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

Another very common metre in the Dramas consists of stanzas of eight lines of seven syllables, rhyming alternately. 

From A Handbook of the Cornish Language chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature by Jenner, Henry

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

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)