The structure of verse

a verse segment composed of a number of lines having

a definite measure and rhyming system which is repeated throughout the poem.”
– I. R. Galperin

possible

four lines: the 1st and the 3rd have four feet

each (tetrameter)

the 2nd and the 4th have three feet each (trimeter)

only the 2nd and the 4th lines rhyme

sometimes poets may use internal rhyme in the 1st and 3rd lines

abcb

vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white

Moon-shine.
Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, lines 75 – 78

THE BALLAD STANZA

elevated genres

iambic pentameter

two lines

aa, bb, cc, etc.

of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne

in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

lines: eight of them – iambic pentameter

the 9th – iambic

hexameter

ababbcbcc

maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now

enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses hauing slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.
Spenser, Faerie Queene

from Italy in the 16th century

eight lines

iambic pentameter

ab ab ab

cc

Famous for oranges and women – he
Who has not

seen it will be much to pity,
So says the proverb – and I quite agree;
Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty,
Cadiz, perhaps – but that you soon may see: –
Don Juan's parents lived beside the river,
A noble stream, and called the Guadalquivir.
Lord Byron, Don Juan

abba cdc ded

Shakespearian sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg

far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white,

why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 130

not be confused with blank verse (which does not rhyme,

but does follow a regular rhythm)

taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad, myriad waves,

hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship.
Whitman, After the Sea-Ship