Brewer's: Terza Rima

A poem in triplets, in which the second or middle line rhymes with the first and third lines of the succeeding triplets. In the beginning of the poem lines 1 and 3 rhyme independently, and the poem must end with the first line of a new triplet. Dante's Divine Comedy is in this metre, and Byron has adopted it in The Prophecy of Dante. The scheme is as follows. -

-1a

x2a feel (a new rhyme for 1b and 3b).

-3a

1b heal

x2b cries (a new rhyme for 1c and 4c).

3b steal

1c skies

2c place—(a new rhyme for 1d and 3d)

3c arise

1d race

x2d ( a new rhyme for 1e and 3e)

3d space

etc etc.

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