleasant noise of
waters.
(from William Wordsworth Resolution and
Independence)

63
William Wordsworth(1770-1850)(from the National
Portrait Gallery)
64
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

Iambic pentameter has a distinguished role in the
history of
English poetry.
If unrhymed, it is called blank verse (e.g.
Shakespeares plays)
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
(Shakespeare Richard III)

65
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

If pair-rhymed, it is called heroic couplet (e.g.
Alexander Popes
Essay on Criticism)
Of all the Causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring Judgment, and misguide the Mind,
What the weak Head with strongest Byass rules,
Is Pride, the never-failing Vice of Fools.
(from Alexander Pope Essay on Criticism)

66
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

It is important to notice that the alternation of
stressed and
unstressed syllable in accentual-syllabic metre
is not entirely
rigid.
In iambic forms, e.g. a poet may use substitute
feet. The
two syllabic spondee and pyrrhic are proper
substitute feet for
iambs.
Sometimes poets add an extra unstressed syllable,
thus
substituting an anapest for an iamb.

67
Substitution

A sudden blow the great wings beating still
X / X / X / /
/ X /
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
X / X / X X / X /
X /
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
X X / / X / /
X X /
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
X / X / X X X /
X X /
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

68
Substitution cont.

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
(William Butler Yeats Leda and the Swan)

69
Leda and the Swan16th century copy after lost
painting by Michelangelo
70
English Accentual-Syllabic Metre

A metrical line has three rhythmic levels
Oh, to vex me, contraryes meet in one (Donne)
(iambic pentameter)
1. Abstract metrical pattern
X / X / X / X / X /
2. Actual rhythm of the particular line
X X / X / X X / X /
3. Speech rhythm
X X / X / X X \ X \
(where \ marks secondary stress)

71
Rough and Smooth Rhythms

If the three levels fall apart, as in the above
excerpt of Donnes
poem, the rhythm is rough. If they tend to
coalesce, as in this
line by Donnes contemporary, Edmund Spenser, the
rhythm is
smooth
One day I wrote her name upon the strand
(Edmund Spenser Amoretti, Sonnet 75)

72
Edmund Spenser John
Donne(1552-1599)
(1572-1631)
73
Rhymes

English accentual-syllabic poems may rhyme. Rhyme
is the
identity of sound between words. Rhyme is not
necessarily
based on identity of spelling. Pronunciation is
the essence.
great rhymes with mate
whereas
bough does not rhyme with though
great and meat look alike, but pronounced
differently, they are called eyes-rhymes

74
Sound Parallelism

Rhyme is only one aspect of sound-parallelism.
Based on the
concept of the linguistic formula of a syllable,
i.e. a cluster of
up to three consonants followed by a vowel
nucleus followed
by a cluster of up to four consonants
(C?³VC?4), Geoffrey
Leech set up the following chart of sound
patterns

75
Sound Parallelism

from Geoffrey N. Leech A Linguistic Guide to
English Poetry.
London Longman, 1969, 89

a CVC great/grow send/sit alliteration
b CVC great/fail send/bell assonance
c CVC great/meat send/hand consonance
d CVC great/grazed send/sell reverse rhyme
e CVC great/groat send/sound pararhyme
f CVC great/bait send/end rhyme
76
Rhyme

Consonance is often called half-rhyme
I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
(from W. B. Yeats Easter 1916)

77
Easter Rising, Dublin 1916
78
Internal Rhymes

By rhymes generally terminal rhymes are meant.
However,
poets use internal rhymes within a line, usually
followed by a
break (caesura)
And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken
The ice was all between.
(from S. T. Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner)

79
Poetic Forms

The disposition of lines into groups falls into
two categories
Stichic poetry, in which verse line follows verse
line, as in
Miltons Paradise Lost. Stichic poetry is often
segmented into
verse paragraphs, i.e. passages of irregular
length divided by a
space-line.
Strophic poetry, in which groups of lines
(stanza) are formed,
as in Keatss Ode on a Grecian Urn.

80
Rhyme Schemes and Poetic Forms

Strophic or stanzaic forms are often bound
together by rhymes.
Stanza forms are determined by numbers of lines
Couplet two-line stanza
Tercet three line stanza
Quatrain four-line stanza

81
Stanza (Italian station, stopping place)

A structural unit in verse composition, a
sequence of lines
arranged in a definite pattern of meter and rhyme
scheme
which is repeated throughout the whole work.
Stanzas range
from such simple patterns as the couplet or the
quatrain to
such complex stanza forms as the Spenserian or
those used by
Keats in his odes.
(Alex Preminger, ed. Princeton Encyclopedia of
Poetry and Poetics. Enlarged edition.
London Macmillan, 1975)
Stanzas may consist of metrically identical or
different lines.