common metre

British  

noun

1. a stanza form, used esp for hymns, consisting of four lines, two of eight syllables alternating with two of six

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Example Sentences

Yet, by these presents, witness all,     She's welcome fifty times,   And comes consigned to Hope and Love     And common metre rhymes.

From Mother Carey's Chickens by Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith

The "common metre" of English hymnology is thus seen to be a rough mould into which almost any kind of religious emotion may be poured.

From A Study of Poetry by Perry, Bliss

Mother Carey played the dear old common metre tune, and the voices rang out in Whittier's hymn.

From Mother Carey's Chickens by Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith

The syllables are as in the common metre, but it has thrice the rhymes.

From Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry by Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)

Orchest. under διποδία, διαποδισμὸς ποδίκρα.1603.Perhaps it was connected with the trochaic dipodia, which appears to have been the common metre in these choral songs, though mixed with cretics, spondees, dactylic, and logaœdic verses.1604.Aristoph.

From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried