Ottava rima

Last updated

Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of 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.

Contents

The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters. 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 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.

In the epoch of Baroque Giambattista Marino [1] 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. [2] 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'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, his first poem to use the form. Shortly after this, Byron began working on his Don Juan (1819–1824), probably the best-known English poem in ottava rima. Byron also used the form for The Vision of Judgment (1822). 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". [3] So did Kenneth Koch for instance in his autobiographical poem "Seasons on Earth" of 1987. [4] 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. [5] In keeping with the "mock-heroic" tone, Kevin McAleer wrote his 2018 biography of actor Errol Flynn entirely in ottava rima. [6]

Some examples

From Frere's Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work, commonly known as The Monks and the Giants [7]

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 Locke's associations,
Nor David Hartley's doctrine of vibrations.

From Byron's Don Juan

"Go, little book, from this my solitude!
I cast thee on the waters – go thy ways!
And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
The world will find thee after many days."
When Southey's read, and Wordsworth understood,
I can't help putting in my claim to praise 
The four first rhymes are Southey's every line:
For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine.

From Constance Naden's A Modern Apostle (1887) [8]

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.

From Anthony Burgess's Byrne: A Novel

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.

From Emma Lazarus's An Epistle

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.

Other languages

The Spanish poets 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 . 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.

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.

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 [9] ), but is recognized as one of the great epics of European literature.

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 and José de Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784): 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. [11] During The Enlightenment bishop and poet Ignacy Krasicki wrote his mock-epics (Monachomachia, Antymonachomachia and Myszeida) in ottava rima. [12] 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, [13] 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. [14] 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. [15]

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).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epic poetry</span> Lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily detailing extraordinary and heroic deeds

An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hendecasyllable</span> Poetic line of eleven syllables

In poetry, a hendecasyllable is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical poetry, and the newer of which are syllabic or accentual-syllabic and used in medieval and modern poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludovico Ariosto</span> Italian poet

Ludovico Ariosto was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic Orlando Furioso (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, describes the adventures of Charlemagne, Orlando, and the Franks as they battle against the Saracens with diversions into many sideplots. The poem is transformed into a satire of the chivalric tradition. Ariosto composed the poem in the ottava rima rhyme scheme and introduced narrative commentary throughout the work.

The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96). Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is ABABBCBCC.

<i>Orlando Furioso</i> Epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto

Orlando furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532. Orlando furioso is a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's unfinished romance Orlando innamorato. In its historical setting and characters, it shares some features with the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century, which tells of the death of Roland. The story is also a chivalric romance which stemmed from a tradition beginning in the late Middle Ages and continuing in popularity in the 16th century and well into the 17th.

Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd.

Terza rima is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rhyme for the first and third lines in the tercet that follows. The poem or poem-section may have any number of lines, but it ends with either a single line or a couplet, which repeats the rhyme of the middle line of the previous tercet.

<i>Orlando Innamorato</i>

Orlando Innamorato is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a romance concerning the heroic knight Orlando (Roland). It was published between 1483 and 1495.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hookham Frere</span> English diplomat and author

John Hookham Frere was an English diplomat and author.

<i>La Araucana</i> Epic poem of the Spanish conquest of Chile

La Araucana is a 16th-century epic poem in Spanish by Alonso de Ercilla, about the Spanish Conquest of Chile. It was considered the national epic of the Captaincy General of Chile and one of the most important works of the Spanish Golden Age.

William Stewart Rose (1775–1843) was a British poet, translator and Member of Parliament, who held Government offices. From a Tory background, he was well-connected in the political and literary world, and made a mark by his championing of Italian poets and a burlesque style of verse based on their influence as satirists.

<i>Jerusalem Delivered</i> Epic poem by Torquato Tasso supposedly about the First Crusade

Jerusalem Delivered, also known as The Liberation of Jerusalem, is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem. Tasso began work on the poem in the mid-1560s. Originally, it bore the title Il Goffredo. It was completed in April, 1575 and that summer the poet read his work to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Lucrezia, Duchess of Urbino. A pirate edition of 14 cantos from the poem appeared in Venice in 1580. The first complete editions of Gerusalemme liberata were published in Parma and Ferrara in 1581.

Italian poetry is a category of Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English.

This is a glossary of poetry.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to poetry:

<i>Caramuru</i> (epic poem) Brazilian epic poem by Santa Rita Durão

Caramuru is an epic poem written by Brazilian Augustinian friar Santa Rita Durão. It was published in 1781, and it is one of the most famous Indianist works of Brazilian Neoclassicism – the other being Basílio da Gama's O Uraguai.

The Sapphic stanza is the only stanzaic form adapted from Greek and Latin poetry to be used widely in Polish literature. It was introduced during the Renaissance, and since has been used frequently by many prominent poets. The importance of the Sapphic stanza for Polish literature lies not only in its frequent use, but also in the fact that it formed the basis of many new strophes, built up of hendecasyllables and pentasyllables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piotr Kochanowski</span> Polish nobleman and writer

Piotr Kochanowski (1566–1620) was a Polish nobleman, poet and translator. He belonged to a family of writers. He was a son of Mikołaj Kochanowski and a nephew of Jan Kochanowski. He was born in 1566 in Sycyna. He is famous for his translations from Italian. He translated into Polish what were generally esteemed to be the two greatest modern epic poems: Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata. His version of Tasso's poem served as the Polish national epic. Piotr Kochanowski was the second poet in Poland to use ottava rima, which became very popular in Baroque Polish poetry. He died on 2 August 1620 and was buried at the Franciscan church in Cracow. He is commonly regarded as one of the most important Polish writers of the Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo</span>

Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo was a Portuguese poet, appreciated for his epic poems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viriato Trágico (poem)</span>

Viriato Trágico is an epic poem by Portuguese author Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas.

References

  1. Biography at Encyclopædia Britannica
  2. The University of Chicago Press Books
  3. Archived 2 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Interview with Kenneth Koch 5th August 1993". Writing.upenn.edu. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  5. Hesperia. A Poem by Richard Henry Wilde. Edited by his Son, Ticknor and Fields, Boston 1867.
  6. McAleer, Kevin (2018). Errol Flynn: An Epic Life. PalmArtPress. ISBN   9783962580056.
  7. "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)". Elfinspell. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  8. "The Complete Poetical Works of Constance Naden (London: Bickers & Son, 1894)". Victorian Women Writers Project, Indiana University. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  9. Encyclopædia Britannica
  10. Burton, Richard Francis (1880). Burton, Isabel (ed.). Os Ludiadas (The Lusiads). Vol. 1. London: Bernard Quaritch. p.  5.
  11. Lucylla Pszczołowska, Wiersz polski. Zarys historyczny, Wrocław 1997, p. 112 (in Polish).
  12. Wiktor Jarosław Darasz, Mały przewodnik po wierszu polskim, Kraków 2003, pp. 150-151 (in Polish).
  13. Josef Brukner, Jiří Filip, Poetický slovník, Mladá fronta, Praha 1997, p. 311-312 (in Czech).
  14. Original text
  15. See original text at books.google.com