A Prayer for My Daughter its "metremes", or rhymical motifs, rather than common metrical devices. The poem also may be read to consist of straightforward iambic verse that relies on common metrical devices such as elision, acephalous lines, promotion, and metrical inversion. Lines 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8 of each stanza are iambic pentameter; lines 4, 6, and 7 are iambic tetrameter. For instance, using traditional principles of scansion, stanza two may be scanned as shown below, where syllables in all caps represent metrical beats, lower-case syllables represent metrical off-beats, the vertical bar represents the termination of a metrical foot, and apostrophes represent elisions.
Stanza be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The term "stanza" is similar to "strophe", though strophe sometimes refers to irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas. The stanza in poetry is analogous with the paragraph that is seen in prose; related thoughts are grouped into units. In music, groups of lines are typically referred to as "verses". The stanza has also been known by terms such as "batch", "fit", and "stave". This short poem by Emily Dickinson has two stanzas of four lines each. <poem>I had no time to hate, because The grave would