strambotto

strambotto, one of the oldest Italian verse forms, composed of a single stanza of either six or eight hendecasyllabic (11-syllable) lines. Strambotti were particularly popular in Renaissance Sicily and Tuscany, and the origin of the form in either region is still uncertain. Variations of the eight-line strambotto include the Sicilian octave (ottava siciliana), with the rhyme scheme abababab; the ottava rima, with the typical rhyme scheme abababcc; and the rispetto, a Tuscan form usually with the rhyme scheme ababccdd or with ottava rima. Six-line variants usually rhyme ababab, ababcc, or aabbcc. The subject of the strambotto was generally love or, sometimes, satire.