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A. E. Housman, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poetry Foundation, quatrain, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Gray
The poetry form for the next two weeks will be the quatrain, a poem with one or more four lined stanzas variously patterned with rhyme and meter. Welcome to the pub.
The Poetry Foundation lists five quatrain forms based on rhyme pattern. For this prompt we will stick to the first four since we have already covered the rubai rhyme pattern.
1. There is the ballad with rhyme pattern ABAC or ABCB. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” is an example.
2. There is the double couplet with rhyme pattern AABB. A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” is an example.
3. There is the rhyme pattern ABAB called “interlaced”, “alternate” or “heroic. The example provided is Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.
4. There is the rhyme pattern ABBA called “envelop” or “enclosed”. The example provided is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”.
Think of these quatrain patterns as constraints like the 44 words of a quadrille and see what you can come up with.
Here is the Eagles’ Hotel California. I hear the lyrics as a ballad with quatrain stanzas (except for the refrain) with two beats per line and rhyme pattern ABCB.
To participate write a quatrain or a poem consisting of no more than four quatrain stanzas and post it to your blog. Copy the blog link and paste the link in the form that will appear when clicking the Mister Linky below. Enjoy the other poems linked there. The prompt will be open for the next two weeks.
dVerse 
Welcome! The pub is open with the quatrain poetry form.
Hello Frank… I will join a bit later… we have midsummer coming up and I will stay away from the internet for a few days.
Enjoy midsummer!
Hi Frank and All. Overcast and rainy here today. A good time to write quatrains!
That’s a good reason for a quatrain! It does seem to be rainy this year.
Hi Frank! Thanks for the information. I will be joining in later as I am still in the office.
I look forward to reading the quatrains – hopefully much easier than earlier poetry forms.
Thanks for hosting. You do a wonderful job of leading by example.
Thank you, Grace!
Ooh. I’m a big fan of quatrains. 🙂
So am I! I liked the sound of your poem and the subject matter. Very nice, Clara!
I love The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. None much better written than this one!
It is a very nice sounding poem.
And a great tale indeed!
I had trouble hearing that as a quatrain. I’m sure it’s just me, but I had to read some other things (ballads mostly) to get the rhyme and meter, as no meter was given.
Thanks for hosting, Frank. Quatrains can be fun; being limited to 4 stanzas, I decided to use all four of the rhyme schemes. With our country on the edge of War(again), my quatrain had to be political.
Good idea to use all those patterns in one poem. It adds variety. I will have to try it.
It appears that “Jeff” had some link-up issues. His poem i2 years old, and not a quatrain, and the page did not accept a comment.
I mentioned it to him. To get past the CAPTCHA I put all the letters in lower case.
Hello Frank and all- Thanks for hosting Frank. I am working on something but may not post until tomorrow.
There is plenty of time, Linda. This will be open for two weeks.
Great- thanks!
Thank you for hosting Frank. I may post another, but right now my brain is shattered.
It is amazing how inspiration occurs. Usually mornings are best for me, or maybe that is when I decide to pay attention. But I don’t feel it is something I am under the control of.
Well, after a slow start I had three quatrains reveal themselves to me Frank. Gonna put my brain in neutral now, and spend the rest of the weekend with the family..
Good evening, poets! Thanks, Frank, for hosting poetic forms tonight, and for introducing us to the quatrain! I embedded mine in a haibun twist! 🙂
I like how you embedded your quatrains. I usually put photos on my posts, but I may also try adding other texts as well.
Excellent!
The clouds here are letting forth a glorious drizzle of refreshing rain….much needed and welcomed by everyone I have spoken with. My poem doesn’t quite reflect our current weather, but the weather did inspire what I wrote. No meter constraints were given so I have written a fourteener (the same style as “Casey at the Bat”).
I like your longer lines. It may help with telling a narrative. You’re right. There are no meter constraints for this prompt. Just four lines in one of those rhyme patterns.
Thanks Frank, sounds a bit overwhelming to me, so I might read a few before I make an attempt
The quatrain form is like a nursery rhyme or hymn or ballad. When I think quatrain I immediately think of “Mary had a little lamb” which most of us are familiar with from childhood. The first stanza of “Amazing Grace” would be another example. Dorothy Parker wrote many although I haven’t memorized any of them.
lol did one and enjoyed it so much I will add a couple more before the fortnights out Frank, thanks!
Looking forward to it and there is plenty of time.
exactly, I’ve scheduled it as I run a regular prompt each weekend, thanks for the encouragement Frank!
You don’t mention the metre, Frank, but shouldn’t the stanzas of a quatrain be in iambic, either tetrametre or pentametre?
I didn’t want to put a constraint on the meter, but I do think meter is important, more important than rhyme, at least for the reader’s enjoyment. I originally was going to leave this with just the constraint that it only have four lines, but that didn’t seem quite enough to specify a named form.
I tend to think that we ought to follow all the rules otherwise there’s no learning process, no pushing ourselves to really get to grips with the language. We wouldn’t accept that in sport for example, to make the game so easy a five year old could be an Olympic champion.
That’s sort of why I figured I better keep the rhyme constraint in there. I am not sure there is any set meter for quatrains as a form, but I may be wrong.
Hello Frank- added mine today!
Very nice poem about that young friend’s untimely death.
Thank you Frank.
I am on vacation all this week! I will catch up when I can.
Have a nice vacation, Dwight! These poetry form prompts this year are open longer so there is no rush if you get inspired to write something.
Thanks!
Thanks Frank. There’s a lot to digest here! (but I always like to hear Hotel California) (K)
I like the song also. There are probably many examples of songs containing quatrains. That is one that first came to mind.
Not my usual positive poem, but true nonetheless. I enjoyed the form. Thanks for hosting, Frank!
Hotel California is a bit dark, but it has a nice sound. I suppose I could have picked a more positive song to illustrate quatrains.
Quatrain is my favorite form, and the hardest to do. Might be a few days on this one.
It is one of mine as well. I hope you come up with one. I will be looking forward to it.
I gave it a go. Writing my this quatrain was like doing a puzzle. Thanks for the inspiration.
These forms are like puzzles. I see even the quadrille or haibun that way. I feel I have to try to say something interesting and yet follow the constraints that may be there at the same time.
I am not fond of puzzles in general but poetry puzzles are a different.