Rhyming Forms: Quatern
The Quatern is a 16 line rhyming poem that is somewhat like the Kyrielle. It is also a French form and is tetra-syllabic (8 syllables per line) in nature and written in quatrains (4 line stanzas) too. It also has a refrain line that appears in each stanza; however, unlike the Kyrielle, the refrain line in a Quatern moves. It begins as the fist line in the first stanza and moves down one line in each consecutive stanza, until it becomes the last line of the last stanza.
The Quatern does not have to follow any patterned meter, such as iambic meter nor does it have to conform to any set rhyme scheme. Some possible rhyme schemes that would work in a Quatern are:
1. Abab, cAca, adAd, eaeA
2. Aabb, aAbb, bbAa, bbaA
3. Axax, xAxa, axAx, xaxA
The things you must follow when writing a Quatern are:
1. The refrain must appear in its set place in each quatrain
2. Each line must be at least tetra-syllabic.
3. There must be 16 lines written in 4 quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines)
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