Quatrain Quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient India, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China, and continues into the 21st century, where it is seen in works published in many languages. During Europe's Dark Ages, in the Middle East and especially Iran, polymath poets such as Omar Khayyam continued to popularize this form of poetry, also known as Ruba'i, well beyond their borders and time. Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus) used 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">