Terza Rima

Terza Rima 

by Richard Wilbur

In this great form, as Dante proved in Hell,
There is no dreadful thing that can’t be said
In passing. Here, for instance, one could tell

How our jeep skidded sideways toward the dead
Enemy soldier with the staring eyes,
Bumping a little as it struck his head,

And then flew on, as if toward Paradise.

From The New Yorker.

A few years ago I had a lot of fun experimenting with various form poems -- pantoums and sestinas -- but, began to question the utility of form poetry compared to free verse.  This poem restores some of my confidence in form poetry.

Terza rima is a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, etc.  Poems written in terza rima end with either a single line or couplet repeating the rhyme of the middle line of the final tercet.

I like Wilbur's poem because:

a) It is self-referential and profoundly aware of its form -- in its title, opening line, and allusion to the work of Dante (famous for his use of terza rima in the Divine Comedy).  

b) Its play with fact and fiction in the last tercet reminds me of Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story".  What is important is that the jeep could skid and run over a soldier, not whether it actually happened.  As long as there is an audience that expects war stories, narratives of war must be created, told, and retold; and, reality will extend to the limits we are willing to accept as fiction.