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{{Short description|Stanza rhyming ABABABCC}}
{{For|etymology and similar terms|Octave (poetry)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
'''Ottava rima''' is a [[rhyme|rhyming]] [[stanza]] form of [[Italy|Italian]] origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of [[mock-heroic]] works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of [[Giovanni Boccaccio]].
The ottava rima stanza in [[English literature|English]] consists of eight [[Iamb (foot)|iambic]] lines, usually [[iambic pentameter]]s. Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the ABABABCC [[rhyme scheme]]. The form is similar to the older [[Sicilian octave]], but evolved separately and is unrelated. The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval [[strambotto]] and was a crucial step in the development of the [[sonnet]], whereas the ottava rima is related to the [[canzone]], a [[stanza]] form.
== History ==
=== Italian ===
Boccaccio used ''ottava rima'' for a number of minor poems and, most significantly, for two of his major works, the ''Teseide'' (1340) and the ''[[Filostrato]]'' (c. 1335). These two poems defined the form as the main one to be used for [[epic poetry]] in Italian for the next two centuries. For instance, ''ottava rima'' was used by [[Poliziano]] and by [[Matteo Maria Boiardo|Boiardo]] in his 1486 epic poem ''[[Orlando Innamorato]]''. The following year, [[Luigi Pulci]] published his ''[[Morgante Maggiore]]'' in which the mock-heroic, half-serious, half-burlesque use of the form that is most familiar to modern English-language readers first appeared. However, poets such as [[Ludovico Ariosto]] and [[Torquato Tasso]] continued to use ''ottava rima'' for serious epic poetry.
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|it|Canto l’arme pietose, e ’l Capitano
Che ’l gran sepolcro liberò di Cristo.
Molto egli oprò col senno e con la mano;
Molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto:
E invan l’Inferno a lui s’oppose; e invano
s’armò d’Asia e di Libia il popol misto:
Chè ’l Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto ai santi
Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti.}}
|attr1=Tasso: ''[[Gerusalemme Liberata]]'', lines 1-8|
The sacred armies, and the godly knight,
That the great sepulchre of Christ did free,
I sing; much wrought his valor and foresight,
And in that glorious war much suffered he;
In vain 'gainst him did Hell oppose her might,
In vain the Turks and Morians armèd be:
His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutines prest,
Reducèd he to peace, so Heaven him blest.|attr2=Translated by [[Edward Fairfax]]}}
In the epoch of [[Baroque]] [[Giambattista Marino]]<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giambattista-Marino Biography at Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref> employed ottava rima in ''Adone'' (1623). Another important work was written by a woman, [[Lucrezia Marinella]], the author of long epic poem ''L'Enrico, ovvero Bisanzio acquistato'' (''Enrico, or, Byzantium Conquered''), that was translated into English by Maria Galli Stampino.<ref>[http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo6764001.html The University of Chicago Press Books]</ref> There are also many other examples of using the stanza. Many classic works were translated into ottava rima. It was later used in Italian [[libretti]]; perhaps the most famous example ends with the title of the comic [[opera]] ''[[Così fan tutte]]'' (1789).
=== English ===
In English, ottava rima first appeared in [[Elizabethan]] translations of Tasso and Ariosto. The form also became popular for original works, such as [[Michael Drayton]]'s ''The Barons' Wars'', [[Thomas Heywood]]'s ''Troia Britannica'', or [[Emilia Lanier]]'s ''Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum''. [[William Browne (poet)|William Browne]]'s ''Britannia's Pastorals'' also contains passages in ottava rima. The first English poet to write mock-heroic ottava rima was [[John Hookham Frere]], whose 1817-8 poem ''Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work'' used the form to considerable effect. [[Lord Byron]] read Frere's work and saw the potential of the form. He quickly produced ''[[Beppo (poem)|Beppo]]'', his first poem to use the form. Shortly after this, Byron began working on his ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'' (1819–1824), probably the best-known English poem in ''ottava rima''. Byron also used the form for ''[[The Vision of Judgment]]'' (1822). [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]] translated the [[Homeric Hymns]] into English in ottava rima. In the 20th century, [[William Butler Yeats]] used the form in several of his best later poems, including "[[Sailing to Byzantium]]" and "Among School Children".<ref>[http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/3354.html ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202112434/http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/3354.html |date=2 December 2010 }}</ref> So did [[Kenneth Koch]] for instance in his autobiographical poem "Seasons on Earth" of 1987.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/koch.html |title=Interview with Kenneth Koch 5th August 1993 |publisher=Writing.upenn.edu |access-date=2013-07-11}}</ref> In America [[Emma Lazarus]] wrote the poem [[An Epistle]] that consists of thirty four ottava rimas. Earlier [[Richard Henry Wilde]] used the stanza in his long poem [[Hesperia (poem)|''Hesperia'']].<ref>Hesperia. A Poem by Richard Henry Wilde. Edited by his Son, Ticknor and Fields, Boston 1867.</ref>
In keeping with the "mock-heroic" tone, Kevin McAleer wrote his 2018 biography of actor [[Errol Flynn]] entirely in ottava rima.<ref>{{cite book|last=McAleer|first=Kevin|date=2018|title=Errol Flynn: An Epic Life|publisher=PalmArtPress|isbn=9783962580056}}</ref>
;Some examples
From [[John Hookham Frere|Frere]]'s ''Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work'', commonly known as ''The Monks and the Giants''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elfinspell.com/MonksandGiants.html |title=An Intended National Work, (Monks and Giants), by John Hookham Frere, from A Miscellany, epic parody, English Literature, poetry, ottava rima, 19th century poets and authors, British poets and diplomats, online text, (MonksandGiants) |publisher=Elfinspell |access-date=2013-07-11}}</ref>
{{quote |
<poem>
But chiefly, when the shadowy moon had shed
O'er woods and waters her mysterious hue,
Their passive hearts and vacant fancies fed
With thoughts and aspirations strange and new,
Till their brute souls with inward working bred
Dark hints that in the depths of instinct grew
Subjection not from [[John Locke|Locke]]'s associations,
Nor [[David Hartley (philosopher)|David Hartley]]'s doctrine of vibrations.
</poem>
}}
From [[Lord Byron|Byron]]'s ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]''
{{quote |
<poem>
"Go, little book, from this my solitude!
I cast thee on the waters&nbsp;– go thy ways!
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The world will find thee after many days."
When [[Robert Southey|Southey]]'s read, and [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] understood,
I can't help putting in my claim to praise&nbsp;–
The four first rhymes are Southey's every line:
For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine.
</poem>
}}
From [[Constance Naden]]'s ''A Modern Apostle'' (1887)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/vwwp/view?docId=VAB7115;chunk.id=d1e11987;toc.depth=1;toc.id=d1e11987;brand=vwwp;doc.view=0;query= |title=The Complete Poetical Works of Constance Naden (London: Bickers & Son, 1894) |publisher=Victorian Women Writers Project, Indiana University |access-date=2015-10-30}}</ref>
{{quote |
<poem>
For she, with innocent clear sight, had found
That those about her merely thought of thinking,
And felt they ought to feel; with quick rebound
She drew her life away from theirs, and shrinking
From windy verbiage, craved some solid ground,
Trying to satisfy her soul by linking
Truths abstract; no vague talk of liberal views
Can alter cosine and hypotenuse.
</poem>
}}
From [[Anthony Burgess]]'s ''[[Byrne: A Novel]]''
{{quote |
<poem>
He thought he was a kind of living myth
And hence deserving of ottava rima,
The scheme that Ariosto juggled with,
Apt for a lecherous defective dreamer.
He'd have preferred a stronger-muscled smith,
Anvilling rhymes amid poetic steam, a
Sort of Lord Byron. Byron was long dead.
This poetaster had to do instead.
</poem>
}}
From [[Emma Lazarus]]'s ''[[An Epistle]]''
{{quote |
<poem>
Master and Sage, greetings and health to thee,
From thy most meek disciple! Deign once more
Endure me at thy feet, enlighten me,
As when upon my boyish head of yore,
Midst the rapt circle gathered round thy knee
Thy sacred vials of learning thou didst pour.
By the large lustre of thy wisdom orbed
Be my black doubts illumined and absorbed.
</poem>
}}
===Other languages ===
The [[Spanish poetry|Spanish]] poets [[Juan Boscán Almogáver|Boscán]], [[Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga]] and [[Lope de Vega]] all experimented with ottava rima at one time or another. It is also the meter of several medieval [[Yiddish]] epic poems, such as the [[Bovo-Bukh]] (1507–1508), which were adaptations of Italian epics.
In Russia, [[Pavel Katenin]] instigated a high-profile dispute on the proper way of translating Italian epics, which resulted in [[Alexander Pushkin]]'s ottava rima poem "The Little House in Kolomna" (1830), which took its cue from [[Lord Byron]]'s ''[[Beppo (poem)|Beppo]]''. Pushkin's poem opens with a lengthy tongue-in-cheek discussion of the merits of ottava rima.
In Germany (or other German-speaking countries) ottava rima occurred not so often as in Italy, but was used in long works. [[Paul Heyse]], a Nobel Prize laureate for the year 1910, used it in his poems (''Die Braut von Cypern''). [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], regarded as the greatest German language lyric poet of the 20th century, wrote ''Winterliche Stanzen'' in ABABABCC scheme.
{{quote |
<poem>
Nun sollen wir versagte Tage lange
ertragen in des Widerstandes Rinde;
uns immer wehrend, nimmer an der Wange
das Tiefe fühlend aufgetaner Winde.
Die Nacht ist stark, doch von so fernem Gange,
die schwache Lampe überredet linde.
Laß dichs getrösten: Frost und Harsch bereiten
die Spannung künftiger Empfänglichkeiten.
</poem>
}}
[[Luís de Camões]]'s 16th-century epic ''[[Os Lusíadas]]'', the most important epic in the Portuguese language, is not only one of the longest poems written in ottava rima (it consists of 1,102 stanzas<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Lusiads Encyclopædia Britannica]</ref>), but is recognized as one of the great epics of European literature.
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|pt|As armas e os barões assinalados,
Que da ocidental praia Lusitana,
Por mares nunca de antes navegados,
Passaram ainda além da Taprobana,
Em perigos e guerras esforçados,
Mais do que prometia a força humana,
E entre gente remota edificaram
Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram;}}
|attr1=Luís Vaz de Camões, ''Os Lusíadas'', 1-8|attr2=Translated by [[Richard Francis Burton]]|
The feats of Arms, and famed heroick Host,
from occidental Lusitanian strand,
who o'er the waters ne'er by seaman crost,
farèd beyond the [[Taprobana|Taprobáne]]-land,
forceful in perils and in battle-post,
with more than promised force of mortal hand;
and in the regions of a distant race
rear'd a new throne so haught in Pride of Place:<ref>{{cite book |last=Burton |first=Richard Francis | author-link=Richard Francis Burton | editor-last=Burton | editor-first=Isabel |date=1880 |title=Os Ludiadas (The Lusiads) | volume=1 | url=https://archive.org/details/oslusadasthelu01camuoft |location=London |publisher=Bernard Quaritch |page=[https://archive.org/details/oslusadasthelu01camuoft/page/5 5] }}</ref>}}
Camões was not the only Portuguese poet to use ottava rima. Many Portuguese and Brazilian poets wrote great epic poems using the stanza, for example [[Gabriel Pereira de Castro]] (1571–1632): ''Ulisseia ou Lisboa Edificada'' (1636), [[Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo]] (16th/17th century): ''Afonso Africano'', [[Francisco de Sá de Meneses]] (1600–1664): ''Malaca Conquistada'' (1634), [[António de Sousa Macedo]] (1606–1682): ''Ulissipo'' (1640), [[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]]: ''[[Viriato Trágico (poem)|Viriato Trágico]]'' and [[José de Santa Rita Durão]] (1722–1784): ''[[Caramuru (epic poem)|Caramuru]]'' (1781).
Ottava rima was very popular in the Polish literature of the 17th century, which was under strong influence of Italian poetry. The scheme ABABABCC was introduced into Polish poetry by [[Sebastian Grabowiecki]] and made widespread by [[Piotr Kochanowski]], who translated ''Jerusalem Delivered'' by [[Torquato Tasso]]. It was used by [[Jan Andrzej Morsztyn]], [[Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski]], [[Wespazjan Kochowski]], [[Samuel Twardowski]] and [[Wacław Potocki]].<ref>Lucylla Pszczołowska, Wiersz polski. Zarys historyczny, Wrocław 1997, p. 112 (in Polish).</ref> During The Enlightenment bishop and poet [[Ignacy Krasicki]] wrote his mock-epics (''Monachomachia'', ''Antymonachomachia'' and ''Myszeida'') in ottava rima.<ref>Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, pp. 150-151 (in Polish).</ref> In the beginning of 19th century [[Dyzma Bończa-Tomaszewski]] attempted to write a national epic ''Jagiellonida''. His work, however, is not longer remembered. Later [[Juliusz Słowacki]], one of the greatest romantic poets, wrote two long poems, ''[[Beniowski]]'' and ''Król Duch'' (''King Spirit''), using the stanza. Another important attempt to write a modern epic poem in ottava rima was [[Maria Konopnicka]]'s ''Pan Balcer w Brazylii'' (''Mr. Balcer in Brazil''). Poems written in ottava rima are usually translated into Polish in the same form. Lately ''La Araucana'' by [[Alonso de Ercilla]] was translated in such a way by [[Czesław Ratka]].
In Czech poetry, [[Jaroslav Vrchlický]],<ref>Josef Brukner, Jiří Filip, Poetický slovník, Mladá fronta, Praha 1997, p. 311-312 (in Czech).</ref> generally considered to be the greatest poet of the second half of 19th century, used ottava rima several times, for example in short poem ''Odpověď'' (''An Answer'') that is composed of only two stanzas.<ref>[https://cs.wikisource.org/wiki/Bodl%C3%A1%C4%8D%C3%AD_z_Parnassu/Odpov%C4%9B%C4%8F Original text]</ref> Vrchlický  was well trained in the use of the stanza as he translated [[Ludovico Ariosto]]'s ''Orlando Furioso'' (''Roland Enraged'') into Czech.
In Slovenian literature ottava rima was used by [[France Prešeren]], the greatest romantic poet, sometimes, among others, in ''Krst pri Savici'' ([[The Baptism on the Savica]]), that is considered to be a national epic of Slovenian people. Prologue to the poem is written in [[terza rima]].
In Danish literature ottava rima was used by [[Frederik Paludan-Müller]] and others. He used the stanza in his long poem, ''Adam Homo''. The poet implemented the scheme freely and often used, for example, the sequence ABABBACC instead of ABABABCC.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=VMQFAAAAQAAJ&q=Frederik+Paludan-M%C3%BCller See original text at books.google.com]</ref>
In Swedish poetry ottava rima was used by [[Esaias Tegnér]] in his epic [[Frithiof's Saga]].
In Finnish literature ottava rima was used by [[Eino Leino]] in some parts of book ''Juhana Herttuan ja Catharina Jagellonican lauluja'' (''Songs of Prince John and Catherine the Jagellonian'').
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Ottava Rima | volume= 20 |last= Gosse |first= Edmund William |author-link= Edmund Gosse | page = 368 |short= 1}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010503072028/http://www.camelot-irc.it/biblioteca/orlando_innamorato/frame.htm ''Orlando Innamorato'']
* [http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Bp48.htm Byron's ''Beppo'']
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=AqQqAAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+Monks+and+the+Giants%22.htm Frere's ''The Monks and the Giants'']
* Fragments of many Portuguese poems are published at [http://alfarrabio.di.uminho.pt/vercial/index.html Projecto Vercial].
[[Category:Stanzaic form]]
[[Category:Western medieval lyric forms]]