THE OTTAVA RIMA
In Seville was he born, a pleasant city, Famous for oranges and women – he Who has not seen it will be much to pity,
So says the proverb – and I quite agree; Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty,
Cadiz, perhaps – but that you soon may see: – Don Juan's parents lived beside the river,
A noble stream, and called the Guadalquivir.
Lord Byron, Don Juan
THE SONNET
from Italian sonetto
fourteen lines
iambic pentameter
rhyming must be strictly observed
abba abba cdc ded
Shakespearian sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg
THE SONNET
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 130
FREE VERSE
no set rhythm
no set rhyme pattern
lines of irregular length
must not be confused with blank verse (which does not rhyme, but does follow a regular rhythm)
FREE VERSE
After the Sea-Ship—after the whistling winds;
After the white-gray sails, taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad, myriad waves, hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship. Whitman, After the Sea-Ship
