The stornello is an Italian verse form dating back to at least the 15th century. The most common modern interpretations list it as a tercet form in which all three lines rhyme, with hendecasyllabic lines. There are other interpretations of the form from older time periods, including a couplet form still seen in Sicily today.
The Sicilian Octave is an Italian offshoot of the older strambotto. It consists of eight lines with an alternating rhyme scheme (ABABABAB), traditionally with hendecasyllabic verse. English adaptations of the form commonly use iambic pentameter instead. The form’s popularity has waned since its introduction.
The Strambotto is one of the oldest Italian verse forms, predating and inspiring both the Sicilian Octave and the sonnet. There are multiple variants, but they are all either six or eight lines, with hendecasyllabic rhymed lines. English adaptations are sometimes written in iambic pentameter.
The rispetto is a 15th century Italian verse form based around two rhyming quatrains. It usually has a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd, though the second verse can vary a bit. The most defining feature of the rispetto is that it is always a poem expressing respect. In fact the name, rispetto, literally means “respect.”
Ottava rima is an Italian verse form comprised of octaves that use ten or eleven syllables per line. (Originally eleven, then reimagined as ten in English.) The form has been predominantly used for epic poetry and has a simple rhyme scheme that lends itself well to being expanded out into longer poems.
The madrigal is a category of a poem that encompasses multiple forms. While the forms are loosely connected by the idea of a short, romantic verse form, not all madrigals are short and not all madrigals are romantic. Among poetic forms, the madrigal is especially adept at evading concrete definitions.
The Italian octave is a poem with the same structural requirements as the first eight lines of an Italian/Petrarchan sonnet. This means it will have eight lines in Iambic pentameter with an ABBAABBA rhyme scheme. It is unknown which of these two forms came first. (The sonnet or the octave.)
Barzelletta was a popular verse form utilized by Italian frottola composers, intended to entertain audiences with wit and rhythm, that has only rarely been applied to poetry outside of music. It is a subgenre of the frottola, a type of music that preceded the madrigal as a popular form of Italian secular music.
An ars poetica poem examines the poet’s role as a subject himself, what his or her relationship is to the poem and the reasons behind writing the poem. Ars Poetica poems represent a declaration of the writer’s beliefs about poetry.
An epistle or epistolary poetry is a letter in either poem or prose form. These literary letters are addressed to a particular person or group. This poem type dates back to as far as the Roman empire. From letters written during that era, it was further developed and popularized by the great Roman poets, Horace and Ovid.
Terza rima is a verse form of Italian origin consisting of tercets, or three-line stanzas. Terza rima poems are a demanding form of poetry as it uses a complex rhyming scheme usually in iambic pentameter.
A sonnet is a fixed 14-line verse poem that originates from 13th century Italy. The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet are the two principal forms of sonnets.