The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain this earlier and more famous Arthurian poem recounting an adventure of Sir Gawain, it has a tail of four short lines at the end of every stanza. In the case of "The Knightly Tale of Gologras and Gawain", however – unlike its more famous cousin – the last four lines of every stanza form a "separate quatrain... linked by final rhyme to the ninth line", a style of alliteration and rhyme that is identical to that found in the Middle English poem "The Awntyrs off Arthure" Perhaps this challenging rhyme scheme, coupled with the poem's use of a large number
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