The Thread of Forms

[Tzara]

This thread is intended to serve as a indexed list of form definitions and examples. The first page will serve as the index.

Feel free to contribute definitions and examples. I'll link them here as I notice them (or PM me).

• Acrostic
• American Sentence
• Anagrammatic Poem
• Ballad Stanza
• Blank Verse
• Caudate Sonnet
• Cento
• Cinquain
• Clerihew
• Couplet
• Curtal Sonnet
• Double Dactyl
• Ghazal
• Glosa
• Haiku
• Limerick
• Onegin Stanza
• Ottava Rima
• Pantoum
• Paradelle
• Rondeau
• Roundelay
• Rubāʿiyāt
• Sestina
• Senryū
• Tanka
• Terza Rima
• Terzanelle
• Triolet
• Tritina
• Villanelle
• Zappai

 

[Tzara]

Acrostic

According to Turco, an Acrostic is "a poem whose initial letters of each line, when read down, give the letters of the alphabet (in which case it is called an abecedarius), a name, or a phrase, or some other word or grammatical construct."

Acrostics are often layered over other forms—a sonnet, for example. The example in The Book of Forms is an acrostic rondeau.

A number of poets here at Lit have written acrostic poems. If I remember correctly, both Angeline and Champie have written acrostics, even double acrostics (where the ending letters of the line also form a name, word, or phrase—usually reading upward).

Here's a very simple example:

Consider this sleeping animal:
A bolt of boneless fur
That purrs and dreams of mice.​

Another example, from Lit poet JUDO, is here.

A fine example of a double acrostic is this poem by Lit's talented Tristesse2.

 

[Tzara]

Cento

Turco defines the Cento as "a pastiche poem made up of lines from the work of an author." The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms describes the Cento somewhat differently: "The word cento comes from the Latin word meaning 'patchwork,' as in 'patchwork quilt.' The cento is a poem made entirely of pieces from poems by other authors. Centos can be rhymed or unrhymed, short or long."

Poets.org defines the Cento here and includes an example of one.

We have had challenges in the past (e.g., "Lift a line") where one wrote poems incorporating lines from other Lit poets' work. The Cento merely takes that concept to the extreme that all lines in a poem are lifted from other authors.

Here's a trivial (and bad) example:

Existential Cat Cento

April is the cruellest month.¹
The cat went here and there,²
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast.³
What should it know of death?⁴

¹ T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
² W. B. Yeats, "The Cat and the Moon"
³ Joyce Kilmer, "Trees"
⁴William Wordsworth, "We Are Seven"​

I'm sure y'all will do much, much better.

I'm counting on it. Counting.

 

[Tzara]

Cinquain

The Cinquain is a short poetic form invented by the American poet Adelaide Crapsey. Turco says of it: "Originally accentual-syllabic, her quintet form consisted, in the first line, of one iamb; in the second of two iambs; in the third, of three; in the fourth, of four; and in the fifth of one iamb again. It soon evolved into a syllabic form, somewhat analogous to the Japanese tanka, having line counts of 2-4-6-8-2 syllables, respectively." The Handbook of Poetic Forms adds "Often the first or last line has two strongly accented syllables. Usually cinquains do not have obvious rhymes; when they do, the effect can be humorous."

An example of the cinquain is this poem, written by Crapsey:

Triad

These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow ... the hour
Before the dawn ... The mouth of one
Just dead.​

A much less competent example is one I wrote:

Sunset

Wine-light
poured over trees—
a deep, rich burgundy.
Light slips into unconsciousness,
passed out.​

Note that the word cinquain may also refer to a five-line stanza.

 

[Tzara]

Clerihew

For the Clerihew, I am temporarily sending you here, to a previous thread that defines it.

 

[Tzara]

Haiku

I'm doing the Haiku next, I think, because this form is like a minefield, and I had to look up Jim's articles anyway. Everybody seems to know what a haiku is; it's just they all disagree on what it is.

So, I'm am so copping out on this.

Turco natters on about about Japanese verse, and the Haiku in particular, for several paragraphs. He says some mildly interesting things, but nothing I can tell that Lit's own jthserra doesn't say more clearly and in more detail. My other main (book) resource, the Handbook of Poetic Forms has this to say (among other things): "The haiku is not only a poetic form, but also a genre (type) of poetry. That is, along with its typical form, the haiku has characteristic content and a certain style of language. Of the three—form, content, and language—form is the least important."

Why I think this one's a problem form, people. 'Leastways for the Poetic Survivor game.

