sapphic stanza

The term "sapphic" refers to a metrical pattern named after the ancient Greek poet Sappho, who lived on the island of Lesbos around 600 B.C.. Sappho wrote passionate poetry, much of which survives only in fragments, and her original rhythmical pattern became known as sapphic verse.1

A sapphic stanza consists of three quantitative lines, each followed by a shorter line called an Adonic. This meter was adopted by later poets, such as the Roman poets Catullus and Horace, and has been adapted into other languages, though with varying degrees of success due to differences in language structure. The term "sapphic" can refer to a single line in this meter or the entire stanza.213