There are certain standard stanza structures, such as the Elegiac stanza, four lines Iambic pentameter, rhymed either in pairs or alternately, of which Gray’s Elegy (rhymed alternately) is the type; the Ballad stanza, four lines Iambic pentameter and trimeter alternating, with second and fourth lines rhymed together, sometimes also first and third; various hymn stanzas, designated Long Metre (L. M.), Common Metre (C. M.), Short Metre (S. M.), 8 and 7, 6 and 4, etc., which can be studied in any hymn-book; and most elaborate of all, the Sonnet, a fourteen-lined stanza which is also a whole poem, with a rather intricate rhyme scheme.
Generally speaking, however, the liberties and varieties of stanza structure, as to kind of measure, length of line and stanza itself, combination of long and short line, and rhyme scheme, is almost unlimited.
Rhyme.—A new poetic element enters into the stanza: the element of rhyme. The most prominent regulative feature of English lyric verse, perhaps, is the rhyme by which recurring periods are grouped. Technically speaking, there are three kinds of rhyme, only one of which plays an important, or at least essential part, in modern English poetry.
1. Beginning rhyme, or alliteration (e. g. the mother of months), which in Anglo Saxon poetry was the main principle of verse, but is now introduced only furtively and delicately.
2. Middle rhyme, or assonance, wherein only the vowels rhyme (e. g. blarney, charming), which is introduced with even more caution than alliteration.
3. End-rhyme, which is so constant and essential a principle of the stanza that it needs no further definition here.
In the skillful management and disposition of the end-rhymes, to produce its poetic effects without monotony or undue obtrusiveness, there is room for the finest poetic taste and workmanship. On single rhymes (e. g. face, embrace), double rhymes (e. g. rally, sally), and triple rhymes (e. g. pentameter, sham metre), which explain themselves, there is no occasion to enlarge.
The arrangement of lines in a stanza is indicated, in brief notation, by letters of the alphabet. Thus a a b b indicates a four-line stanza in which the first and second lines rhyme, and the third and fourth; ab ab, a stanza in which the rhymes alternate; a b b a, a stanza like that of Tennyson’s In Memoriam, in which this arrangement is reversed.
In this way, with the use of the other notation mentioned, a complete description of poetic construction, from foot to stanza, may be made in very short space.
How Rhythm is Applied.—Lyric poetry, of which the type is the song; was originally designed to be associated with music. It is in this class of poetry, especially, that the stanza form and the rhyme system prevail; but besides the song and the ballad, which most suggest musical accompaniment, there are the ode, the elegy, the sonnet, the didactic poem, and many others, with which music, except in the natural melody of the verse, has little to do.