Poetic Forms

[greenmountaineer]

I sometimes wonder why a poet chooses a particular form. Sometimes I think I know. For example, Robert Frost, who among his many honors was Vermont's poet laureate, had an uncanny ability to make blank verse sound like poetry and common speech. (I swear that some of my neighbors up here in northern New England talk in unrhymed iambic pentameter most of the time. LOL)

Do you have a particular liking for a poetic form? Please note: I'm not asking for preference of one over others, so talk about several forms if you're so inclined. What are your reasons for writing in a particular form? By the same token, if you don't like form poetry at all, what do you like about free verse as opposed to forms?

 

[Tzara]

I sometimes wonder why a poet chooses a particular form. Sometimes I think I know. For example, Robert Frost, who among his many honors was Vermont's poet laureate, had an uncanny ability to make blank verse sound like poetry and common speech. (I swear that some of my neighbors up here in northern New England talk in unrhymed iambic pentameter most of the time. LOL)

Do you have a particular liking for a poetic form? Please note: I'm not asking for preference of one over others, so talk about several forms if you're so inclined. What are your reasons for writing in a particular form? By the same token, if you don't like form poetry at all, what do you like about free verse as opposed to forms?

I like writing form, both as a break or change of pace from free verse and simply because it's enjoyable in itself. While I've tried all kinds of forms, I tend to regularly write in a select few:

Sonnet: Probably the most obvious of forms for someone writing in English. I tend to write Italian sonnets, or some variation on them, rather than English/Shakespearian sonnets. For one thing, I find the alternating rhyme pattern of an English sonnet kind of boring, and I like the variations one can employ in the sestet of an Italian sonnet.

Onegin Stanza: I know everyone else hates this one, but I find it great fun, and actually pretty easy to write. It's similar to a sonnet (14 lines, though in tetrameter with an idiosyncratic rhyme pattern) and seems very well suited to lively, kinda smart-ass poems—often ones with satirical or sardonic subjects. The rhythmic interplay of the masculine and feminine rhymes gives it a kind of jazzy sound, at least to my ear. When it works well, this is perhaps my favorite form.

Triolet: I like repeating line poems and the triolet is perhaps the simplest of repeating line forms: eight lines in total, of which five are really just two lines repeated. This makes them easy to write (at least write badly—they're very hard to write well) because you only need to think of five lines total. They're a great form for light verse because of that.

Villanelle: Villanelles have a sinuousness about them that make them an almost sensual form to write. I find them quite a bit harder to write, as the repetition of lines has a tendency to kind of grate on the ear, but villanelles seem much easier for me than the related terzanelle. (Angie, I know, feels the other way around about that, and thinks terzanelles are easier.)

I also write a lot of more generically rhymed verse—often based on simple quatrains or nonce forms. I've written some poems I've liked using ruba'i, and the couple of glosa poems I've tried were quite enjoyable, though difficult. Double dactyls are fun.

The one form I really don't care for is the sestina. Not quite sure why. It isn't the difficulty of the form, as I think they're pretty easy to write (at least write badly). I just don't find them interesting.

 

[bflagsst]

the Greeky Iambus is the only form I think I follow regularly. Short syllable, Long syllable. Unstressed/Stressed tetrameter seems the most poetic to me. Most of my stanzas and poems seem to end in a quasi-tetrameter.

 

[butters]

for me, the voice of each poem dictates the form i employ as a coathanger, unless following a challenge or specific criterion - something i tend to find produces more head poetry than heart poetry.

what has surprised me over time, however, is how often iambic pentameter or tetrameter slip into a write in a way i don't even notice till after the event!

 

[greenmountaineer]

for me, the voice of each poem dictates the form i employ as a coathanger, unless following a challenge or specific criterion - something i tend to find produces more head poetry than heart poetry.

what has surprised me over time, however, is how often iambic pentameter or tetrameter slip into a write in a way i don't even notice till after the event!

Shakespeare? I once read somewhere that iambic pentameter was the way the British sing without singing.

In re: tetrameter, I like it too because it's the easiest way to be lyrical for me, and easy is not a bad thing, poetically speaking in my opinion. Sometimes simplicity is more artful than complexity.

 

[greenmountaineer]

Starting to feel like a seminar on poetics. Thanks, Tzara, chipbutty, and bflagsst. Very thought provoking. Hope others will share their ideas.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

It will come as no surprise to many that I have a great fondness for form poetry many of which I had never even heard of let alone attempted before Survivor, and there are loads that I would never want to face again! One being Tz's Onegin Stanza which I managed with the help of immunities to wriggle out of completely! I have a fondness for the Pantoum with it's repeating lines and the Triolet which was the first one I did in the whole competition and returned to more than once. Even the Sestina isn't that bad once you figure out what goes where, the only trouble with it IMO is it gets boring after a while, but at least you haven't got to rhyme it although I bet some clever clogs has even done that! I had terrible trouble with blank verse as I just could not for the life of me 'hear' the rhythm without the rhyme.

 

[Angeline]

I most enjoy writing sonnets and terzanelles. With sonnets I love to try stretching the form to see where it takes me. I haven't gone as free-versey with them as many poets have, but I enjoy putting contempory subjects or evocations of music (like jazz) to that archaic form. And terzanelles I just think are fairly easy to write and can produce beautiful lyrical poems on any number of subjects. I like the repetition in the 'nelles, too: it can sound chant-like to me. I've tried many other forms but those two are the ones I know well enough to write in creatively without having to stop and think about what comes next.

