A stanza is a related group of lines or verses in a poem. A stanza also can be a verse in paragraph form. They can keep on going without punctuation. It may also be a line in a poem.
Two most important features of a stanza is the number of lines and the rhyme scheme. There are many kinds of stanza.
- Two-line stanza (aa).
- Three-line stanza (aaa).
- Four-line stanza (aaaa, aabb, abab, abba)
- Five-line stanza (for example ababb)
- Six-line stanza (for example ababcc)
- Seven-line stanza (for example ababbcc, it is called rhyme royal)
- Eight-line stanza (for example abababcc, it is Italian ottava rima)
- Nine-line stanza (for example ababbcbcc, it is Spenserian stanza)
- Ten-line stanza (for example ababccdeed)
An Italian sonnet consists of two four-line stanzas and two three-line stanzas:
