A quatrain is a poem, or a stanza within a poem, that consists always of four lines. It is the most common of all stanza forms in European poetry. The rhyming patterns include aabb, abab, abba, abcb.In its narrow meaning, the term is restricted to a complete poem consisting of only four lines. In its broader sense, it includes any one of many four-verse stanza forms. Basic forms abab (from "The Unquiet Grave") "The wind doth blow today, my love And a few small drops of rain; I never had but one true-love In cold grave she was lain. abcb (from "The Wife of Usher's Well") There lived a wife at Usher's Well, And a wealthy wife was she; She had three stout and stalwart sons, And sent them over the sea. aabb (from William Blake, "The Tyger") Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? abba, also called the envelope stanza or introverted quatrain (from Tennyson In Memoriam) Strong Son of God,

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatrain
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