The terza rima is an Italian poetic form consisting of an interlinking rhyme scheme, aba bcb cdc ded …. Strictly speaking, each line is in iambic pentameter hypercatalectic.¹

The unique rhyme scheme of the terza rima links each tercet, so it “keeps the attention alive, and admits a regular flow of the narrative”.¹ However this same rhyme scheme has been criticized for giving a “perpetual restlessness and anxiety to the ear, the eye, and the mind”.²

The terza rima has been used for a large variety of poems, from epic poems to satires.¹

Examples of the Terza Rima

Dante Alighieri

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Tant’è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com’i’ v’intrai,
tant’era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.

- Divina Commedia, Inferno, Canto I, Lines 1 – 12

In this example, note the interlocking rhyme scheme. (Editor’s note: I used the original Italian version because it preserves the rhyme scheme.)

Percy Bysshe Shelley

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingéd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o’er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

- Ode to the West Wind, I

In this example, note the use of interlocking rhyme and how Shelley modifies the iambic pentameter. For examples the dactyls in line 3 give a sense of speed and urgency to the line:

Are DRIven, | like GHOSTS | from an | en CHAN | ter FLEE | ing

or

Are | DRIven, like | GHOSTS from an | en CHAN | ter FLEE | ing

References