The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the Vie de Saint Leger;[1] another early use is in the early 12th-century Anglo-Norman Voyage de saint Brendan.[2] It is often used in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese poetry. While commonly used in couplets, 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. The Anglo-Norman poets from the 12th-13th centuries brought the French octosyllablic verse to England and influenced the 4 stress tetrameter verse used in narration (as in Chaucer).[1]
^ abCushman, Stephen; Cavanagh, Clare; Ramazani, Jahan; Paul Rouzer (2012). "Octosyllable". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4 ed.). Princeton UP. pp. 970–71. ISBN 9781400841424. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
^Jongen, Ludo; Szirmai, Julia; Winkelman, Johan H. (2013). De reis van Sint Brandaan (in Dutch). Hilversum: Verloren. p. 12. ISBN 9789087041373.
The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress...
is sometimes used in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese poetry. octosyllable decasyllable hendecasyllable dodecasyllable Diccionario de la lengua...
in seven manuscripts and various fragments. The poem comprises 6,878 octosyllables in rhymed couplets. A prose version was made in the 15th century. The...
French romance (roman) was, however, most often written in 8 syllable (or octosyllable) verse.) Use of the 10 syllable line in French poetry was eclipsed by...
called the "alexandrine", after the French equivalent. hexasyllable, octosyllable, decasyllable, and hendecasyllable — lines of 6, 8, 10, and 11 syllables...
(The Lover's Confession) Written 1390 Country England Language Middle English Meter Octosyllable Lines 33,000 Full text Confessio Amantis at Wikisource...
Keats's Endymion: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Hexasyllable Octosyllable Decasyllable Dodecasyllable Halporn, James W.; Ostwald, Martin; Rosenmeyer...
Albanian flag. It is played by a lahutar, a rapsode. The Albanian songs are octosyllable, in relation to the decasyllable Serbian, and a more primitive type of...
this movement, language use went from Galician-Portuguese to Castilian. Octosyllable, twelve syllables, and verse of arte mayor were becoming the footing...
of the fabliau is that of Medieval French literature in general, the octosyllable rhymed couplet, the most common verse form used in verse chronicles,...
Mikhail Gasparov, the French alexandrine developed from the Ambrosian octosyllable, × – u – × – u × Aeterne rerum conditor by gradually losing the final...
born in France and wrote in England. Marie de France's lais, told in octosyllables or eight-syllable verse, are notable for their celebration of love,...
hexameter Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth The Song of Hiawatha 1855 5,414 lines octosyllable Masefield, John Dauber 1912 rhyme royal Meek, Alexander Beaufort The...
by Aldhelm. It is the earliest example of the verse form continuous octosyllables, of which he may have been the inventor, and the earliest surviving...
an influence. The poem is a surging monologue of enlaced rhymes in octosyllables, driving along its theme of leaving earthly passion behind and transmuting...
Language Old French Date late 12th or early 13th century Genre Chivalric romance Verse form Octosyllable couplets Length 1,136 lines Subject Arthurian legend...
lengths are the ten-syllable line (decasyllable), the eight-syllable line (octosyllable) and the twelve-syllable line (the "alexandrine"). Verses could be combined...
Hexasyllable: metrical line consisting of 6 syllables. Double dactyl Octosyllable: metrical line consisting of 8 syllables. Decasyllable: metrical line...
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