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How did Lord Byron use ottava rima in Don Juan?

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“The Tyger,” anastatic print by William Blake — Romantic literature English Romantic poet and artist William Blake wrote and illustrated “The Tyger” and other poems in his book *Songs of Innocence and of Experience* (1794).

In Don Juan, Lord Byron utilized ottava rima—a stanza form consisting of eight lines with an abababcc rhyme scheme—to masterfully blend comedy, seriousness, and mock-heroic irony.12

Having previously experimented with the form in his poem Beppo, Byron found that the structure provided the perfect vehicle for his satirical voice. By adopting this traditional Italian narrative form, he was able to move away from the excessive melancholy of his earlier work and instead highlight the comic discrepancies between reality and appearance.2

In Don Juan, the stanza serves as a flexible framework for witty social commentary. Byron used the poem’s picaresque narrative as a "peg" upon which to hang his critiques of social hypocrisy, sexual conventions, and the pretenses of public figures. The final rhyming couplet (cc) of each stanza often provided a sharp, punchy conclusion that underscored his satirical intent, allowing him to expose the absurdities of the world while maintaining a conversational and ironic tone throughout his epic verse tale.21