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

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

This is the common metre of the Psalm versions.

From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)

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

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)

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