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

See Examples For:

common metre

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 Bliss Perry

These thirty-seven tunes, all of which but one were in common metre, were bound often with "The Bay Psalm-Book."

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle

It is all written in "common metre," nearly all in lines of eight and six syllables alternately.

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle

Wordsworth, by the way, when he visited Vallombrosa with Crabb Robinson in 1837, wrote an inferior poem there, in a rather common metre, in honour of Milton's association with it.

From A Wanderer in Florence by E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas

Ballads are more frequently written in common metre lines of eight and six syllables alternating.

From The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2 by Various