0 a group of lines of poetry forming a unit --
1 a related group of lines in a poem or song; a verse --
The refrain has the same number of lines, of the same length, as the stanza, but it deploys them differently.
The common practice of cutting the second stanza is aesthetically indefensible.
The first stanza is remarkable for its use of words taken from a technical legal vocabulary.
In the final stanza, however, there is a very different form of time at work.
Rather, it was important for the song to have seven stanzas, to be made of all perfect notes, and to promote high civic virtue.
First, the refrain word is pronounced by the knight in all stanzas except the last: he controls the shepherdess.
The strophic text carefully distributes the content: each stanza contains a step in the narrative process; each has a distinct temporal reach and extent.
The strophic effect is reinforced by the unvarying refrain at the end of each stanza.
