Quatrain: 四行诗A four-line stanza, rhymed or unrhymed. This form has been widely and continuously popular in England. The heroic or elegiac quatrain is iambic pentameter, rhyming abab. The ballad stanza is a quatrain alternating iambic tetrameter with iambic trimeter lines, usually rhyming abxb. Sometimes it is followed by a refrain, a line or lines repeated several times.

      这是英语诗歌中最常见的一种诗体，其常见的韵式为abab和 abxb，可以反复，最著名的如苏格兰农民诗人罗伯特·彭斯“红红的玫瑰”

      A Red, Red Rose                      卿若红玫瑰          颖颖赤墙靡

                       Robert Burns                         罗伯特·彭斯

O, my luve is like a red, red rose, [a]     卿若红玫瑰，       颖颖赤墙靡，

That’s newly sprung in June.      [b]      新绽六月里，       首夏初发苞。

O, my luve is like the  melodie,   [c]      更若旋律曲，       恻恻清商曲，

That’s sweetly play’d in tune.     [b]     嘹亮声和谐。        眇音何远姚？

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,    [a]     汝颜美若斯，       予美谅夭绍，

So deep in luve am I                    [b]    我深弥爱之，       幽情申自持。

And I will luve thee still, my dear, [c]    情爱永不变，       仓海会流枯，

Till a’the seas gang dry.               [b]    直至海枯时。       相爱无绝期

Till a’ seas gang dry, my dear,    [a]    海水尽枯竭，        仓海会流枯，

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun!   [b]     岩石皆蚀摧，       顽石烂炎熹，

And I will luve thee till, my dear,  [c]    此生一息存，       微命属如缕，

While the sands o’ life shall run.   [b]    相爱永不隳。       相爱无绝期。

And fare thee weel, my only luve!  [a    吾爱此别矣，       掺怯别予美，

And fare thee weel, a while!         [b]    暂作小分飞，       离隔在须臾，

And I will come again, my luve.   [c]    相去虽万里，       阿阳早日归，

Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!   [b]     他日终旋归。      万里莫踟蹰。

                                                               ——周宜乃 译      ——苏曼殊  译

再如美国诗人朗费罗的“箭和歌”

  The Arrow and the Song                         箭和歌

                     Longfellow                                    朗费罗

I shot an arrow into the air,          [a]     我射出一枝箭到空中，

It fell to earth, I knew not where;  [a]     它落在地上，不知何方；

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight    [b]     因为，它飞得如此神速，

Could not follow it in its flight.      [b]     眼力跟不上它的飞翔。

I breathed a song into the air,             [a]     我哼出一只歌到空中，

It fell to earth I knew not where;        [a]     它落在地上，不知何方；

For who has sight so keen and strong [b]     因为，谁有那敏锐目力，

That it can follow the flight of song?  [b]      能够追踪歌声的飞翔？

Long, long afterwards, in an oak,      [a]   很久很久以后，在一棵橡树上，

I found the arrow, still unbroke;        [a]   我完整无损的找到了那枝箭；

And the song, from beginning to end, [b]   而那只歌，从开头一直到结尾，

I found again in the heart of a friend. [b]   我又在一位朋友的心头发现。

                                                                                      ——田乃钊 译

                                                                               与 歌 

吾矢射空，莫知堕处；

其飞甚疾，目不及顾。

吾歌绕空，莫知灭处；

声浪之行，目不得顾。

                                                                      卒获吾矢，贯彼檞木,

卒获吾歌，在彼友腹。

                         （叶中冷  译）