STROPHE (orpo'4) is a set of verses composed according to a certain system of metres. The word is derived from oTploca, " to turn," as in the lyric, especially the choral poetry of the Greeks, this part of a poem was sung during the movements and dances of the chorus. • In modern times such a combination of verses, written either in the same or in different metres, is commonly designated by the Italian name stanza. The division of a poem into strophes was how ever applied by the ancients only to lyric poetry, and here one strophe seldom exceeded the number of four verses, with the exception of the dramatic and other choruses, in which a strophe sometimes contains a considerable number of verses. However different the metre of the several verses may be, there is always a unity of rhythm in them which characterises a strophe as an artistic whole. The various kinds of strophes were designated by the ancients by various names which either indicated the number of verses they contained, such as disticha, tristieha, tetrasticha, &c., or were derived from the name of their
inventors, or from the characteristic metre in which they were com posed, such as the Aleaie, Sapphic, Choriambic strophe, 5:c. Again, strophes in which all the verses are of the same metre are called mnonocola; and those consisting of verses of two, three, or four different metres, are called dicola, tricola, or tetracola. The choral poems of the Greeks generally consisted of three main parts, strophe, antistrophe, and epode. The antistrophe always corresponds in its metre with the strophe, and thus forms a second stanza, equal Co the first ; the epode differ!' from both, and forme the concluding stanza of a chorus. (G. Hermann,' Elementa Deets. Metr.')