Poetry, stories and strange odds and ends from the desk of a writer
Form: Italian Octave 2 The masts chatter casually on the breezeFrom where there have been to where they will goThe trials and tribulations that flowAnd how the ever-changing tides at easeAs the weather-worn hands tack to the windTo follow the stars to a distant landThe white sails on the course he had plannedAns time shines … Continue reading White Sails
The Ottava Rima is a popular octave for long poetry. There is no set meter to the eight lines. The rhyme schema is abababccExample Into the Horizon by Jez Farmer Beneath the burning skies I watched the sun,Into the horizon it gently fell,While clouds of dreams, their magic begun,Enchantments woven in a dusky spell,As sunset's … Continue reading Ottava Rima Notes
An Octave is any eight-line poetry form of which there are a wide variety. Most of these forms are discussed in various poetic form notes but octaves with couplets, blank verse, free verse, and the more unusual rhyming patterns such as interior rhyme, beginning of line rhyme are largely ignored. So this is for those … Continue reading Octave Notes
Consisting of two Italian quatrains the Italian octave was used by Petrarch in his poetry. Originally there was no set form or line length and Petrarch used it as a basis for his poems including his sonnets. Spenser later formalised it to iambic pentameter with a rhyme schematic of abbaabba However, English is not a … Continue reading Italian Octave Notes
A very old French verse form the Huitain consists of one eight-line stanza composed of ten-syllable lines. The verse is written over three rhymes and the two popular rhyme schemes are as follows:ababbcbcandabbaacac Example Be thou like a rose by Ryter Roethicle Be thou like a Rose my belovedLet not thy thorns keep me away.When … Continue reading Huitain Notes
Meter: Meter of first line sets the tempoStructure: Minimum two octavesRhyme Scheme: ababcdcdD or abababaB The canzonetta is a variation of the canzone. It consists of at least two octaves, each using a series of alternating couplets. The last line or phrase is repeated in each subsequent stanza. Example: Hot Summer Nights by Terry Clitheroe … Continue reading Canzonetta Notes
Octaves are widely known in their strict forms of variant metered rhyme schemas. However, they can also be eight-line stanzas that use one or more alternative poetic devices such as: syllable count, internal rhyme, a couplet in each stanza, meter and so on. For my example I have worked in Iambic Diameter, any rhymes are … Continue reading Octave
