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

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 Earle, Alice Morse

C.M., chirurgi� magister, master in surgery; common metre.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 1 A to Amide by Various

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

From Sabbath in Puritan New England by Earle, Alice Morse

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)

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 Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)