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

Up to the date of the Selve the ottava rima had, so far as I know, been only used for semi-epical poems and short love-songs.

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

From Italy have come, besides the ottava rima and the sonnet, two other metrical forms, the sestina and the terza rima.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin

The First Four Books of the Civil Wars, an historical poem in ottava rima, appeared in 1595.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 9 "Dagupan" to "David" by Various