Italian Octave

Italian Octave

Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description: Iambic pentameter octaves rhymed abbaabba. It is the basis of the first part of the Italian sonnet.
Origin: Italian
Schematic: 
Rhyme: abbaabba
Meter: xX xX xX xX xXR
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 8

Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/001/153.shtml
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

My example

Hanging On (Italian Octave)

More bothersome the gusts became today,
disturbing my tranquility, and more,
as leaves from autumn limbs, the breezes tore.
The wind grew stronger causing limbs to sway,
then gusts removed more leaves, and took them ‘way.
“Don’t strip them all”, I heard myself implore
as more fell quietly to forest floor.
Yet some remained; like me, ’twas not their day.

© Lawrencealot – September 6, 2014

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