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A tercet is three lines of poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, forming a stanza
Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "Verse " ....
 or complete poem. Haiku
Haiku

' ', plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 Mora e , in three metrical phrases of 5, 7 and 5 morae respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura....
 is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem.

Other types of tercet include an enclosed tercet where the lines rhyme in an a b a pattern and terza rima
Terza rima

Terza rima is a rhyme Verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poetry poet Dante Alighieri....
 where the a b a pattern of a verse is continued in the next verse by making the outer lines of the next stanza rhyme with the central line of the preceding stanza as in Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
's Divine Comedy.






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A tercet is three lines of poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
, forming a stanza
Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "Verse " ....
 or complete poem. Haiku
Haiku

' ', plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 Mora e , in three metrical phrases of 5, 7 and 5 morae respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura....
 is an example of an unrhymed tercet poem.

Other types of tercet include an enclosed tercet where the lines rhyme in an a b a pattern and terza rima
Terza rima

Terza rima is a rhyme Verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poetry poet Dante Alighieri....
 where the a b a pattern of a verse is continued in the next verse by making the outer lines of the next stanza rhyme with the central line of the preceding stanza as in Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
's Divine Comedy. The tercet also forms part of the villanelle
Villanelle

A villanelle is a poetry form which entered English-language poetry in the 1800s from the imitation of French literature models. A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds....
, where the initial five stanzas are tercets, followed by a concluding quatrain
Quatrain

A quatrain is a poem composed of two rhyming couplets, or a stanza within a poem, that consists always of four lines. The rhyming patterns include aabb, abab, abba, abcb, aaba, or aaaa ....
.

A tercet may also be separate halves of the ending sestet
Sestet

A sestet is the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet , which must consist of an octave , of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines....
 in a petrarchan sonnet where the rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdccdc as in Longfellow's "Cross of Snow." It also ends sestina
Sestina

A sestina is a highly structured poem consisting of six six-line stanzas followed by a tercet , for a total of thirty-nine lines. The same set of six words ends the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in a different order each time; if we number the first stanza's lines 123456, then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in...
s where the keywords of the lines before are repeated in a highly ordered form.