{{onesource|date=May 2010}} The '''''copla''''' is a poetic form of four verses found in many Spanish popular songs as well as in Spanish language literature.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Roland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJVlZjIe5o8C&dq=copla&pg=PA305 |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |last2=Cushman |first2=Stephen |last3=Cavanagh |first3=Clare |last4=Ramazani |first4=Jahan |last5=Rouzer |first5=Paul |last6=Feinsod |first6=Harris |last7=Marno |first7=David |last8=Slessarev |first8=Alexandra |date=2012-08-26 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15491-6 |pages=305 |language=en}}</ref> There is a related musical genre of the same name. The form is also found widely in Hispanic America. The name derives from the Latin {{lang|la|copula}} ("link" or "union").
''Coplas'' normally consist of four verses ''de arte menor'' (that is, of no more than eight syllables to a line) of four lines each, either of Spain's most characteristic popular meter, the romance (8- 8a 8- 8a), or of seguidilla (7- 5a 7- 5a) or redondilla (8a 8b 8b 8a).
Although most commonly considered a popular form, it has not been scorned by cultivated writers. Among those who have written ''coplas'' are Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana, Rafael Alberti, Luis de Góngora, Antonio Machado, Jorge Manrique and Federico García Lorca. Manuel Machado wrote of ''coplas'', using the form himself: {{Verse translation|lang=es| Hasta que el pueblo las canta, las coplas, coplas no son, y cuando las canta el pueblo ya nadie sabe el autor.
Tal es la gloria, Guillén, de los que escriben cantares: oír decir a la gente que no los ha escrito nadie.
Procura tú que tus coplas vayan al pueblo a parar, aunque dejen de ser tuyas para ser de los demás.
Que, al fundir el corazón en el alma popular, lo que se pierde de nombre se gana de eternidad. | Until the folk sings them ''coplas'' are not ''coplas'', and when the folk sing them By then, no one knows who wrote them.
Such is the glory, Guillén, Of those who write songs: To hear the folk say That no one wrote these.
Try to make it that your songs go among the folk to stick around, although they cease to be yours to belong to the others.
Which, to melt the heart in the soul of the folk, that which it loses of a name it gains of eternity.}}
The language of the ''copla'' is colloquial and direct, although there may also be ''double entendres'', especially for comic or lascivious effect.
== References == <references /> Category:Spanish poetry Category:Poetic forms
== Bibliography == * ''La Copla Popular Española''. Gerald Brenan. This book was left incomplete by Brenan and was prepared for publication by Antonio José Lópes López.