 

[Tzara]

In re: tetrameter, I like it too because it's the easiest way to be lyrical for me, and easy is not a bad thing, poetically speaking in my opinion. Sometimes simplicity is more artful than complexity.

I've said before, I think, that iambic tetrameter seems to be my natural line.

Not sure why. Pentameter is supposed to emulate speech, so maybe I'm kind of terse, or something.

Or slow. It could very well be that.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

someone who can write a whole thread outlining the different forms is not slow!

 

[Tzara]

someone who can write a whole thread outlining the different forms is not slow!

Sorry. I meant I had a Slow Hand. At, um, poetry.

That work for you?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Sorry. I meant I had a Slow Hand. At, um, poetry.

That work for you?

If I can change it to Slow Hand then you're talking ....... growllllllllllll

 

[twelveoone]

Triolet: I like repeating line poems and the triolet is perhaps the simplest of repeating line forms: eight lines in total, of which five are really just two lines repeated. This makes them easy to write (at least write badly—they're very hard to write well) because you only need to think of five lines total. They're a great form for light verse because of that.

Whoa, ho, ho, is that what that thing was, Koch's mickey mouse odyssey? I can't find it to check.

 

[mikesaysno]

I don't know enough about forms to know which method I use or abuse. I don't care for free verse though as it feels too discordant

 

[vrosej10]

for me, the voice of each poem dictates the form i employ as a coathanger, unless following a challenge or specific criterion - something i tend to find produces more head poetry than heart poetry.

what has surprised me over time, however, is how often iambic pentameter or tetrameter slip into a write in a way i don't even notice till after the event!

With the exception of haiku and tanka, I am totally with you. Sometimes i will write in a coutned syllable meter and I have written a pantoum but generally form stiffles creativity for me.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

But can't you see that that is the challenge getting the form right and getting your words to work with that form, I get really excited when both have come together and I can say wow I created that

If you scroll down HERE mike you wil find a list of forms and how to write them

 

[vrosej10]

But can't you see that that is the challenge getting the form right and getting your words to work with that form, I get really excited when both have come together and I can say wow I created that

If you scroll down HERE mike you wil find a list of forms and how to write them

I have trouble hearing meter. it hampers me.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I have trouble hearing meter. it hampers me.

I have trouble hearing it without the rhyme

 

[KillerMuffin]

I mostly write freeverse at the mo', but my favorite forms are nikki bungaku, which really isn't a poetry form, but more of a prose form that requires poetry, and Anglo-Saxon Prosody.

I'm not writing a nikki because, well, the diary idea was pooh-poohed by my thesis advisors. I'm not writing A-S prosody because, well, I wasn't thinking. Off to write some prosody!

 

[The_Fool]

I most enjoy writing sonnets and terzanelles. With sonnets I love to try stretching the form to see where it takes me. I haven't gone as free-versey with them as many poets have, but I enjoy putting contempory subjects or evocations of music (like jazz) to that archaic form. And terzanelles I just think are fairly easy to write and can produce beautiful lyrical poems on any number of subjects. I like the repetition in the 'nelles, too: it can sound chant-like to me. I've tried many other forms but those two are the ones I know well enough to write in creatively without having to stop and think about what comes next.

BS. You live and breathe Sestinas.

 

[vrosej10]

I have trouble hearing it without the rhyme

The weird thing is that I can hear it when its off but not when its working. When its working it just sounds right.

 

[twelveoone]

Whoa, ho, ho, is that what that thing was, Koch's mickey mouse odyssey? I can't find it to check.

I stand corrected, by myself

He found the rodent pair a short time later
And gave them food and water and a lift
To Thebes, where they could buy a carburetor
In fact, he gave one to them as a gift,
And wished them luck, then, Senatorial satyr,
Cruised factory workers getting off their shift
At OEDI-PANS, the kitchen factory Thebans
Kept busier than the mind of Wallace Stevens

p.123 - The Duplicatons - Kenneth Koch

A massive missive that is oddly profound according to the book jacket, that dares to ask the question
"Walt Disney dead! And Salvador Dali Lives!"
actually it is more of an implied question
not a Triolet

 

[vrosej10]

I stand corrected, by myself

He found the rodent pair a short time later
And gave them food and water and a lift
To Thebes, where they could buy a carburetor
In fact, he gave one to them as a gift,
And wished them luck, then, Senatorial satyr,
Cruised factory workers getting off their shift
At OEDI-PANS, the kitchen factory Thebans
Kept busier than the mind of Wallace Stevens

p.123 - The Duplicatons - Kenneth Koch

A massive missive that is oddly profound according to the book jacket, that dares to ask the question
"Walt Disney dead! And Salvador Dali Lives!"
actually it is more of an implied question
not a Triolet

I love Kenneth Koch! Apart from being surreal, he's a great teacher. His books are excellent. I'm actually thinking of buying the one he wrote on teaching poetry to primary school kids and donating to my son's school (poor school, limited resources and lots of kids with literacy issues; not my son though. He read at 18 months.).

 

[twelveoone]

Poetic Meter & Poetic Form by Paul Fussell has to be one of the best books that covers this topic, giving examples and possible drawbacks to using certain forms. I would be greatly surprised if my esteamed colleague and former sparring partner Tzara hasn't read it.

very, very sensible and probably the best, most reasoned argument for scansion I've ever seen

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Poetic Meter & Poetic Form by Paul Fussell has to be one of the best books that covers this topic, giving examples and possible drawbacks to using certain forms. I would be greatly surprised if my esteamed colleague and former sparring partner Tzara hasn't read it.

very, very sensible and probably the best, most reasoned argument for scansion I've ever seen

I've still not spent my prize so would you say this is a good choice?