TERZA RIMA

I'll put examples first for a change.

When Aasked to Ride a Camel in the Judean Dessert

Let me admire your camel from afar.
I promise I will take a photograph
as I wait in an air-conditioned car.

Your smooth attempts to lure me make me laugh.
Machine is far superior to beast.
Would sitting here and watching be a gaffe?

That creature tried to bite you. Think at least
about your safety. Picturesque? Not me!
It's high time your attempts to lure me ceased.

Transport me to another century?
Why would a modern person mount a hump?
Nomadic lifestyles don't appeal to me.

My trip to Israel has hit a slump.
Tradition brought me to this holy land,
not need to ride some spitting creature's rump.

I know that my decision is at hand.
I won't go camel-bumping through your sand.

Russell H. Strauss


The next example, by Percy B. Shelley, is a terza rima sonnet -
14 lines instead of 17, but ending with the couplet as in the
previous example.

Ode to the West Wind

Oh wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose 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 die 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, O hear!

*          *          *          *          *         *

      Terza rima has an interesting history, going back to Dante in the late 13^th century. You may want to read about that on your own. On this blog, we are less interested in its history than in how the thing is constructed.

      The poem usually assumes one of the two forms illustrated above.  The meter is typically iambic, often but not always pentameter.  The poet may elect, in fact, to use tetrameter. Whatever the choice, it should be used consistently throughout, of course.

      Terza rima requires rhyme.  The sonnet type terza rima has rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded ee.  Terza rima (nonsonnet) is 3 lines or one tercet longer, with rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded efe ff.  Because the English language is considered comparatively rhyme-poor, use of slant rhyme has been accepted in this form.  

       Examples of terza rima written by modern poets include “The Sow” by Sylvia Plath and "The Yachts" by William Carlos Williams.  I personally feel that Mr. Williams's poem is a variation on the terza rima because he uses 11 tercets and no closing couplet, and also because he takes great liberties with meter. 

Here is Frost's poem, which uses the terza rima sonnet format.

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night. 

I have walked out in rain-- and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. 

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street.

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height

One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night. .