Hi everyone!   We are learning an Italian poetry form today, The Ottavo Rima or Sonnetto Rispetto.   I hope you will enjoy the challenge of learning a traditional poetry form.

Six Tuscan Poets by Giorgio Vasari, 1584

Source

History

The Ottavo Rima (rhyme of eight) or Sonnetto Rispetto (little song of respect) is believed to have originated in religious verse in the 13th century. It has been called the 3rd Italian Sonnet, although it is not a sonnet at all. It is traditionally a narrative epic often written in a series of octaves not the lyrical meditation contained within the quatorzain of the sonnet.

This form is best suited for “blending serious, comic and satirical attitudes and mingling narrative and discursive models…. It is the accumulation of rhyme, reaching a crescendo with the third repetition, which prepares the reader for the neat summation, the acute observation, or the epigrammatic twist which comes with the final couplet.”

It was the Italian, Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore (1487), who brought a unique twist to the form, in a kind of mock-heroic, or half-serious, half-burlesque, style with which ottava rima has been most commonly identified. It was Pulci who influenced Frere and Byron when they resurrected the form in England two centuries later, however the most prominent example of Ottava Rima in English literature is Byron’s Don Juan (1819-1824). The eight, eleven syllable, rhymed lines carry the same frame as the Strambotto Tuscano but the forms differ since the Strambotto is usually limited to one octave and is lyrical in nature while the Ottava Rima is a narrative and is most often written in more than one octave.

Elements

The elements of the Ottavo Rima or Sonnetto Rispetto are:

• a fast narrative.
• stanzaic, written in any number of octaves.
• metered, most often iambic pentameter sometimes tetrameter. Its Spanish counterpart, the Ottava Real is hendecasyllabic (11 syllable lines).
• rhymed, Rhyme scheme is abababcc.
• best for blending serious and satirical attitudes.
• composed with the final couplet that sums up and brings a twist or enlightenment to the content of the stanza.

Today’s writing challenge:    an Ottavo Rima poem written in 8-line octaves. Each line is of a 10 or 11 syllable count in the following rhyme:

one octave poem. abababcc
two octave poem. abababcc, dededeff
three octave poem. abababcc, dededeff, ghghghii

Here is an example of a two octave poem:

False Spring
@Grace Guevara

I listen to western wind’s murmurings –
Birthing songs by iris and daffodils
High-pitched cries by broad winged hawks nurturing-
There is restlessness in the air, the chills
Of winter are ebbing low & bordering
Small buds & silky tendrils sprouting gills
Shedding dark skin of soil & instinct to cling
And inhale the marvelous light of spring

The sun’s crimson fingers brings fresh mirror
Sketching the pale grey sky blue as bluebells
Coloring the leaves young and green, clearer
Than raindrops that shimmers with silver spells
But all that is short-lived as once more, furor
Of winter wind comes back, peeling back shells
Of green & draping its white coat, unasked
It’s false spring. We all huddle back, hands clasped!

Sources:   Poetry Magnum Opus,   Shadow Poetry

New to dVerse? Here’s how to join in:

*Write an octave or two or three following the ottavo rima structure in response to the challenge.
*Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr. Linky below
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