A stanza is how many lines? What is a stanza in a poem?

The term "stanza" comes from the Greek word meaning "turn", "spinning". This combination of a certain number of poems (poetic lines), which is a semantic, syntactic and rhythmic unity. "A stanza is how many lines?" - you ask. We answer. Its composition can include from 2 to 14 verses. The names of stanzas (basic) we will now introduce to you.

Couplet

The simplest of them is a couplet (in another - distich). This kind of stanza is used relatively rarely in Russian poetry. He used, for example, M. Yu. Lermontov in his poem "The Sea Princess".

Tercet

Consisting of three verse lines of the stanza is called a three-line (otherwise - a tercet). This species is also rarely used by Russian poets. Much more often tristances are included in the composition of other, larger stanzas. They wrote, for example, the poem "The Song of Hell" by AA Blok.

Quatrain

The most popular of all other types of stanzas is the Russian poets quatrain (in another - quatrain). The combination of four verses in it allows you to get an incredible variety of intonation, rhythm. The quatrain differs in the flexibility of the syntax. It may in some cases be included in other, larger types of stanzas. As an example, we can mention Onegin stanza and sonnet. In the quatrain all kinds of rhyming methods are used , but most often there are so-called cross rhymes (constructed according to the abab scheme). For example, this is the poem "Dream" by M. Yu. Lermontov, in which the first line rhymes with the third, and the second - with the fourth. There are many examples.

Do not confuse two similar words - "string" and "stanza". Both these concepts are united by the fact that they consist of verses. 4 stanzas, however, can include a work written by quatrain, distich, tercet, etc. And the 4 lines that make up the stanza are always quatrain.

Stansy

Stansy represent a special kind of stanza, which has four lines in its composition. Let us dwell on it in more detail. In Russian poetry, it consists of four verses, written with a four-legged iambic strophe, in which a cross rhyme (constructed according to the abab scheme) is applied. In addition to these formal features, each of the quatrains also differs in semantic completeness. The brightest works written by the stanzas belong to AS Pushkin in Russian literature. In his poems several times this verse occurs. Examples: "Am I wandering ...", "Stanza", "In the depths of Siberian ores."

It should be distinguished from other varieties of stanzas, rarely used in Russian poetry, sonnet, octave, and also a special kind created by Pushkin, the Onegin stanza.

Sonnet

Sonnet is considered most often as one of the lyric genres. However, from a formal point of view, this is a stanza. Sonnet includes two parts. The first consists of two quatrains (i.e., quatrains), the second contains two tercets (i.e., three-line).

Sonnet as a stanza - how many lines? To answer this question, you can calculate their number in the components we indicated and summarize the numbers obtained. You can do it yourself and check the result. You should get exactly 14 lines. In sonnets, the poetic size is a five-legged iambic (rarely a six-footed one). Even in the classical, strict version, the rhyming scheme can change under the following obligatory condition: two equally sound rhymes should be used in quatrains, two (or, more rarely, three), which differ from those used in quatrains, should be used in tristichs. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin created three famous sonnets: "Madonna", "Poet", "Severe Dant did not despise a sonnet ...".

Onegin stanza

Onegin stanza Alexander Sergeevich was introduced into the literature specifically for the novel entitled "Eugene Onegin." As it is not difficult to guess, the name of it comes from this work. It corresponds to the following block diagram: AbAbCCddEffEgg. Answer the question "how many lines in the Onegin stanza?" You can count the number of elements in the scheme. There are only 14. In this scheme, women's clauses (endings) are indicated in capital letters, and lower-case letters indicate male clauses. Throughout the text of "Eugene Onegin" this structure is maintained, except for Tatyana's letters (chapter three), Onegin (the eighth), and also "Songs of the girls" (the third chapter).

Octave

Answer the following question: "Octave as a stanza - how many lines?" It consists of eight verses, as one can guess from the title. "Octave" in Latin means "eighth". The poetic lines in it rhyme according to the following principle: abababcc. It is mandatory to alternate between male and female clauses. In which of the famous works of Russian poetry is used such a stanza? An example of an octave is "The Lodge in Kolomna," Pushkin's poem.

What are the different types of stanzas?

The division of stanzas often occurs on the basis of the connection of rhymes in it. However, both in the West and in Russian poetry, considerable attention has also been paid to the combination of rhymed verses with unrhymed verses. This should be taken into account when answering the question "What is a stanza in a poem?". In addition, stylistic species can also be obtained by introducing extended and shortened verses. It is often included in a series of verses having an equal length, one shorter (which happens more often) or a longer one (which happens less often). In addition, a wide spread today was the alternation according to certain rules in the strophe of strings, most often rhymed, unequal length.

It should be taken into account that all the above construction principles can be combined with each other, multiple stanzas can also be doubled by adding an additional element with a "mirror" (reverse) arrangement.

Features of song genres

In the composition of stanzas a special role can play repetitions of various composition units. This is characteristic mainly for the song genre. It should be noted here the repetitions present within one stanza (for example, the repetition in the last verse of the first, creating an annular construction). In various song genres, an independent stanza (called "refrain") is often found, which is repeated unchanged after each other in this poem and gives a two-membered cyclically recurring composition.

In determining the term stanza, a regular pattern is considered as a mandatory feature. But verse genres are also possible, where repetition is limited only by analogy, more or less tangible, which turns out to be quite distinct in a number of cases, preserving compositional functions for this non-strict variety.

Some kinds of solid forms of stanzas in world poetry

A huge number of different solid forms of verses have accumulated world poetry. In the antique, for example, we will find the wealth of their varieties. They were worked out relentlessly later in the lyrics of other European peoples. These are such types of stanzas as elegiac distich, goratsiyeva, or alkaev, stanza, sapphic large and small, asclepiada, represented by several species, and others. Repeatedly reproduced most of them in the domestic versification, most often inaccurate. In this sense, a much less important role was played by Eastern poetry in Russian poetry. From it, recent attempts were made to borrow several forms (Persian quatrain, gazelle). The rich heritage of the Romance peoples in Russian poetry is represented by some of the "solid forms", such as rondo, sonnet, octave, sextin, triolet, tertzin and others.

Alexandrian verse in Russian poetry

It should be noted also the Alexandrian verse, which has firmly become part of the domestic literature. It was borrowed from France and became in the 18th century in Russian poetry an indispensable form for the heroic poem and classical tragedy. It consists of a couplet, represented by a caustic six-legged iambic, in which there are paired rhymes, alternately female, then male. Some other types of couplet were most often used in the genre of "romance", as well as in inscriptions, epigrams, etc. An example is Alexander Pushkin's Black Shawl.

We examined some kinds of stanzas. In fact, there are quite a few of them. But these are the main ones that are used in Russian literature. We can assume that in most cases, this information is enough to analyze the verses. Now you know what a stanza is in a poem. We hope you can identify the main types of it. The answer to the question "A stanza is how many lines?" Can be found in this text.