The Ballad of the White Horse is also considered a Roman Catholic allegory. Chesterton incorporates a significant amount of philosophy into the basic structure of the story. The poem consists of 2,684 lines of English verse. They are divided into stanzas, typically consisting of 4 to 6 lines each. The poem is based on the ballad stanza form, although the poem often departs significantly from it. Types of metrical feet are used more or less freely, although there is often basic repetition in a line. The rhyme scheme varies, often being ABCB or ABCCCB. Prefatory Note Chesterton begins his work with a note (in prose) declaring
Alcaic stanza O ty, kapłanie Delijskiego świętny, Przeszłego wiadom, przyszłości pojętny </poem> Trembecki's verse is syllabic (11/11/9/10). There is no accentual metrical pattern. German has also used alcaics with some success. They were introduced by Klopstock, and used by Hölderlin, by Johann Heinrich Voss in his translations of Horace, by August Kopisch and other 19th century German poets. 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