Octonary

An octonary is an eight-line section in a poem, song or psalm.^[1] The most notable example is found in Psalm 118^[2]

In the French renaissance the octonaire became a form of moralizing chanson.

References

1. ^ Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of literature 1995 p825 "octonary \'ak-ta-,ner-e \ In poetry, a stanza or group of eight verses;"
2. ^ Calvin Bible Commentaries: Psalms, Part IV p287 "Some call this the octonary psalm, because that, through every successive eight verses, the initial words of each line begin with the same letter in alphabetical order."