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

Noun Inflected Forms

• ottava rimas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ottava rima

1810–20; < Italian: octave rhyme

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ottava rima

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

"English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" is a thoroughly Popeian satire, and "The Vision of Judgment," though not in couplets but in ottava rima, is one of the best personal satires in English.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

One of the commonest 8-line stanzas is that imported from Italy and called ottava rima, abababcc.

From The Principles of English Versification by Paull Franklin Baum

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 Sidney Colvin