What is an Octave?
A stanza of eight lines.
Finding Harmony: The Octave in Poetic Form
Within poetic composition, the octave is a rhythmic structure consisting of eight lines. This type of structure is most commonly found in the sonnet form. The octave sets the tone for the rest of the poem, creating a sense of harmony and balance within the work. The lines within an octave can follow a variety of rhyme schemes depending on the poet's preference. Some common schemes include ABBAABBA and CDCDCD. While the form is not limited to a specific meter, poets may select a specific pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables to add a layer of musicality to the poem.
Octaves have been a popular poetic form for centuries. Below are two examples of octaves being used in literature.
In this famous sonnet, Shakespeare opens with the traditional octet utilizing an ABAB rhyme scheme followed by a closing sestet to complete his poem.
'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed;'
In this poem, Keats uses two octets, each with its own rhyme scheme, to express the speaker's response to hearing a nightingale song.
'My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease.'