Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Roman origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it also came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio. A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ... Nickname: The Eternal City Motto: SPQR: Senatus PopulusQue Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Mayor Walter Veltroni Area    - City 1,500 km²  (580 sq mi... Generally, mock-heroic is a satirical piece or parody that mocks common Romantic or modern stereotypes of heroes. ... Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 – December 21, 1375) was an Italian author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poetry in the vernacular. ...

Form

The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters. Each stanza consists of three rhymes following the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c. The form is similar to the older Sicilian octave, but evolved separately and is unrelated. The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval strambotto and was a crucial step in the development of the sonnet, whereas the ottava rima is related to the canzone, a stanza form. The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American as was T.S Eliot, Salman... An iamb is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. ... Iambic pentameter is a system of meter in poetry. ... A rhyme scheme is like the pattern of rhyming like lines in a poem or in like lyrics for music. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Ottava rima. ... The Sicilian octave (Italian ottava siciliana or ottava napoletana, lit. ... Francesco Petrarca or Petrarch, one of the best-known of the early Italian sonnet writers For the Saab automobile, see Saab Sonett, for the Japanese communications company see So-net. ... Canzona (also canzone) is a poetic form, and a type of musical composition. ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ...

History

Boccaccio used ottava rima for a number of minor poems and, most significantly, for two of his major works, the Teseide (1340) and the Filostrato (1347). These two poems defined the form as the main one to be used for epic poetry in Italian for the next two centuries. For instance, ottava rima was used by Poliziano and by Boiardo in his 1486 masterpiece Orlando Innamorato . The following year, Luigi Pulci published his Morgante Maggiore in which the mock-heroic, half-serious, half-burlesque use of the form that is most familiar to modern English-language readers first appeared. However, poets such as Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso continued to use ottava rima for serious epic poetry. It was later used in Italian libretti; perhaps the most famous example ends with the title of the comic opera Così fan tutte (1789). Events Europe has about 74 million inhabitants. ... Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411). ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, and one of the major forms of narrative literature. ... Angelo Poliziano. ... Matteo Maria Boiardo (c. ... Events Tízoc, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan dies. ... Luigi Pulci (15 August 1432 - 1484) was an Italian poet most famous for his Morgante, an epic story of a giant who is converted to Christianity and follows Orlando, all written in a mock-heroic tone. ... Ludovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 – July 6, 1533) was an Italian poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), Orlando Enraged. He was born at Reggio, in Emilia. ... Torquato Tasso (March 11, 1544 – April 25, 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered; 1575), in which he describes the imaginary combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem. ... Libretto can also refer to a sub-notebook PC manufactured by Toshiba. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan. ... Così fan tutte is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

In English, ottava rima first appeared in Elizabethan translations of Tasso and Ariosto. However, the form did not become popular for original works, and a section of William Browne's Britannia's Pastorals is the only known original work in the form that survives. The first English poet to write mock-heroic ottava rima was John Hookham Frere, whose 1817 poem Whistlecraft used the form to considerable effect. Byron read Frere's work and saw the potential of the form. He quickly produced Beppo, his first poem to use the form. Shortly after this, Byron began working on his Don Juan (1819-1824), probably the best-known English poem in ottava rima. Byron also used the form for his Vision of Judgment (1822). Shelley translated the Homeric Hymns into English in ottava rima. In the 20th century, William Butler Yeats used the form, with half rhyme, in several of his best later poems, including "Sailing to Byzantium" and "Among School Children". The Elizabethan Era is the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603) and is often considered to be a golden age in English history. ... William Browne (1590?‑1645?) was an English poet, born at Tavistock, educated at Oxford, after which he entered the Inner Temple. ... John Hookham Frere (May 21, 1769 - January 7, 1846), was an English diplomat and author. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Lord Byron, Anglo-Scottish poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788–April 19, 1824) was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. ... 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1822 (MDCCCXXII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822; pronounced ) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. ... The anonymous Homeric Hymns are a collection of ancient Greek hymns. ... W.B. Yeats in Dublin on 24 January 1908. ... Half rhyme, sometimes known as slant rhyme, sprung rhyme or less commonly eye rhyme, is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved. ...

Outside of Italian and English, ottava rima has not been widely used, although the Spanish poets Boscan, Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga and Lope de Vega all experimented with it at one time or another. It is also the meter of several medieval Yiddish epic poems, such as the Bovo-Bukh (1507-1508), which were adaptations of Italian epics. Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (born in Madrid on the 7th of August 1533, died 29th of November 1595 in Madrid), Basque nobleman, soldier and poet. ... Lope de Vega Lope de Vega (also Félix Lope de Vega Carpio or Lope Félix de Vega Carpio) (25 November 1562 – 27 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright and poet. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... The Bovo-Bukh (Bovo book; a. ...

Some examples

From Frere's Whistlecraft: John Hookham Frere (May 21, 1769 - January 7, 1846), was an English diplomat and author. ...

But chiefly, when the shadowy moon had shed

O'er woods and waters her mysterious hue,

Their passive hearts and vacant fancies fed

With thoughts and aspirations strange and new,

Till their brute souls with inward working bred

Dark hints that in the depths of instinct grew

Subjection not from Locke's associations,

Nor David Hartley's doctrine of vibrations.

From Byron's Don Juan: John Locke (August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704) was an influential English philosopher. ... This article is about David Hartley, the philosopher. ... Lord Byron, Anglo-Scottish poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22, 1788–April 19, 1824) was an Anglo-Scottish poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. ... Byrons Don Juan (Pengiun Classics version) Don Juan is a long narrative poem by Lord Byron, based on the legend of Don Juan. ...

"Go, little book, from this my solitude!

I cast thee on the waters – go thy ways!

And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,

The world will find thee after many days."

When Southey 's read, and Wordsworth understood,

I can't help putting in my claim to praise –

The four first rhymes are Southey's every line:

For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine.

Robert Southey, English poet Robert Southey (August 12, 1774 – March 21, 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called Lake Poets, and Poet Laureate. ... Wordsworth redirects here. ...

External links

• Orlando Innamorato
• Byron's Don Juan
• Byron's Beppo
• Elegy on a mainline terminus Bob Newman's own example from the Guide to Verse forms
• The Offering, (translation of the first few hundred lines from Jan Křesadlo's modern epic parody)