A stanza is a group of lines that form the basic metrical unit in a poem.

So, in a 12-line poem, the first four lines might be

a stanza. You can identify a stanza by the number of lines it has and its rhyme scheme or pattern, such as A-B-A-B. There
are many different types of stanzas. Some of the most common stanza examples include:
 Couplets - Stanzas with two lines that rhyme
But if thou live, remember'd not to be,
Die single, and thing image dies with thee.
- "Sonnet III," William Shakespeare
 Tercets - Stanzas with three lines that may or may not rhyme, also known as triplets
Oh, Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find!
I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind;
But although I give you credit, 'tis with such a heavy mind!
- "A Toccata of Galuppi's," Robert Browning
 Quatrains - Stanzas with four lines that may or may not rhyme
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
- "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost
Other types of stanzas include:
 Quintain - Stanzas with five lines that may or may not rhyme
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
-"Ode to a Skylark," Percy Bysshe Shelley
 Sestet - Stanzas with six lines that may or may not rhyme
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love! - then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.
- "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be," John Keats
 Septet - Stanzas with seven lines that may or may not rhyme
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older that we,
Of many far wiser than we,
And neither the angels in Heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
-"Annabel Lee," Edgar Allan Poe
 Octave - Stanzas with eight lines that may or may not rhyme
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent…
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent…
- "Sonnet 16," John Milton