In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. (The term means "stopping place" in Italian.) In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "verse" (as distinct from the refrain, or "chorus"). This article is about the art form. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Strophe (Greek, to turn) is a term in versification which properly means a turn, as from one foot to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other. ... The structures or musical forms of songs in popular music are typically sectional forms, such as strophic form. ... A refrain (from the Old French refraindre to repeat, likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the chorus of a song. ...

A stanza consists of a grouping of lines, set off by a space, that usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. In poetry, the meter or metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. ...

In traditional English-language poems, stanzas can be identified and grouped together because they share a rhyme scheme or a fixed number of lines (as in distich/couplet, tercet, quatrain, cinquain/quintain, sestet). In much modern poetry, stanzas may be arbitrarily presented on the printed page because of publishing conventions that employ such features as white space or punctuation. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ... A couplet is a pair of lines of verse that form a unit. ... For the Angel episode, see Couplet (Angel episode). ... A tercet is three lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem. ... A quatrain is a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines. ... Look up Cinquain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... [[]]A Sestet is the name given to the second division of a sonnet, which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines. ...

One of the most common manifestations of stanzaic form in poetry in English (and in other Western-European languages) is represented in texts for church hymns, such as the first three stanzas (of nine) from a poem by Isaac Watts (from 1719) cited immediately below (in this case, each stanza is to be sung to the same hymn tune, composed earlier by William Croft in 1708): For the architectural structure, see Church (building). ... See also hymn - a program to decrypt iTunes music files. ... Isaac Watts (July 17, 1674 – November 25, 1748) is recognised as the Father of English Hymnody, as he was the first prolific and popular English hymnwriter, credited with some 750 hymns. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hymn. ...

Our God, our help in ages past,

Our hope for years to come,

Our shelter from the stormy blast,

And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne

Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is Thine arm alone,

And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,

Or earth received her frame,

From everlasting Thou art God,

To endless years the same. [etc.]

Less obvious manifestations of stanzaic form can be found as well, as in Shakespeare's sonnets, which, while printed as whole units in themselves, can be broken into stanzas with the same rhyme scheme followed by a final couplet, as in the example of Sonnet 116: Shakespeare redirects here. ... This article is about the sonnet form of poetry. ...

 Let me not to the marriage of true minds | Admit impediments. Love is not love |  Which alters when it alteration finds, | / All one stanza Or bends with the remover to remove: |/ O no! it is an ever-fixed mark, | That looks on tempests and is never shaken; |  It is the star to every wandering bark, | / All one stanza Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. |/ Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks | Within his bending sickle's compass come; |  Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, | / All one stanza But bears it out even to the edge of doom. |/ If this be error and upon me proved, | I never writ, nor no man ever loved. |/ A couplet