means A grouped set of lines in a poem, set apart from other such groups, usually sharing a pattern of meter or rhyme.

from From Italian stanza, meaning a 'room' or 'stopping place,' rooted in the Latin verb stare, 'to stand.' The same standing-still sense gives us 'station' and 'stay.' Italian poets borrowed the word for a poem's recurring chamber — a place where the verse pauses and dwells before moving on. So the essence is no metaphor at all: a stanza was literally a room first.