Vietnamese poetry Vietnamese poetry Vietnamese poetry originated in the form of folk poetry and proverbs. Vietnamese poetic structures include "six-eight, "double-seven six-eight", and various styles shared with Classical Chinese poetry forms, such as are found in Tang poetry; examples include verse forms with "seven syllables each line for eight lines," "seven syllables each line for four lines" (a type of quatrain), and "five syllables each line for eight lines." More recently there have been "new poetry" and "free poetry". With the exception of free poetry, a form with no distinct structure, other forms all have a certain structure. The tightest and most
Alcaic stanza Alcaic stanza The Alcaic stanza is a Greek lyrical meter, an Aeolic verse form traditionally believed to have been invented by Alcaeus, a lyric poet from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, about 600 BC. The Alcaic stanza and the Sapphic stanza named for Alcaeus' contemporary, Sappho, are two important forms of Classical poetry. The Alcaic stanza consists of two Alcaic hendecasyllables, followed by an Alcaic enneasyllable and an Alcaic decasyllable. The Alcaic stanza as used by Sappho and Alcaeus has the scheme ( where "–" is a longum, "u" a breve, and "×" an anceps): One stanza consists of