The Burns stanza is a verse form named after the Scottish poet

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

, who used it in some fifty poems. It was not, however, invented by Burns, and prior to his use of it was known as the standard Habbie, after the piper Habbie Simpson (1550–1620). It is also sometimes known as the Scottish stanza or six-line stave. It is found in

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

in the Romance of Octovian (Octavian).Max Kaluza (1911) ''A Short History of English Versification from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'', George Allen & Co., London
/ref> It was also found in mediaeval Provençal poems and miracle plays from the Middle Ages. The first notable poem written in this stanza was the "Lament for Habbie Simpson; or, the Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan" by Robert Sempill the younger. The stanza was used frequently by major 18th-century Lowland Scots poets such as Robert Fergusson and

and has been used by subsequent poets. Major poems in the stanza include Burns's " To a Mouse", " To a Louse", " Address to the Deil" and "Death and Doctor Hornbook". The stanza is six lines in length and rhymes AAABAB, with

tetrameter In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet. However, the particular foot can vary, as follows: * '' Anapestic tetrameter:'' ** "And the ''sheen'' of their ''spears'' was like ''stars'' on the ''sea''" (Lord Byron, " The Destruction ...

A lines and dimeter B lines. The second B line may or may not be repeated.Philip Hobsbaum (1996) ''Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form'', Routledge – Taylor and Francis, London Although the "Lament for Habbie" itself is strictly lyrical, subsequent uses have tended to be comic and satirical, as this passage from Burns shows: A variation on the Burns stanza employs the rhyme scheme AABCCCB, with foreshortened third and seventh lines. This form is deployed, for example, in W. H. Auden's poem "Brother, who when the sirens roar" (also known as "A Communist to Others"): Auden uses similar verse forms in other poems in the collection '' Look, Stranger!'' (also known as '' On This Island''), such as " The Witnesses" and "Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed" (also known as "Summer Night"). A more recent example can be seen in W. N. Herbert's "To a Mousse". The AABCCCB variation is also employed by Samuel Francis Smith in the lyrics of his song "

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns Stanza Stanzaic form Scottish literature Scots language