Quartet (poetry)

The Quartet is a stanza of four verses with (hendecasyllable) consonant rhyme, in which rhyme the first with the fourth and the second with the third: (ABBA)

What/ ten/go/me/ that/me a/mis/tad/ pro/cu/ras?(A)

What in/te/rés/ se/ te/ si/gue,/ Je/sús/ me/o,(B) a/ mi/ puer/ta/ cu/bier/to/ de/ ro/cí/o,(B)

(A)

Lope de Vega

The quatrain as such has been used alone but its most common use has been in sonnets, strophic poems made up of two quatrains and two triplets.

Other stanzas of four lines

• Serventesio, if the verses are of major art with consonant rhyme (ABAB).
• Redondilla, if the verses are of minor art, usually octosyllables, with sounding rhyme (abba).
• Quartet, if the verses are of minor art, usually octosyllables with consonant rhyme (abab).
• Cuaderna vía, if the verses are Alexandrians with monorrima consonant rhyme.
• Copla, if the verses are octosyllables with a sounding rhyme (-a-a).
• Follow, if the verses are heptasylabos alternated with pentasylabos with a sounding rhyme (abab).