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What poetic meter was commonly used in medieval verse romances?
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The standard poetic meter used in medieval verse romance is the octosyllabic rhyming couplet.1
This form consists of lines containing eight syllables, paired in rhyming couplets. While this was the standard, some shorter verse romances also utilized a form known as tail rhyme, which features rhymed couplets or triplets followed by a shorter line, or "tail," that does not rhyme with the preceding lines. Additionally, some early examples of English verse romance, such as King Horn, were written in varying two- and three-stress lines.213456