Rispetto
Quick answer: A rispetto is an Italian folk verse form: eight eleven-syllable lines, often rhymed abababcc, paying respect to the beloved. Learn how to write one.
A rispetto is a short Italian verse form of eight lines, traditionally eleven syllables each, most often rhyming abababcc: six alternating lines closed by a couplet. The name comes from rispetto, respect, because the form began as a folk song paying homage to a beloved, sung under Tuscan windows long before it entered literary poetry. In English practice the syllable count usually relaxes to iambic pentameter or tetrameter, but the eight-line frame and the closing couplet remain the form's signature.
Poets like the rispetto for the same reason they like the Shakespearean sonnet's ending: the abababcc scheme gives you a little engine of alternation that suddenly resolves. It is small enough to finish in a sitting, strict enough to push your rhyming, and courteous by heritage, which makes it a natural vehicle for praise poems, anniversaries and addresses to people, places or even objects you want to honour.
How It Works
The alternating ababab section builds a to-and-fro motion, two rhyme sounds trading places for six lines, and the cc couplet snaps the box shut. Here is an original English example in tetrameter: 'You keep the porch light on for strays, / you learn the names of other people's flowers, / you give away your Saturdays / and call it nothing, all these hours. / The town runs better for your ways, / though no one clocks your quiet powers. / So take this, neighbour, plain and true: / the street is kinder shaped like you.' The couplet steps outside the pattern of praise to deliver it directly, which is the classic rispetto move.
Variants exist. Some rispetti rhyme abab ccdd, splitting into a quatrain and two couplets, and a linked sequence of rispetti on one subject is a respected tradition of its own.
Where You Will See It
The rispetto flourished as Tuscan folk song, and fifteenth-century poets carried it into literature: Politian, court poet to the Medici, wrote polished rispetti, and Lorenzo de' Medici himself worked in the form. Nineteenth-century English poets curious about Italian shapes experimented with it during the Victorian revival of continental forms, and you will still meet it in form anthologies and workshop assignments today, usually as an eight-line praise poem with the abababcc scheme. Its cousin the strambotto, another Italian eight-line form, is so close that scholars sometimes treat the rispetto as the Tuscan branch of the same family.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Choose someone or something to honour, then resist gush. The form's charm depends on concrete evidence: name what the person does, not how wonderful they are. Spend the six alternating lines on particulars and save the direct address or verdict for the couplet.
Watch your b-rhymes. You need three of each sound, so pick rhyme words with plenty of relatives before you commit; choosing 'orange' in line two is a self-inflicted wound. If full rhyme starts steering you into nonsense, slant rhyme keeps the music without the strain. Eight finished lines also make an honest test piece for a contest entry, where judges reward a poem that completes its own small promise.
What poets can take from this
- Check that both your a and b rhyme sounds have at least four usable rhyme words before you start.
- Fill the first six lines with specific, observed detail; keep abstraction out until the couplet.
- Let the closing couplet change register, turning from description to direct address or judgement.
- Try tetrameter first; the shorter line makes the alternating rhymes easier to control.
- Write a linked pair of rispetti, one praising and one gently teasing the same subject, for contrast.
Try it yourself
Write a rispetto honouring someone who does unglamorous work you rely on, a bus driver, a nurse, a school cook. Six alternating lines of concrete evidence, then a couplet that thanks them to their face.
Questions
What is the rhyme scheme of a rispetto?
Most commonly abababcc, six alternating lines closed by a couplet, though abab ccdd also appears. Traditional Italian rispetti use eleven-syllable lines; English versions usually substitute iambic pentameter or tetrameter.
What is the difference between a rispetto and a strambotto?
They are close relatives: both are Italian eight-line forms in eleven-syllable lines. The strambotto is the broader, older category, often rhyming abababab or abababcc, while the rispetto is the Tuscan tradition tied specifically to songs of respect for a beloved.
Does a rispetto have to be a love poem?
No. The heritage is amorous homage, but modern rispetti honour anyone or anything worth respect: a grandmother, a landscape, a craft. The gesture of paying tribute matters more than romance.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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