Meaning & use
quatrain
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A group of four lines of verse, either a complete short poem or one unit within a longer poem.
Grammar: Counted like any noun: a quatrain, three quatrains; often followed by 'of' plus the poem's name or poet.
Patterns
- a quatrain of something
- the final quatrain of something
The poem opens with a quatrain describing a quiet harbor at dawn.
Each quatrain in the hymn ends with the same refrain.
She wrote a witty quatrain on a birthday card for her uncle.
Word forms
| plural | quatrains |
|---|
Common combinations
- rhyming quatrain
- He composed a rhyming quatrain to sum up the whole trip.
- opening quatrain
- The opening quatrain sets the mood for the whole sonnet.
- final quatrain
- In the final quatrain the speaker finally accepts the loss.
- a sonnet's quatrains
- The sonnet's quatrains build the argument, and the couplet resolves it.
- ballad quatrain
- The folk song is written in the familiar ballad quatrain.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: quatrain or couplet?
quatrain vs couplet
A couplet is two lines of verse, usually rhyming, while a quatrain has four.
Practice
A sonnet in the English style ends with a couplet. How many lines are in each quatrain that comes before it?
Choose one answer.
A quatrain always has four lines. Two lines make a couplet, and three lines make a tercet.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quatrain”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.