How to Write a Terza Rima

Terza rima is a 3-lined rhyme scheme using a chain rhyme in the pattern aba bcb cdc ded. Although no specific line length is required, most terza rima poems in English are written in iambic pentameter. There is no limit to the number of lines, but poems or sections of poems written in terza rima end with either a single line or couplet repeating the rhyme of the middle line of the final tercet.

The poet Dante is credited with inventing the form and used it for his Divine Comedy, though the form was introduced into English by Chaucer.

The easiest way to highlight the terza rima's structure is by highlighting it on an example. This is because there is no set line or poem length. This particular examples uses a rhyming couplet to close.