In poetry, what is a stanza?

A stanza in poetry is defined as a grouped set of lines within a poem, serving as a building block for its structure. Stanzas often encapsulate a specific idea, emotion, or theme, making them essential for the poem's overall meaning and rhythm. By organizing thoughts into distinct sections, stanzas can create a variety of effects, such as emphasizing contrasts or showcasing progression in the poem. Each stanza typically follows a particular pattern, which may include a consistent number of lines or a set rhyme scheme, but the fundamental role of a stanza is to provide structural division and clarity to the poem.

The other options represent important literary concepts but do not capture the definition of a stanza. A central idea or theme pertains to the overarching message of the poem, a narrative voice refers to the perspective from which a story is told, and a rhyme scheme describes the pattern of rhymes at the end of lines, but none of these define what a stanza is.