English Literature / Unit 1 ENL 0024 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Tercet, Terza Rima, Quatrain
Captions available
The idea
A tercet is a three-line stanza and a quatrain a four-line one. Terza rima links tercets in a chain: the middle line of each rhymes with the first and third of the next, aba bcb cdc. It came from Italian; Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" uses it in English.
In practice
Three, four, and three-in-a-chain.
Where people slip
Terza rima interlocks; plain tercets need not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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