The quatrain is a (single) verse of French origin, which is mostly written according to the rhyme scheme abba, which corresponds to the sequence of enriming rhymes. However, there are also examples for the quatrain, which correspond to a different sequence of rhymes.
The quatrain consists only of a four-line structure, which means that the single stanza is only made up of four individual verses. The Quatrain was decisively adopted by Opitz and his contemporaries in the 17th century and thus entered the German literature.
Quatrain is often written as an epigram, and has often been written on sacred gifts, tombstones, works of art, or the like, just to describe its purpose and meaning.
Sometimes the word synonymous to the quartet from the sonnet seal is used to name a four-line. Let us look at an example that comes from the pen of the Baroque poet Opitz himself and is handed down as a “epitaph of a cook”.
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b
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a
How is the world still transversely,
Hie has a chef im dig his rest,
The many of the spears are directed,
Now the worms have eaten raw.
Finally, we would like to present the four-line “consolation” of Gottfried August Bürger, whose ballads around the Freiherrn of Münchhausen are most likely to be known. The typical hugging rhyme is carefully transcended and the cross rhyme is selected. Thus it becomes clear that the term Quatrain describes in its basic meaning a verse from four lines of verse.
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b
a
b
When the blasphemy stabs you,
Let this be your consolation:
The worst fruits are not,
What the wasps gnaw at.