What is "syair"

Syair ( Jawi: شعير) is a form of traditional Malay poetry that made up of four-line stanzas or quatrains. The syair can be a narrative poem, a didactic poem, or a poem used to convey ideas on religion or philosophy, or even one to describe historical event.

In contrast to pantun form, the syair conveys a continuous idea from one stanza to the next, maintains a unity of idea from the first line to the last line in each stanza, and each stanza is rhymed a-a-a-a-a.