Ottava Rima
Quick answer: Ottava rima explained: the eight-line ABABABCC stanza of Boccaccio, Byron's Don Juan and Yeats, with rules, history and tips for writing your own.
Eight lines, three rhymes, one built-in punchline: ottava rima runs ABABABCC, six lines of alternating rhyme resolved by a couplet. The alternation builds expectation, the couplet cashes it, and that little click at the end is why the stanza has served everything from Renaissance epic to the funniest long poem in English.
Boccaccio established the stanza in fourteenth-century Italy for narrative poems such as the Filostrato and Teseida, and Ariosto and Tasso made it the vehicle of Italian epic. In Italian it uses eleven-syllable lines; English practice settled on iambic pentameter. Then Byron got hold of it, and the form's second life began.
Epic first, comedy later
For two centuries ottava rima meant heroic narrative: Orlando Furioso and Jerusalem Delivered rolled through thousands of these stanzas. English poets imported it with mixed success until Byron, via the comic Italian tradition of poets like Pulci, discovered what the couplet was really for. In Beppo (1818) and above all Don Juan, he lets the six alternating lines inflate a scene, a sentiment or a romance, then uses the couplet to puncture it, often with an outrageous rhyme. A century later W. B. Yeats reclaimed the stanza's dignity for meditative poems, including Sailing to Byzantium and Among School Children, proving the form can hold grandeur and irony with equal ease.
Rules and the rhyme problem
The scheme is fixed: ABABABCC, stanza after stanza, in iambic pentameter for English. There is no set poem length; narrative poets chain as many stanzas as the story needs.
The catch is the triple rhyme. English is short of sounds with three easy partners, and forcing them shows immediately. This is why W. H. Auden, planning a long comic poem in the 1930s, chose the seven-line rhyme royal instead, admitting the triple rhyme was more than he wanted to sustain. Your defences are three: pick A and B sounds with big rhyme families, allow the occasional slant rhyme, and let comic poems get away with stunt rhymes that a serious poem could not.
A working method
Decide first whether your stanza's couplet will land as climax or as deflation, because everything upstream is angled by that choice. Draft the couplet early; many practised hands write CC first and grow the sestet toward it. Keep the six alternating lines flowing as one or two sentences rather than six sealed units, and place your strongest image around lines five and six, where the pattern peaks.
For narrative, give each stanza one event or one turn of thought. Byron's stanzas gossip, digress and double back, but each still closes with its own small verdict. That is the discipline to copy: the couplet must always earn its click.
What it suits, and the standard failure
Ottava rima is the great stanza of storytelling with attitude: mock epic, satire, verse novels, and, in Yeats's hands, self-questioning meditation. It suits poets who like an audience.
Beginners break it by treating the couplet as two more lines instead of a destination. If your CC could be shuffled back into the sestet without loss, the stanza has no spine. Write toward the couplet, always.
What poets can take from this
- Choose A and B rhyme sounds with at least four common partners each.
- Draft the closing couplet first and build the sestet toward it.
- Use enjambment across the alternating lines to avoid a see-saw rhythm.
- Reserve stunt rhymes for comedy; keep serious stanzas sonically quiet.
- Give every stanza one event, one turn, one verdict.
- Read a canto of Don Juan aloud before attempting a comic sequence.
Try it yourself
Write three ottava rima stanzas telling the story of a family legend everyone tells differently, letting each stanza's couplet deliver a different relative's verdict on what really happened.
Questions
What is the ottava rima rhyme scheme?
ABABABCC: eight lines with two alternating rhymes for six lines, closed by a couplet. English poets write it in iambic pentameter; the Italian original uses eleven-syllable lines.
Why is Don Juan written in ottava rima?
Byron borrowed the stanza from Italian comic epic because its final couplet is a natural punchline. The six alternating lines build up romance or rhetoric, and the couplet undercuts it, perfect for his satire.
How is ottava rima different from a Sicilian octave?
The Sicilian octave alternates two rhymes for all eight lines, ABABABAB, with no couplet. Ottava rima swaps the last two lines for a couplet, ABABABCC, which gives it a closing snap the older form lacks.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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