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Octave poems are verses of eight lines, usually forming a single stanza. They can follow various rhyme schemes, such as ABBAABBA, ABABCDCD, or ABABBABA.
Octave poems are often used in sonnets, particularly in the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, where the first eight lines (the octave) present a problem or situation that is then resolved or developed in the remaining six lines (the sestet). Octave poems offer poets a concise structure to convey their ideas, emotions, or narratives.
They can stand alone as complete poems or be combined with other stanzas to create longer works. Octave poems allow poets to explore diverse themes and experiment with rhyme and meter within a concise and structured form.
‘Little Boy Blue’ by Eugene Field is a beautiful, heartbreaking poem that describes the aftermath of a child’s death. It focuses on the child’s toys and how, despite many years having gone by, they’re still waiting for him.
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
The little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket molds in his hands.
The poem, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, by Robert Frost, is about the impermanence of life. It describes the fleeting nature of beauty by discussing time’s effect on nature.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
‘Ae Fond Kiss’ by Robert Burns is a Scottish poem describing the emotional parting of two lovers trapped in inevitable circumstances.
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, and then forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
‘The Question’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley tells of a dream where the speaker visits a fantastic forest of pristine, blooming flowers.
I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,
Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
And gentle odours led my steps astray,
Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring
‘Cuddle Doon’ by Alexander Anderson is a poem about a mother trying to persuade her children to go to sleep. It uses Scots dialect to convey the culture of the speaker and her family.
The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht
Wi muckle faught and din.
“Oh try an’ sleep, ye waukrife rogues,
Your faither’s comin’ in.”
‘From a Railway Carriage’ by Robert Louis Stevenson wakes up rather sudden and instantaneous images of the rustic countryside; it overcomes the reader with impressions of the brevity of life and its rich variety.
Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
‘The Song of the Shirt’ by Thomas Hood unveils the plight of a laboring woman, stitching survival in relentless hardship.
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread—
Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s ‘Thanksgiving’ urges gratitude for hidden blessings and mindfulness in the pursuit of joy amidst worries.
We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
‘The Willing Mistress’ by Aphra Behn is an erotic poem wherein the speaker recounts her intimate moments with her lover in a grove.
Amyntas led me to a Grove,
Where all the Trees did shade us;
The Sun it self, though it had Strove,
It could not have betray’d us:
‘Here’ by Philip Larkin paints a powerful contrast between urban and rural life, exploring the human need to find meaning along the passage of time.
Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows
And traffic all night north; swerving through fields
Too thin and thistled to be called meadows,
And now and then a harsh—named halt, that shields
‘Mr. Flood’s Party’ by Edwin Arlington Robinson describes a man’s later years in life and how lonely he has become. It suggests that a long life is not always a blessing.
Old Eben Flood, climbing alone one night
Over the hill between the town below
And the forsaken upland hermitage
That held as much as he should ever know
‘Passing And Glassing’ by Christina Rossetti speaks on a woman’s age and depicts a powerful new way of understanding the process.
All things that pass
Are woman's looking-glass;
They show her how her bloom must fade,
And she herself be laid
Wheatly’s ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’ frames enslavement as a path to faith, advocating for racial and spiritual equality.
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Henry Lawson’s ‘The Water’ captures Australia’s battle against drought and corporate greed, blending hope for irrigation’s potential with a call to protect communal resources.
Let others make the songs of love
For our young struggling nation;
But I will sing while e'er I live
The Songs of Irrigation;
‘November Blue’ by Alice Meynell draws attention to the weather in November and what people do to make up for it.
O, Heavenly colour! London town
Has blurred it from her skies;
And hooded in an earthly brown,
Unheaven'd the city lies.
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