ottava rima

American  

[oh-tah-vuh ree-muh] / oʊˈtɑ və ˈri mə /

noun

ottava rimas plural

1. an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.

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ottava rima British  

/ ˈriːmə /

noun

1. prosody a stanza form consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines, rhyming a b a b a b c c

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• ottava rimas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ottava rima

1810–20; < Italian: octave rhyme

Example Sentences

Although an occasional narrative experiment might disrupt the format, what makes “Law & Order” special is precisely the fact that it has one, like a sonnet, a sestina, or an ottava rima.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2022

He bows gracefully to ottava rima, the sonnet and ballad.

From Time Magazine Archive

As an appropriate vehicle for an Italian story he took the Italian ottava rima or stanza of eight.

From Life of John Keats His Life and Poetry, his Friends, Critics and After-fame by Colvin, Sidney

It is in ottava rima, with the translation prefixed to it of the Latin poem Furor Petroniensis.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 2 "Fairbanks, Erastus" to "Fens" by Various

The changes wrought by Poliziano in the structure of ottava rima, his majesty and "linked sweetness long drawn out," were unknown to Boiardo.

From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by Symonds, John Addington