A quatrain is a four-line stanza of poetry. It's a common form found in many different types of poems, including:
* Sonnets: Often contain three quatrains followed by a concluding couplet.
* Limericks: A specific type of humorous quatrain with a characteristic rhyme scheme.
* Haiku: A three-line form of Japanese poetry, but sometimes presented as a four-line quatrain in English.
Characteristics of a quatrain:
* Four lines: As the name suggests, each quatrain has exactly four lines.
* Rhyme scheme: Quatrains can have various rhyme schemes, such as AABB, ABAB, or ABCB.
* Meter: The meter of a quatrain can vary, but often follows a regular pattern like iambic pentameter.
* Content: The content of a quatrain can be anything, from love and nature to social commentary and philosophy.
Examples of quatrains:
* From Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:
> "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
> Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
> Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
> And summer's lease hath all too short a date:"
* From Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening":
> "Whose woods these are I think I know.
> His house is in the village though;
> He will not see me stopping here
> To watch his woods fill up with snow."
If you have any more questions about poetry or quatrains, feel free to ask!