The Ottava Rima

A fourteenth century Italian origin, the Ottava Rima is an eight-line stanza with an a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme.  Frances stillman in The Poets Manual and Rhyming Dictonary cites Byrons Don Juan as the best known example in the English Language.

I have written my example of the format, and show it below:

Latent Heat

Words rip from lips –  hot with outrage
like swarthe on a lathe streams from the tool
curled steel sheared by a razor sharp edge
waste furiously writhing in a twisted spool
serving no purpose, just conspicuous wastage
 handleable  only when the latent heat  cools.
Only a neighbour disputing a boundary –
 using enough energy  to fuel an iron foundry.

 

swarf

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