What structural feature defines a lyric poem written in 'terza rima'?
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Correct answer: Interlocking tercets where each middle rhyme links to the next: aba bcb cdc ded
Terza rima is an interlocking three-line stanza form famously invented by Dante Alighieri for his *Divina Commedia* and later adapted by English lyric poets like Shelley in 'Ode to the West Wind.' The structural mechanism works by taking the middle rhyme sound of one tercet and using it to anchor the outer lines of the subsequent tercet (aba, bcb, cdc, ded). This creates an unbroken chain of sound that drives the lyric forward with structural momentum.
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