Sicilian octave
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- For other uses of the word octave see Octave (disambiguation)
The Sicilian octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of eleven syllables each, called a hendecasyllable. The form is common in late medieval Italian poetry; in Italian it is called either ottava siciliana or ottava napoletana (Neapolitan octave). In English poetry iambic pentameter is often used instead of syllabics. The form has a prescribed rhyme scheme of four rhymed couplets, or ABABABAB. According to the Princeton Encylopedia, scholars disagree on the origin of the Sicilian octave, but all agree that it is related to the development of the first eight lines of the sonnet (called the octave). It is not clear whether the octave emerged first and influence the sonnet or vice versa.
The Sicilian octave is quite rare compared to the ottava rima (which evolved separately but is similar except for the last two lines), which was popularized by Boccaccio in Italian and by Byron in English. Before the 15th century, however, it was used often, and was an important influence for Petrarch in his sonnets. Boccaccio used the Sicilian octave a total of once, in his early romance Filocolo. The epitaph of Giulia Topazia is a Sicilian octave:
- Qui, d'Atropos il colpo ricevuto,
- giace di Roma Giulia Topazia,
- dell'alto sangue di Cesare arguto
- discesa, bella e piena d'ogni grazia,
- che, in parto, abbandonati in non dovuto
- modo ci ha: onde non fia giá mai sazia
- l'anima nostra il suo non conosciuto
- Dio biasimar che fè sí gran fallazia.
References
- The New Princeton Encylopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Ed. Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan. Princeton UP, 1993.
- Ernest H. Wilkins. "Boccaccio's First Octave." Italica, Vol. 33, No. 1. (Mar., 1956), p. 19.