A quatrain is a stanza or poem made of four lines. It is one of the most common and flexible units in poetry. A quatrain may stand alone as a complete poem, or it may appear as one stanza within a longer poem. A quatrain may use many rhyme schemes, including abab, aabb, abba, and abcb. The abab pattern uses alternating rhyme. The aabb pattern uses rhyming couplets. The abba pattern uses enclosed rhyme. The abcb pattern is common in ballad stanzas, where the second and fourth lines rhyme.

Quatrains can be written in many meters, including iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter. A decasyllabic quatrain uses ten syllables per line. If those ten syllables follow an unstressed-stressed pattern, the line may also be iambic pentameter.

To write a quatrain, begin with four lines. Decide whether the quatrain will tell a small story, describe an image, make an argument, turn a thought, or complete a single emotional movement. Then choose whether the lines will rhyme, follow a meter, or remain free.

Song of the Sea
The stars above, like ancient eyes, behold
The endless dance of waters far below,
Where mysteries in depths of blue unfold,
As winds above in fleeting whispers blow.

A sailor’s heart, adrift in dreams untold,
Finds solace in the quiet, gentle pull—
The sea, a mirror of the soul’s own mold,
Reflects its waves both turbulent and full.
Upon the shore, the footprints fade away,
Yet in the air, a song remains in flight,
Where every note is made of fleeting play,
A tune that echoes softly through the night.

The sea can cage you or can set you free,
its wildest power pulls the lost ones near;
To find its song is all we truly need,
To grasp and hold what we once held so dear.

“Song of the Sea” is written in four quatrains. The poem uses four-line stanzas and a generally formal rhythm. The rhyme is mostly alternating, though some rhymes are slant or softened rather than exact. The poem shows how quatrains can be used to build a larger lyric meditation through repeated four-line units.
Quatrain is a traditional stanza form. A stricter quatrain may keep exact rhyme and meter. A looser quatrain may use four-line stanzas without rhyme, allowing the stanza shape itself to organize the poem.