ottava rima
Italian poetic form
Ottava rima is a stanza form of eight lines rhyming ABABABCC, traditionally in iambic pentameter.
The form originated in Italian epic poetry and was adapted into English by Byron for *Don Juan*, where the closing couplet often delivers a satirical punch: The six lines build momentum, then the couplet undercuts everything.
- meterDevice that measures usage
- rhymeMatching terminal sounds
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
- verseMetered poetic passage
- ByronTitled Romantic versifier
Orlando Furioso · rhyme scheme · mock-heroic · canzone · epic poetry · Don Juan · hendecasyllable · rondeau · Spenser · Shelley · chivalric · Italian · iambic · epic · enjambment · Keats · line · Ariosto
- love poetrylove poems, love poem, love poetry, love sonnets, love sonnet
- Italian LiteratureDante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Dante Alighieri
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
- european versesonnet, ode, ballad, villanelle, sestina
- fixed formssonnet, villanelle, sestina, rondeau, limerick
- Italian RenaissanceAriosto, quattrocento, humanism, Petrarch, Machiavelli
ottava rimacouplet
Two successive verse lines
sonnet · haiku · limerick · quatrain · heroic couplet
ottava rimafree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose poetry · blank verse · sprung rhythm · stream of consciousness