1. Spenserian Stanza
Created by Edmund Spenser for his epic The Faerie Queene, this is a nine-line stanza.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-B-A-B-B-C-B-C-C.
- Meter: The first eight lines are in iambic pentameter, while the ninth and final line is an alexandrine (iambic hexameter).
2. Ottava Rima
An Italian form originally used for heroic and later mock-heroic themes.
- Structure: An eight-line stanza in iambic pentameter.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-B-A-B-A-B-C-C.
- Notable Examples: Lord Byron’s Don Juan and W.B. Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium".
3. Terza Rima
Famous for its use by Dante in the Divine Comedy, this form utilizes interlocking three-line stanzas.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D.
- Conclusion: The poem typically ends with a single line or a couplet that repeats the middle rhyme of the final tercet.
- Notable Example: Percy Bysshe Shelley’s "Ode to the West Wind".
4. Sonnet
A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, divided into two primary types:
- Italian (Petrarchan): Consists of an octave (rhyming A-B-B-A-A-B-B-A) and a sestet (rhyming C-D-E-C-D-E or C-D-C-D-C-D).
- English (Shakespearean): Comprised of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet, with a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B, C-D-C-D, E-F-E-F, G-G.
5. Rhyme Royal (Chaucerian Stanza)
Used extensively by Geoffrey Chaucer, this is a seven-line stanza.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-B-A-B-B-C-C.
- Meter: Iambic pentameter.
6. Villanelle
A highly structured nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain.
- Rhyme Scheme: It uses only two repeating rhymes and two refrains.
- Notable Example: Dylan Thomas’s "Do not go gentle into that good night".
7. Heroic Couplet
Two successive rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. When the syntactical unit ends at the second line, it is a closed couplet; otherwise, it is an open couplet.
8. In Memoriam Stanza
Named after Alfred Lord Tennyson’s work, this is a quatrain (four lines) in iambic tetrameter.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-B-B-A (enclosed rhyme).
9. Ballad Stanza
Common in traditional folk songs and narrative poetry.
- Structure: Typically a quatrain alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.
- Rhyme Scheme: Usually A-B-C-B or A-B-A-B.
10. Burns Stanza (Standard Habbie)
Popularized by Robert Burns, this is a six-line stanza.
- Rhyme Scheme: A-A-A-B-A-B.
- Meter: Lines 1, 2, 3, and 5 are iambic tetrameter, while lines 4 and 6 are iambic dimeter.