Sesta Rima as a Mode of Imitation: Hybrid Forms in Anglo-Italian Verse

Abstract This article finds in the Italianate form of sesta rima an additional strand of influence on English ottava rima in the nineteenth century. It explores the verse history that has led to six-line stanzas becoming a formal training ground for octave rhymes, and conducts the first sustained examination of Byron’s engagement with the Italianate sestain. Drawing together Byron’s Italian reading, his correspondence, and his manuscript experiments, the article opens up a cluster of poems between 1813 and 1816 which reveal how his movements towards ottava rima predate his arrival in Italy and intertwine with the history of sesta rima. Only two lines shorter than ottava rima and sharing its pattern of ab rhymes closed by a cc couplet, the stanza has received sparse attention in criticism of modern verse. Exploring how sesta rima became a mode for parodying ottava rima, the paper’s second part examines how the young Tennyson shaped his manuscript rhymes to emulate a Byronic voice. Closely engaging with the genesis and uses of these stanzas in both poets’ manuscripts, the article forms a wider case study in experimental stanza switching and hybrid forms in Romantic and post-Romantic verse.