Ottava rimas
Ottava rima is an eight-line poetic form that originated in Italy, characterized by its ABABABCC rhyme scheme. Typically composed in iambic pentameter, each line contains ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet. The term "ottava rima" translates to "eighth rhyme" in English. This form emerged during the Late Middle Ages and gained prominence in Italian Renaissance poetry, with early examples attributed to poet Giovanni Boccaccio. In the sixteenth century, the form was introduced to English literature by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who adapted its structure to fit the English language, shifting from the original eleven-syllable lines to ten-syllable lines.
Ottava rima became a favored form among English poets during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, notably used by writers such as Edmund Spenser, who created a variation known as the Spenserian stanza. Although the popularity of ottava rima waned in the eighteenth century, it experienced a revival in the nineteenth century, particularly through the works of Lord Byron and other poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley and W.B. Yeats. Despite its rich history, the form has seen a decline in contemporary poetry, as modernist influences prioritize free verse and experimental structures over traditional forms like ottava rima.
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Ottava rimas
Ottava rima is a poetic form with Italian origins, defined by an eight-line stanza structure and an ABABABCC rhyme scheme. Anglophone poets usually compose ottava rima stanzas in iambic pentameter, a metrical structure in which each line contains ten syllables ordered in five metrical feet. The literal English translation of the Italian term ottava rimais “eighth rhyme.”
Emerging during the Late Middle Ages (ca. 1300–ca. 1500), ottava rima became associated with elevated poetic styles and flourished during the Italian Renaissance (ca. 1340–ca. 1550). Ottava rima entered the English poetic tradition in the sixteenth century, with literary historians crediting Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) with introducing it. The iambic pentameter metrical form of the ottava rima was firmly established in English by the turn of the seventeenth century. It was a popular form in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries before reaching the arguable peak of its literary influence in the works of Lord Byron (1788–1824).
Background
The earliest surviving examples of the ottava rima form date to the mid-thirteenth century and were written by the Tuscan poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). Scholars credit Boccaccio with establishing the convention of applying the form to elevated poetic styles, with his epics Il Filostrato (1338) and Teseida (ca. 1340–1341) both featuring ottava rima stanzas. Ottava rima subsequently came to dominate formal Italian poetry, becoming the standard stanza form in serious literary works throughout much of the Italian Renaissance. A later example of its use in this context dates to 1581, when Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) composed his Crusades-themed epic masterpiece Gerusalemme liberatain ottava rima.
Notably, the classical Italian ottava rima form used longer lines than the ten-syllable iambic pentameter structure that became the default in English. The ottava rimas written by Boccaccio, Tasso, and other Italian poets of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance eras used eleven-syllable lines closer in form to Sicilian octaves. Ottava rima only adopted its ten-syllable iambic pentameter form after it was introduced to English by Wyatt.
Wyatt, noted as one of the central English literary figures of the sixteenth century, was significantly influenced by French and Italian literature. A court poet during the reign of King Henry VIII (1491–1547), Wyatt’s writing primarily appealed to a highly educated and refined audience of wealthy aristocrats who responded well to his predilection for fusing Continental styles with English poetic traditions. Noted for his literary experimentation, Wyatt originated numerous innovative metrical variations on established poetic forms. In addition to introducing the ottava rima to English and adapting its standard eleven-syllable Italian line structure to ten-syllable iambic pentameter, Wyatt is also credited with composing the first sonnets originally written in the English language.
Overview
Ottava rimas first became a popular English poetic form during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533– 1603), with leading poets of the Elizabethan era routinely choosing it as their preferred form for elevated compositions and epics. Examples of such works include theTroia Britannica by Thomas Heywood (ca. 1574–1641) and The Barons’ War by Michael Drayton (1563–1631). In this sense, the English development of the ottava rima followed a similar course as it had in Italy during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
In 1590, Edmund Spenser (ca. 1552–1599) adapted the ottava rima into a novel form in his renowned epic, The Faerie Queene. The work features a structure that has come to be known as the Spenserian stanza, which includes eight lines of iambic pentameter and a ninth line, known as the alexandrine, in iambic hexameter. Spenserian stanzas follow an ABABBCBCC rhyme scheme.
After its initial burst of popularity during the Elizabethan era, the ottava rima went into an extended period of decline. The form had become relatively rare by the eighteenth century before making a comeback sparked by The Monks and the Giants,an Arthurian-themed mock epic written by John Hookham Frere (1769–1846) and published in 1817 and 1818 under the pen name William Whistlecraft. Though the mainstream literary establishment had all but ignored The Monks and the Giants, Byron embraced the poem and was subsequently inspired to use ottava rima in his famous Don Juan, a celebrated mock epic composed during the early 1820s. Expert commentators widely cite Don Juanas representing the apex of the ottava rima’s use in English literature.
With Don Juan meeting with widespread acclaim, the ottava rima stanza form enjoyed resurgent popularity during the nineteenth century. Notable examples include “The Witch of Atlas” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), while William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) brought the form into the twentieth century in acclaimed poems including “Among School Children,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” and “The Circus Animals’ Desertion.” The opening of “Among School Children” represents one of the most accomplished modern deployments of the mature ottava rima form in English literature:
I walk through the long schoolroom questioning:
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and history,
To cut and to sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way—the children’s eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.
As the twentieth century advanced, modernist influences that rejected historical conventions in favor of bold experiments in form and subject matter came to dominate English-language poetry. Structured classical forms such as the ottava rima have since continued to decline in popularity as contemporary poetry has continued to favor the loosely structured and free-verse forms associated with modernism.
Bibliography
Brewer, Robert Lee. “Ottava Rima: Poetic Forms.” Writer’s Digest,16 Jan. 2017, www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/ottava-rima-poetic-form. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
“Couplet.” Academy of American Poets,poets.org/glossary/couplet. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
Mills, Billy. “Poster Poems: Ottava Rima.” The Guardian, 14 May 2015, www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/may/14/poster-poems-ottava-rima. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
“Ottava Rima.” University of Melbourne,omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1163. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
“Sir Thomas Wyatt.” Poetry Foundation,www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-wyatt. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
“What Is Ottava Rima Poetry? 5 Examples of Ottava Rima.” MasterClass,25 Aug. 2021, www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-ottava-rima-poetry. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
Wollacott, Mark. “What Is Ottava Rima?” LanguageHumanities,8 Oct. 2023, www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-ottava-rima.htm. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.
Yeats, W.B. “Among School Children.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43293/among-school-children. Accessed 22 Nov. 2023.