Poetic Form: Ottava Rima

Ottava rima poetry began with Italian poets in the fourteenth century. They began as epic poems (extremely long, multi-stanza poetry) about heroic or religious subjects, but eventually became known for their mocking of these themes.

Probably the best-known ottava rima poems in English were written by Lord Byron, including "Beppo" in 1818, as well as "Don Juan" and "Vision of Judgment," both penned in the early 1820's. Other notable poets using this form are Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Butler Yeats. One of Yeats' most popular pieces, "Sailing to Byzantium," was ottava rima.

An ottava rima is one or more octets (8-line stanzas) with ten or eleven syllables per line. They are almost always written in iambic ("dah-DUM") pentameter (see "Poetic Meter"). The rhyming pattern is similar to the sonnet and, in fact, the ottava rima was an important part of the evolution towards the sonnet. The format is:

a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c ... d-e-d-e-d-e-f-f ... x-y-x-y-x-y-z-z

Remember that in a rhyming pattern, lines ending in a sound designated by "a" only rhyme with other "a" lines, "b" lines only with other "b" lines, and so on. The "x-y-z" stanza just shows that it's the last stanza in the series. There can be any number of stanzas in this form.

There are examples of variations to the ottava rima format. "Sailing to Byzantium" used half-rhymes, for example, where only the consonant or vowel sounds were repeated rather than the whole phonic sound ("with" and "wrath" or "from" and "gun"). There is no requirement for the title; it is at the author's discretion.

Example:

Our Canine Paladin

We're sure the robbers shudder in the night
just thinking of our canine paladin,
while Lucy sniffs the air for signs of plight,
in every nook and cranny that's within
her boundaries, in case intruders might
ignore the risk of scratched or punctured skin.
Alas, we've seen the mighty Lucy hide
behind us when she hears a noise outside.

Portraying fearlessness is just a show,
for terriers project their self-esteem
for all to see, from breeding long ago,
they are the leaders of their home regime.
From safety Lucy barks to let them know
to keep this house apart from any scheme,
but with a simple knock she hits the floor
with body wags for any at the door.