Stanza Stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian "stanza" , "room") is a grouped set of lines within a poem, usually set off from other stanzas by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, though stanzas are not strictly required to have either. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. There are many unique . Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can
Annus Mirabilis (poem) quatrain. Rather than write in the heroic couplets found in his earlier works, Dryden used the decasyllabic quatrain exemplified in Sir John Davies' poem "Nosce Teipsum" in 1599. The style was revived by William Davenant in his poem "Gondibert", which was published in 1651 and influenced Dryden's composition of "Annus Mirabilis". This particular style dictates that each quatrain should contain a full stop, which A. W. Ward believes causes the verse to become "prosy". Annus Mirabilis (poem) Annus Mirabilis is a poem written by John Dryden published in 1667. It commemorated 1665–1666, the "year of miracles" of London. Despite the