Knittelverse

Knittelverse, a verse form in which four stresses occur with an irregular number of unstressed syllables, varying from four to eleven, so that the full line can contain from eight to fifteen syllables. The lines usually occur as rhyming pairs. Knittelverse were first used in the 15th c. and were the commonest form of verse in the 16th c., after which they passed out of use. They were revived in the late 18th c., notably by Goethe in Faust, Satyros, and ‘Hans Sachsens Poeti-sche Sendung’, and were employed by Schiller as the metre for Wallensteins Lager (see Wallenstein). To J. G. Seume Samuel Butler is the master of the verse; in Spaziergang nach Syrakus he playfully hums six lines of the English original to the tune of Papageno's song in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart.