The Sicilian octave is derived from the medieval strambotto and was a crucial step in the development of the sonnet, whereas the ottava rima is related to the canzone, a stanza form.
The following year, Luigi Pulci published his Morgante Maggiore in which the mock-heroic, half-serious, half-burlesque use of the form that is most familiar to modern English-language readers first appeared.
Molto egli oprò col senno e con la mano; Molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto: E invan l’Inferno a lui s’oppose; e invano s’armò d’Asia e di Libia il popol misto: Chè ’l Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto ai santi Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti.
Another important work was written by a woman, Lucrezia Marinella, the author of long epic poem L'Enrico, ovvero Bisanzio acquistato (Enrico, or, Byzantium Conquered), that was translated into English by Maria Galli Stampino.
The form also became popular for original works, such as Michael Drayton's The Barons' Wars, Thomas Heywood's Troia Britannica, or Emilia Lanier's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum.
The first English poet to write mock-heroic ottava rima was John Hookham Frere, whose 1817-8 poem Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work used the form to considerable effect.
[6] From Frere's Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work, commonly known as The Monks and the Giants[7] But chiefly, when the shadowy moon had shed O'er woods and waters her mysterious hue, Their passive hearts and vacant fancies fed With thoughts and aspirations strange and new, Till their brute souls with inward working bred Dark hints that in the depths of instinct grew Subjection not from Locke's associations, Nor David Hartley's doctrine of vibrations.
From Constance Naden's A Modern Apostle (1887)[8] For she, with innocent clear sight, had found That those about her merely thought of thinking, And felt they ought to feel; with quick rebound She drew her life away from theirs, and shrinking From windy verbiage, craved some solid ground, Trying to satisfy her soul by linking Truths abstract; no vague talk of liberal views Can alter cosine and hypotenuse.
From Anthony Burgess's Byrne: A Novel He thought he was a kind of living myth And hence deserving of ottava rima, The scheme that Ariosto juggled with, Apt for a lecherous defective dreamer.
In Russia, Pavel Katenin instigated a high-profile dispute on the proper way of translating Italian epics, which resulted in Alexander Pushkin's ottava rima poem "The Little House in Kolomna" (1830), which took its cue from Lord Byron's Beppo.
Rainer Maria Rilke, regarded as the greatest German language lyric poet of the 20th century, wrote Winterliche Stanzen in ABABABCC scheme.
Nun sollen wir versagte Tage lange ertragen in des Widerstandes Rinde; uns immer wehrend, nimmer an der Wange das Tiefe fühlend aufgetaner Winde.
As armas e os barões assinalados, Que da ocidental praia Lusitana, Por mares nunca de antes navegados, Passaram ainda além da Taprobana, Em perigos e guerras esforçados, Mais do que prometia a força humana, E entre gente remota edificaram Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram; The feats of Arms, and famed heroick Host, from occidental Lusitanian strand, who o'er the waters ne'er by seaman crost, farèd beyond the Taprobáne-land, forceful in perils and in battle-post, with more than promised force of mortal hand; and in the regions of a distant race rear'd a new throne so haught in Pride of Place:[10] Camões was not the only Portuguese poet to use ottava rima.
The scheme ABABABCC was introduced into Polish poetry by Sebastian Grabowiecki and made widespread by Piotr Kochanowski, who translated Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso.
In Czech poetry, Jaroslav Vrchlický,[13] generally considered to be the greatest poet of the second half of 19th century, used ottava rima several times, for example in short poem Odpověď (An Answer) that is composed of only two stanzas.
In Finnish literature ottava rima was used by Eino Leino in some parts of book Juhana Herttuan ja Catharina Jagellonican lauluja (Songs of Prince John and Catherine the Jagellonian).