ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The number of stanzas in a poem varies depending on the style of poetry it is. However, most poems have at least four stanzas. One stanza in the poem is made up of four lines. A stanza is a piece of poetry that consists of two or more lines placed consecutively.

Detailed explanation-2: -A four-line stanza is called a quatrain. Often, these quatrains contain alternating rhyming lines, such as in Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’:

Detailed explanation-3: -A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.

Detailed explanation-4: -A quatern is a 16-line poem made up of four quatrains (four-line stanzas) as opposed to other poetic forms that incorporate a sestet or tercet.

Detailed explanation-5: -Like lines, there is no set length to a stanza or an insistence that all stanzas within a poem need be the same length. However, there are names for stanzas of certain lengths: two-line stanzas are couplets; three-lines, tercets; four-lines, quatrains. (Rarer terms, like sixains and quatorzains, are very rarely used.)