Definition

Noun: A verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc. It is a poetic structure consisting of interlocking three-line stanzas (tercets) where the middle line of each tercet rhymes with the first and third lines of the following tercet, creating a chain-like pattern.

Usage

This term is used specifically in the context of poetry and literary analysis to describe a formal rhyme scheme. - The poet mastered the difficult terza rima. - Dante's Divine Comedy is the most famous example of terza rima.

Examples

• Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" is written in terza rima.
• The terza rima form creates a sense of continuous, forward motion in the poem.
• Writing a long poem in terza rima requires great technical skill.

Advanced Usage

• Terza rima sonnet: A 14-line poem that adapts the terza rima pattern, often concluding with a couplet. For example, some of Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnets use this form.
• The terza rima pattern can be challenging in English due to its relative scarcity of rhyming words compared to Italian.

Variants and Related Words

• Tercet (noun): A three-line stanza, which is the building block of terza rima.
• Rhyme scheme (noun): The ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines of a poem, such as the one defining terza rima.

Synonyms

• Interlocking tercets: A descriptive synonym emphasizing the structural mechanism.
• Dantean rhyme scheme: A synonym referencing the form's most famous practitioner, Dante Alighieri.

Related Terms and Concepts

• Chain rhyme: A broader term for any verse form where rhymes connect stanzas, under which terza rima is a specific type.
• Verse form (noun): A general term for a specific structure of poetry, such as a sonnet, villanelle, or terza rima.

Noun

1. a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.