The lyrics have always been a matter of taste. But the basic principles of traditional versification are presented in the form of quatrains and couplets. They can easily be combined into stanzas of large poems and create a wide variety of poetic genres. What are quatrains and couplets? How do they differ and what can be written with their help?
Couplet
Before you begin to study what a quatrain is, you need to first examine the couplet. After all, any quatrain consists of two couplets. We can say that couplets are a visiting card of any poetry. Like any lines, couplets can be non-rhyming, but most often the author tries to follow the classics of the genre and introduces a rhyme.
Couplets can be stanzas of large poems, but can play an independent role. In antiquity, such poetic traditions were called distichs. This genre is good for a budding poet. Firstly, you can quickly compose it, and secondly, you can try out all possible poetic sizes on it.
Couplets tend to impress readers with unexpected transitions. Since there are only two lines, it is not surprising that they can engage in natural opposition, create paradoxes and contrast. Most often, both lines are the same size, but it is most interesting to experiment with the stress pattern and line length.
Quatrain
So what is a quatrain? It is safe to say that this is the most popular form of stanza. The quatrain is a very solid and independent poem.
The quatrain is characterized by a variety of rhymes. An author can rhyme the first line with the second, and the third with the fourth. This is called contiguous rhyme. But these are not two couplets, but a whole work of four lines.
Also, the first stanza can rhyme with the third, and the second with the fourth. It will be a cross rhyme. The author can also rhyme the first line with the last, the second with the third. This is called a shingles rhyme.
These are the classic rhymes that are used most often. Although no one says that this rule must be followed. An author with a clear conscience can rhyme only two or three lines, leaving the rest without a rhyme. Also, the quatrain can consist of two couplets, between which there is an indent.
Oriental poetry
Particular attention should be paid to Japanese quatrains. Such quatrains are called rubyas. The rhyme here is slightly peculiar and can be written in this way - aaba or aaaa. That is, in such a product the first second and fourth lines rhyme or all the lines are united by one rhyme.
For the average Russian reader, such a rhyme can be difficult to understand, but in Japan, for poetry, it is not sound that is important, but the ability to excite the imagination. This is one of the main features of the Japanese lyrics of small poetic forms.
Japanese poems can become powerful capacitors of feelings and thoughts, each such work is a small poem that encourages the reader to think about the true meaning of what is written.
So what is a quatrain? These are four lines that are united by a common theme, rhyme, stress and meaning.