Terza rima facts for kids
Terza rima is a special way to write poetry using groups of three lines. It comes from Italy. In this style, the first line of a group rhymes with the third line. The second line doesn't rhyme with the first or third, but it sets up the rhyme for the next group of three lines. This creates a cool, flowing sound!
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Terza Rima in Sonnets
Sometimes, terza rima is used inside a type of poem called a sonnet. A sonnet is a poem with 14 lines. Often, sonnets have two groups of four lines (called quatrains) and then two groups of three lines (terza rimas).
For example, a sonnet might rhyme like this: ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. This means the first line rhymes with the fourth, the second with the third, and so on. You can find this pattern in many sonnets from Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
An Example Sonnet
Here's a sonnet by a Portuguese poet from the 1500s, Francisco de Sá de Miranda. It shows how terza rima can be used in a sonnet:
O sol é grande, caem co’a calma as aves,
do tempo em tal sazão, que sói ser fria;
esta água que d’alto cai acordar-m’-ia
do sono não, mas de cuidados graves.
Ó cousas, todas vãs, todas mudaves,
qual é tal coração qu’em vós confia?
Passam os tempos vai dia trás dia,
incertos muito mais que ao vento as naves.
Eu vira já aqui sombras, vira flores,
vi tantas águas, vi tanta verdura,
as aves todas cantavam d’amores.
Tudo é seco e mudo; e, de mestura,
também mudando-m’eu fiz doutras cores:
e tudo o mais renova, isto é sem cura!
Long Poems with Terza Rima
Terza rima is often used to make very long poems. The groups of three lines are linked together like a chain. The rhyme scheme goes like this: ABA BCB CDC DED... and so on. At the very end of the poem, there's usually an extra line that rhymes with the middle line of the last three-line group. This makes the poem flow smoothly from one section to the next.
This style is perfect for long stories or epic poems. The most famous example is The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. It's a very old and important poem from Italy. Many kids in Italy even know parts of it by heart!
Dante's Famous Lines
Here are the first few lines from Dante's The Divine Comedy:
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Tant’è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ ho scorte.
Terza Rima Around the World
Poets from different countries have used terza rima. For example, Bernardo de Balbuena, a Spanish poet who lived in Mexico, wrote a long poem called Grandeza mexicana using this style:
Oh tú, heroica beldad, saber profundo,
que por milagro puesta a los mortales
en todo fuiste la última del mundo;
criada en los desiertos arenales,
sobre que el mar del sur resaca y quiebra
nácar lustroso y perlas orientales;
do haciendo a tu valor notoria quiebra,
el tiempo fue tragando con su llama
tu rico estambre y su preciosa hebra;
In Britain, the poet Robert Browning also used terza rima in his poem The Statue and the Bust:
There ’s a palace in Florence, the world knows well,
And a statue watches it from the square,
And this story of both do the townsmen tell.
Ages ago, a lady there,
At the furthest window facing the east,
Asked, “Who rides by with the royal air?”'
The bridesmaids’ prattle around her ceased:
She leaned forth, one on either hand;
They saw how the blush of the bride increased.
Shelley's Unique Sonnet
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley created his own special kind of sonnet. It used four groups of terza rima, plus two rhyming lines at the very end (called a couplet). This sonnet rhymes ABA BCB CDC DED EE. Shelley used this form in his famous poem Ode to the Western Wind. This poem has five parts, and each part is like one of these special sonnets.
Here's the first part of Ode to the Western Wind:
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 wintry 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!
American poet Robert Frost also used a terza rima-like pattern in his poem Acquainted with the Night. It had a rhyme scheme of ABA BCB CDC DAD AA.
Jan Kasprowicz, a Polish poet, translated Shelley's poem into Polish. He also used a similar rhyme scheme in one of his own poems, called Cisza wieczorna (which means Evening Silence).
Villanelle: Another Form
Another type of poem that uses terza rima is called a villanelle. A villanelle has 19 lines and a very specific rhyme pattern: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA. It also repeats certain lines. A famous example is Do not go gentle into that good night by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
See also
In Spanish: Terceto encadenado para niños
