Sapphic stanza
The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest lived of the Classical lyric strophes in the West". Definitions In poetry, "Sapphic" may refer to three distinct but related Aeolic verse forms: The greater Sapphic, a 15-syllable line, with the structure: – u – – – | u u – | – u u – u – – –=long syllable; u=short syllable; |=caesura The lesser Sapphic, an 11-syllable line, with the structure: – u – x – u u – u – – x=anceps (either long or short) The Sapphic stanza, typically conceptualized as comprising 3 lesser Sapphic lines followed by an adonic, with the structure: – u u – – Classical Latin poets duplicated the Sapphic stanza with subtle modification. Since the Middle Ages the terms "Sapphic stanzas" or frequently simply "Sapphics" have come to denote various stanzaic forms approaching more or less closely to Classical Sapphics, but often featuring accentual meter or rhyme (neither occurring in the original form), and with line structures mirroring the original with varying