Burns stanza
or Burns metre is a six-line stanza rhyming aaabab, the first three lines
and the fifth having four stresses, and the fourth and sixth having two
stresses. Although it was used much earlier in medieval English romances
and Provencal poetry, it is named after the Scottish poet Robert Burns
(1759-96), who used it frequently, as in 'A Poet's Welcome to his love-begotten
Daughter':
Welcome! My
bonie, sweet, wee dochter!
Though ye
come here a wee unsought for;
And though
your comin I hae fought for, Baith Kirk and Queir;
Yet by my
faith, ye're no unwrought for, That I shall swear!