In this literary ballad the length of the stanzas ranges from four to six lines. Each type of stanza has its own distinct form. The four-line stanza, also known as a quatrain, alternates four- and three-beat stresses. For example, from Book I:

They bred like birds in English woods, (4)

They rooted like the rose, (3)

When Alfred came to Athelney, (4)

To hide him from their bows (3) (Lines 108-11). 

The meter here is iambic, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, although overall the meter of the ballad is flexible, with many variations on the basic iambic beat. 

The five-line stanzas have their own distinctive structure. The first line, a tetrameter, contains four stressed syllables; the second line, a trimeter, contains three; lines 3 and 4 contain four stresses, and line 5 contains three stresses. It can be represented thus: 4,3,4,4,3:  

Our towns were shaken of tall kings (4)

With scarlet beards like blood: (3)

The world turned empty where they trod, (4)

They took the kindly cross of God (4)

And cut it up for wood (3) (Book 1, Lines 91-95). 

In terms of the number of stresses, or beats, the six-line stanzas usually follow a pattern of 4,3,4,4,4,3: