OTTAVA RIMA

OTTAVA RIMA

It is an Italian stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, with a rhyme scheme of AB AB AB CC. Mostly the poets use Iambic meter in Ottava Rima. Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the form in English, and Lord Byron adapted it to a 10-syllable line for his mock-epic Don Juan. W.B. Yeats used it for “Among School Children” and “Sailing to Byzantium.”