Poetry other variations of "shi" poetry, generally either a four line (quatrain, or "jueju") or else an eight line poem is normal; either way with the even numbered lines rhyming. The line length is scanned by according number of characters (according to the convention that one character equals one syllable), and are predominantly either five or seven characters long, with a caesura before the final three syllables. The lines are generally end-stopped, considered as a series of couplets, and exhibit verbal parallelism as a key poetic device. The "old style" verse ("gushi") is less formally strict than the "jintishi", or regulated
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">