What is the difference between a "stanza" and a "verse", as applied to English literature?
What is the difference between 'stanza' and 'verse' in English Literature (Poetry)? I've read one of my classmate's essays and the word 'verse' cropped up - I thought that the word 'verse' was usually used for song/lyrics and was quite confused when it was used in that context (Poem analysis).
From what I'm reading here.
- A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
The two are synonyms.
From: Dictionary.com
But I think the difference is that a stanza is more about structure, whereas a verse is less about rhyming scheme and more just a way to identify sections of a piece of writing.
Verse refers any text presented over multiple lines, where the line breaks are deliberate and integral to the work itself, such as in conventional poems. This is as opposed to prose, which is text arranged in paragraphs, such as in a typical Wikipedia article.
Thus, verse can refer to any number of lines grouped together, whether it be an entire poem, or just a section of it.
Stanza, meanwhile, specifically refers to a formally defined unit of a poem, much like a paragraph in an essay.