stanza

Everyday

A stanza is a group of lines in a poem, set apart from the other groups by a space, like a paragraph in a story; it is often called a verse. tree →

In the lessons

In English lessons on poetry, pupils count stanzas, find the rhyme scheme of each stanza and describe its pattern: a couplet (2 lines), tercet (3), quatrain (4). Answering questions like "In the second stanza, how does the poet feel?" is common in reading tests. In songs, a stanza is a verse, and the repeated part is the chorus.

Examples

• This poem has four stanzas. tree →
• Each stanza has four lines that rhyme. tree →
• Read the first stanza aloud. tree →
• In the last stanza, the poet feels hopeful. tree →
• Write a stanza about your favourite season. tree →
• A stanza is like a paragraph in a poem. tree →
• The second stanza describes the sea at night. tree →
• And if one stanza sounded painfully-- tree →

Note

Countable: stanzas. "Verse" can mean stanza, but "verse" also means poetry in general, and in hymns and the Bible a verse is a numbered line. From Italian, meaning "room" or "stopping place".