Poetic Forms - Rubai

"Rubāʿī" is Arabic for "quatrain", and is used to describe a Persian quatrain, or its derivative form in English and other languages. Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" was a very popular rubāʿī.

Also known as the rubaiyat, the typical English rhyming scheme is:

a-a-b-a ... b-b-c-b ... c-c-d-c ... d-d-x-d

Remember that in a rhyming pattern, lines ending in a sound designated by "a" only rhyme with other "a" lines, "b" lines only with other "b" lines, and so on.

In a string of rubaiyat quatrains, with the non-rhyming line taking the rhyme from the following stanza, you can make it "cyclical" by using the first rhyme ("a") as the non-rhyming line of the last stanza:

a-a-b-a ... b-b-c-b ... c-c-d-c ... ... ... z-z-a-z

In Persian verse, a rubāʿī is visually only two lines long, its rhyme falling at the middle and end of the lines. Though a rubāʿī generally uses a classic meter (see "Poetic Meter"), it is not a requirement.

Example:

The Vase (a cyclical rubāʿī)

In hands of discipline, a stern
reminder of his painful skill,
his fingers stiffen, knuckles burn,
as muddy clay begins to turn.

The ceramista from Brazil
exerts a steady pressure still,
a vision slowly taking shape,
projecting his artistic will.

The potter lets the time escape
while choosing tools to shave and scrape
his fleeting terra-cotta vase
with hopes to form the perfect nape.

The anguish on the artist's face
is not perceived with art's embrace.
Its birth is not of much concern
when filling just the perfect space.