Monostich. A one-line stanza. Monostich can also be an entire poem.
• Couplet. A stanza with two lines that rhyme.
• Tercet. A stanza with three lines that either all rhyme or the first and the third line rhyme which is called an ABA rhyming pattern. A poem made up of tercets and concludes with a couplet is called a "terza rima."
Quatrain. A stanza with four lines with the second and fourth lines rhyming.
• Quintain. A stanza with five lines.
• Sestet. A stanza with six lines.
• Septet. A stanza with seven lines. This is sometimes called a "rhyme royal."
• Octave. A stanza with eight lines written in iambic pentameter, or ten syllable beats per line. The more lines a stanza has the more varieties of rhyme and meter patterns. For example, "ottava rima" is an eight-line stanza with the specific rhyme scheme in which the first six lines have an alternating rhyme pattern and a couplet as the final two lines.
Isometric stanza. Isometric stanzas have the same syllabic beats, or the same meter, in every line.
• Heterometric stanza. A stanza in which every line is a different length.
Spenserian stanza. Named after Edward Spenser's unique stanza structure in his poem "The Faerie Queene." A Spenserian stanza has nine line, eight in iambic pentameter-ten syllables in a line with emphasis on the second beat of each syllable and a final line in iambic hexameter-a twelve-syllable beat line.
Ballad stanza. Often used in folk songs, a ballad stanza is a rhyming quatrain with four emphasized beats (eight syllables) the first and third lines, and three emphasized beats (six syllables) in the second and fourth lines.
