Sapphic stanza Słowacki stanza: 11a/11b/11a/5b/11c/11c. In 1653, Paul Gerhardt used the Sapphic strophe format in the text of his sacred morning song "Lobet den Herren alle, die ihn ehren". Sapphic stanza was often used in poetry of German Humanism and Baroque. It is also used in hymns such as "Herzliebster Jesu" by Johann Heermann. Sapphic stanza The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form spanning four lines (originally three: in the poetry of Sappho and Alcaeus, there is no line-end before the final Adonean). The form is two hendecasyllabic verses, and a third verse beginning the same way and
Tercet the outer lines of the next stanza rhyme with the central line of the preceding stanza, BCB, as in the "terza rima" or "terzina" form of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. There has been much investigation of the possible sources of the Dantesque "terzina", which Benedetto Croce characterised as "linked, enclosed, disciplined, vehement and yet calm". William Baer observes of the tercets of terza rima, "These interlocking rhymes tend to pull the listener's attention forward in a continuous flow... Given this natural tendency to glide forward, terza rima is especially well-suited to narration and description". The tercet also forms part of