Octosyllable is a term used in syllabic verse . It means a line of ten (10) syllables. The term can also be used to describe Iambic and trochaic tetrameter, meters commonly used in English accentual-syllabic verse.
In Europe[]
Octosyllabic verse is often used in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese poetry. While commonly used in couplets, other typical stanzas using octosyllables are: décima, some quatrains, redondilla.
In Spanish verse, an octosyllable is a line that has its seventh syllable stressed, on the principle that this would normally be the penultimate syllable of a word (Lengua Castellana y Literatura, ed. Grazalema Santillana. El Verso y su Medida, p. 46). If the final word of a line does not fit this pattern, the line could have eight or seven or nine syllables (as normally counted), thus -
- 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Gra/NA/da
- 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Ma/DRID
- 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / MA/(la)/ga
In Medieval French literature, the octosyllable rhymed couplet was the most common verse form used in verse chronicles, romances (the romans), lais and dits. The meter reached Spain in the 14th century, although commonly with a more varied rhyme scheme than the couplet.
In England[]
The French octosyllablic verse came to England via the Anglo-Norman poets from the 12th-13th centuries and influenced the 4 stress tetrameter verse used in narration (as in Chaucer).
See also[]
Line lengths in syllabic verse[]
8 - Octosyllable
10 - Decasyllable
11 - Hendecasyllable
12 - Dodecasyllable
References[]
- Bibliography
- Preminger, Alex; Warnke, Frank J.; Hardison, O. B. (1974) [1965]. "Octosyllabic verse". In Preminger, Alex. Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (2nd enlarged ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. pp. 584–585. ISBN 06910628038. OCLC 1203178.
Notes[]
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ca:Octosíl·lab es:Octosílabo fr:Octosyllabe it:Ottosillabo oc:Octosillab