The ottava rima is an Italian poetic form consisting of eight iambic lines with the rhyme scheme abababcc. The Italian poets used female rhymes for all three rhymes.

The ottava rima was the standard form used in Italian epics, and has been called the “principal Italian Stanza”.¹

Examples of the Ottava Rima

Lord Byron

I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I’ll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan—
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.
- Don Juan, Canto the First, Stanza I

In this example, note the abababcc rhyme scheme and how Lord Byron generally uses iambic pentameter verses but modifies it for certain verses.

For example, line 6 is in strict iambic pentameter:

I’ll THERE | fore TAKE | our AN | cient FRIEND | Don JUAN

.
But line 4 is in iambic pentatmeter hypercatalectic:

The AGE | disCO | vers HE | is NOT | the TRUE | one;

History of the Ottava Rima

The ottava rima in its current form was created by the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, who used it first in Theseide.

It is based on a poetic form then used in Sicily, which had alternating rhyme but not the double rhyme in the last two verses.¹

References