Ottava Rima

The OTTAVA RIMA is an eight-line stanza originated from Italy. Generally rhymed, the ottava rima form consists of an abababcc rhyme scheme and is usually iambic pentameter. Each line also must consist of 10 or 11 syllables.

The Following Text Is Quoted:

Schematic:

One octive ottava rima: abababcc
Two octive ottava rima: abababcc, dededeff
Three octive ottava rima: abababcc, dededeff, ghghghii
etcetera....

where "a" through "i" are the rhyme scheme

Example 1 by John Hookham Frere:

excerpt from Whistlecraft

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.
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Example 2 by George Byron:

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.