Classical Chinese poetry forms developing a complete poetic concept; this is, indeed, especially the case with the five-character line version. Also known as the Five-character-quatrain, this form of regulated verse is characterized by four lines of five characters each. Also known as the Seven-character-quatrain, this is a form of regulated verse with four lines of seven characters each. While embracing all, or most of, the "lushi" rules and regulations the "pailu" allows for a number of linked couplets with no maximum upward limit. A strict emphasis on formal parallelism is typical of the "pailu" form. Poems based on traditional structures, originally meant as lyrics
A Prayer for My Daughter quatrain of enclosed rhyme. Many of the rhyme pairs use slant rhyme. The stanza may be seen as a variation on ottava rima, an eight-lined stanza used in other Yeats poems, such as "Among School Children" and "Sailing to Byzantium." Metrical analysis of the poem, according to Robert Einarsson, proves difficult because he believes Yeats adheres to "rhythmical motifs" rather than traditional use of syllables in his meter. In stanza two, Einarsson points out instances where the meter of the poem contains examples of amphibrachic, pyrrhicretic, and spondaic feet. He argues that the complexity of Yeats's verse follows patterns of