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Poetry Form - Terza rima : Formal Poetry

written by Poet : Doctor-Write


 

Terza rima is a very old poetry form and I would like to write more about this particular structure . Thank you  for reading this article . - Doctor Write

Terza rima  is a verse form composed of iambic tercets (three-line groupings). The rhyme scheme for this form of poetry is "aba bcb cdc, etc." The second line of each tercet sets the rhyme for the following tercet, and thus supplying the verse with a common thread, a way to link the stanzas. The only time the form changes is at the conclusion of the poem, where a single line that rhymes with the second line of the final tercet stands alone; the rhyme scene at the end of the poem looks like this: "xyx yzy z."

Dante used terza rima in his Divine Comedy; there, it has been noted, the three-line stanza may allude to the Trinity. Although the terza rima is an inflexible and strict stanza, it has been used successfully by a number of poets, including Boccaccio (Amorosa Visione), Petrarch (I Trionfi), Chaucer ("Complaint to His Lady") and several English Renaissance poets. More recently one finds terza rima employed by Lord Byron in his "Prophecy of Dante" and Shelly in "The Triumph of Life." Some modern poets who have used the form are W. H. Auden ("The Sea and the Mirror") and Archibald MacLeish ("Conquistador").

An excellent example of the terza rima occurs in Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." Shelley employs a terza rima sonnet form for each of the five parts that make up the poem. Here is the first part of his poem:

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintery bed

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

  • [Adam Palmer]

 

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Handbook/terzarima.html

 

The rules that apply with Terza Rima pattern of rhyme are as follows,

Line 1 and 3 rhyme

Line 2, 4 and 6 rhyme

Line 5 rhymes with 7, and 9 and the poem then continues in this sequence.

Other Examples

 

Imaginary Pictures

By Paul Mc Cann

Love it's difficult to express,
when words are hard to find .
My thoughts are scattered
and tied up at the end of a rope .
These imaginary pictures,
I'm painting with my mind .
Confusion distracts the picture
like a kaleidoscope .
Rolling words hang in mid air,
coloured with plastic flair.
drifting away
on a soft breeze that keeps my mind afloat .
Lost in love
I welcome this captured moment that we share .
I still cannot find the words
that I dearly want to say .
On to a canvas
I walk in my silent surrender .
Thoughts begin to flow
like a river of love down my way .
I get carried away
into this big ocean of space .
Expeditions
of an expressionist I must portray .

 

Heavens Gate
By Paul Mc Cann

Through an open gate
I chanced to pass by with you .
Slipping to the floor
I fell to the hands of fate.
There I felt at ease for a while
as time passed through .
The warmth of your smile
melted any trace of hate .
Rainbow hues ushered in bright light
out of the blue.
A moment empty of words .
What can I relate ?
Reflecting now as I look
history has past .
Things may come and go
but we all live within love .
I embrace each second
where once I first came last.
Both the hunter and the prey
escaped with the dove.
where all things are within our grasp .

 Doctor Write

 

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Originally Posted On Site: 2008-03-01 11:47:29
Last Login: 05.21.12


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