Decasyllabic quatrain 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 decasyllabic quatrain in heroic couplets appear in some of the earliest texts in the English language, as Geoffrey Chaucer created the heroic couplet and used it in "The Canterbury Tales". The alternating form came to prominence in late 16th-Century English poetry and became fashionable in the 17th Century when it appeared in heroic poems by William Davenant and John Dryden. In the 18th Century
Spenserian stanza Spenserian stanza The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem "The Faerie Queene" (1590–96). Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is ABABBCBCC. This example is the first stanza from Spenser's "Faerie Queene". The formatting, wherein all lines but the first and last are indented, is the same as in contemporary printed editions. <poem> Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske, Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.