Poetic Form
Terza Rima
From Italian: third rhyme. Invented by Dante for the Divine Comedy; the interlocking scheme creates inexorable forward movement. Boccaccio, Chaucer (Monk's Tale), and Shelley all employed it.
Definition
A continuous chain of interlocking tercets rhyming ABA BCB CDC, in which each middle rhyme opens a new triplet.
Example
Shelley's 'Ode to the West Wind' (1820): five sections in terza rima; Dante's Divine Comedy (1308–20).