No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
According to the standard definition – which has been subjected to some criticism by scholars in recent years – Italian versification is governed by two factors: the number of syllables in a line and the position of the stressed syllables in the line. Lines may have either an even number of syllables (in which case the stress pattern is strictly regulated), or an odd number (in which case it is much more flexible). The length or quantity of the individual syllables, however, is not a factor in versification (as it is, for example, in classical Latin). The most widely used line of Italian verse, whose status may be taken as equivalent to that of the iambic pentameter in English, is the eleven-syllable endecasillabo (hendecasyllable); this is the line used in Dante's Commedia , Petrarch's sonnets, and other major Italian poetry. The other important ‘odd-numbered’ lines ( versi imparisillabi ) are the settenario (seven syllables) and the quinario (five); the trisillabo (three) also exists. Less common are the nine-syllable novenario and the ‘even-numbered’ lines ( versi parisillabi ): decasillabo (ten syllables), ottonario (eight), senario (six), and quatemario (four). In all these the positioning of stresses is much less variable than in the endecasillabo and settenario , to which the following remarks chiefly apply.
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.