Metric variations

Poems with a well-defined overall metric pattern often have a few lines that violate that pattern.
A common variation is the inversion of a foot, which turns an iamb ("da-DUM") into a trochee
("DUM-da"). Another common variation is a headless verse, which lacks the first syllable of the
first foot. Yet a third variation is catalexis, where the end of a line is shortened by a foot, or two
or part thereof - an example of this is at the end of each verse in Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans
Merci':
And on thy cheeks a fading rose (4 feet)
Fast withereth too (2 feet)
Foot type
Iamb
Trochee
Spondee
Anapest or anapaest
Dactyl
Amphibrach
Pyrrhic

Style
Iambic
Trochaic
Spondaic
Anapestic
Dactylic
Amphibrachic
Pyrrhic

Stress pattern
Unstressed + Stressed
Stressed + Unstressed
Stressed + Stressed
Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed
Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed
Unstressed + Stressed + Unstressed
Unstressed + Unstressed

Syllable count
Two
Two
Two
Three
Three
Three
Two

[1]

If the line has only one foot, it is called a monometer; two feet, dimeter; three is trimeter; four is
tetrameter; five is pentameter; six is hexameter, seven is heptameter and eight is octameter. For
example, if the feet are iambs, and if there are five feet to a line, then it is called a iambic
pentameter.[1] If the feet are primarily dactyls and there are six to a line, then it is a dactylic
hexameter.[1]

Alternate rhyme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH...

Ballade: Three stanzas of "ABABBCBC" followed by "BCBC".

Boy Named Sue: A,A,B,C,C,(B, or infrequently D).

Chant royal: Five stanzas of "ababccddedE" followed by either "ddedE" or "ccddedE".

(The capital letters indicate a line repeated verbatim.)

Cinquain: "A,B,A,B,B"

Clerihew: "A,A,B,B"

Couplet: "A,A", but usually occurs as "A,A, B,B C,C D,D ..."

McCarron Couplet: "AABBABCCDDCDEEFFEF" a contemporary take on a classic

rhyming pattern, introduced by the academic James McCarron.

Creative Verse: A poem with the rhyme scheme of "ABCD ACDC ACDC", followed with
as many repetitions of ACDC as desired.

Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme): "ABBA"

"Fire and Ice" stanza: "ABAABCBCB" as used in Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice"

Keatsian Ode: "ABABCDECDE" used in Keat's Ode on Indolence, Ode on a Grecian

Urn, and Ode to a Nightingale.

Limerick: "AABBA"

Monorhyme: "A,A,A,A,A...", an identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and

Arabic

Ottava rima: "A,B,A,B,A,B,C,C"

The Raven stanza: "ABCBBB", or "AA,B,CC,CB,B,B" when accounting for internal

rhyme, as used by Edgar Allan Poe in "The Raven"

Rhyme royal: "ABABBCC"

Rondeau: "ABaAabAB"

Rondelet: "AbAabbA"

Rubaiyat: "AABA"

Scottish stanza: "AAABAB", as used by Robert Burns in works such as "To a Mouse"

Simple 4-line: "ABCB"

Sonnet ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

o Petrarchan sonnet: "ABBA ABBA CDE CDE" or "ABBA ABBA CDC DCD"
o Shakespearean sonnet: "ABAB CDCD EFEF GG"
o Spenserian sonnet: "ABAB BCBC CDCD EE"

o Onegin stanzas: "aBaBccDDeFFeGG" with the lowercase letters representing

feminine rhymes and the uppercase representing masculine rhymes, written in
iambic tetrameter

Sestina: ABCDEF FAEBDC CFDABE ECBFAD DEACFB BDFECA, the seventh stanza
is a tercet where line 1 has A in it but ends with D, line 2 has B in it but ends with E, line
3 has C in it but ends with F

Spenserian stanza: "ABABBCBCCDCDEE"

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening form: "AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD" a modified
Ruba'i stanza used by Robert Frost for the eponymous poem.

Tanaga: traditional Tagalog tanaga is "AAAA"

Terza rima: "ABA BCB CDC ...", ending on "YZY Z", "YZY ZZ", or "YZY ZYZ".

Triplet: "AAA", often repeating like the couplet.

The Road Not Taken stanza: "ABAAB" as used in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken,
and in Glde over Danmark by Poul Martin Mller (English translation here).

Villanelle: A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2, where A1 and A2 are lines repeated
exactly which rhyme with the a lines.