Italian poetry is a category of
Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including
that of English.
Features
Italian prosody is accentual and syllabic, much like English. However, in Italian all syllables are perceived as having the same length, while in English that role is played by feet.[1] The most common metrical line is the
hendecasyllable, which is very similar to English
iambic pentameter. Shorter lines like the settenario are used as well.[2]
The earliest Italian poetry is rhymed. Rhymed forms of Italian poetry include the
sonnet (sonnetto),
terza rima,
ottava rima, the
canzone and the
ballata.[3] Beginning in the sixteenth century, unrhymed hendecasyllabic verse, known as verso sciolto, became a popular alternative (compare
blank verse in English).[4]
Feminine rhymes are generally preferred over masculine rhymes.
Apocopic forms (uom for uomo, amor for amore) and contractions (spirto for spirito) are common. Expanded forms of words which have become contracted in ordinary use (cittade for città, virtute for virtù) are also frequently encountered, particularly for the sake of ending lines with feminine rhymes.
Diaeresis may be used to break up
diphthongs and to make semivowels into full vowels. For instance, the trisyllabic word sapienza can be turned into the tetrasyllabic sapïenza. The rules governing when diaeresis is permissible are complex, and it occurs more commonly with learnèd vocabulary than with colloquialisms.[5]
As with other European languages, Italian poets have become increasingly open to experimentation in recent centuries and
free verse (verso libero) is written by many Italian poets.
Ugo Foscolo (1778 - 1827): best known for his poem "Dei Sepolcri".
Giacomo Leopardi (1798 – 1837): highly valued for his Canti and Operette morali, author of L'infinito, one of the most famous poems of Italian literary history.