Decasyllabic quatrain "prosy". While Ward respects Dryden's willingness to use a new form despite his mastery of the heroic couplet, he believes that "Annus Mirabilis" exemplifies the weaknesses of the form and hinders Dryden's ability to use poetry to fully express his philosophical conceits. Saintsbury, agreeing with this assessment, suggested that Dryden's choice to revert to the heroic couplet for his three poems on the restoration. Decasyllabic quatrain Decasyllabic quatrain is a term used for a poetic form in which each stanza consists of four lines of ten syllables each, usually with a rhyme scheme of AABB or ABAB. Examples of the
Alcaic stanza Italian poetry of 19th century, especially by Giosuè Carducci. As in English, the meter is accentual rather than quantatative. <poem style="margin-left:2em; font-style:italic"> Poi che un sereno vapor d’ambrosia da la tua còppa diffuso avvolsemi, </poem> It was an historically important form in Hungarian poetry. In Polish poetry (in contrast to the Sapphic stanza which was extremely popular since 16th century) Alcaics were used very rarely. Even in translation Horace's Alcaic stanzas were usually turned into different forms. An example (perhaps the only) of an Alcaic stanza in Polish original literature is Stanisław Trembecki's "Ode to Adam Naruszewicz": <poem style="margin-left:2em; font-style:italic">