Anyway, here's some people and/or sources with opinions:

• Wikipedia on Haiku, with examples.
• Another haiku page I found.
• Litster jthserra: What is Haiku?
• Litster jthserra: More on Haiku: Anthropomorphism & Suchness
• Litster jthserra: More on Haiku: Books
• Litster jthserra: More on Haiku: Nature & Kigo
• Litster jthserra: More on Haiku: Kireji...

You got more? Send your links to me and I'll add 'em in. What makes L interesting, dont'cha think?

 

[Tzara]

Double Dactyl

The Double Dactyl is a (usually humorous) verse form invented by Anthony Hecht and Paul Pascal. Turco says: "It is a poem made up of two quatrains, rhyming abcd efgd. Lines 1-3 of each stanza are dactylic dimeter lines ('ˇˇ 'ˇˇ); the last line of each stanza is composed of an iamb and a trochee ('ˇˇ'). The first line of the first stanza is always "Higglety-pigglety"; the second line is a name. The second line of the second stanza is a double dactyl modifier. Only the last lines of each stanza are required to rhyme, though there may be other rhymes of various kinds as well."

I prefer, frankly the Wikipedia definition, which seems to pretty much fit with what the form seems like to me.

There's a Wiki 'zample, o'course, too.

Oh, and this more local thread kinda winds on about the form, too.

 

[Tzara]

Ghazal

The Ghazal is a Persian form that has been adapted to English. Descriptions of the requirements for the form vary greatly. Turco says very little about it, and the Handbook of Poetic Forms natters on about its history, but then says "In its contemporary form, the ghazal doesn't usually rhyme, poets don't sign their name in the last couplet, and it isn't very often about love or drinking. So you might wonder what's left of the original Persian form."

Yes, indeed, one might wonder.

Wikipedia has what appears to me to be a better description of the traditional form, and could possibly serve as the basis for Ghazal requirements for Survivor. We also fairly recently had a thread devoted to the Ghazal, with links to another definition of the form and several examples written by Litsters.

Here's another example, by Champie.

 

[Tzara]

Caudate Sonnet

A Caudate Sonnet is simply an Italian sonnet with a six-line "tail" attached to it. (Caudate means "having a tail or taillike appendage.") Turco states; "The caudate sonnet is not a 'sonnet'; rather, it adds a pair of iambic trimeter tails and two heroic couplets to the Italian sonnet, and it rhymes abbaabba cdecde e³fff³gg; it is thus twenty lines long."

Wikipedia gives a more historical description of the form, though does not spell out its structure.

An example of the form is this poem by John Milton:

On the New Forcers of Conscience under the Long Parliament

Because you have thrown off your Prelate Lord,
...And with stiff vows renounced his Liturgy,
...To seize the widowed whore Plurality,
...From them whose sin ye envied, not abhorred,
Dare ye for this adjure the civil sword
...To force our consciences that Christ set free,
...And ride us with a Classic Hierarchy,
...Taught ye by mere A. S. and Rutherford?
Men whose life, learning, faith, and pure intent,
...Would have been held in high esteem with Paul
...Must now be named and printed heretics
By shallow Edwards and Scotch What-d’ye-call!
...But we do hope to find out all your tricks,
...Your plots and packing, worse than those of Trent,
.............................That so the Parliament
May with their wholesome and preventive shears
Clip your phylacteries, though baulk your ears,
.............................And succour our just fears,
When they shall read this clearly in your charge:
New Presbyter is but old Priest writ large.​

Note that Milton's poem follows a somewhat different rhyme scheme than noted by Turco, due to the sonnet portion ending cdedec, which correspondingly changes the rhyme at the end of the first line in the tailing section.

 

[Tzara]

Curtal Sonnet

The Curtal Sonnet is not actually a sonnet unless you buy into the loopy logic of its inventor, Gerard Manley Hopkins, who apparently considered it a cut-down version of a Petrarchan sonnet. (See the Wikipedia article on the curtal sonnet, which is quite funny in a bizarre way.)

Turco describes the form thusly: "The curtal sonnet, so-called, is not a sonnet but an eleven-line form invented by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The first ten lines are written in iambic pentameter meters, but the eleventh line is a spondaic monometer (one spondee). The whole poem rhymes abcabcdbcdc." (A spondee is two stressed syllables in a row, as in "Watch out!" or "Stop that!")

An example of a Curtal Sonnet is this famous poem by Hopkins:

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things—
...For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
......For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
...Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
......And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
...Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
......With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
...............Praise him.​

I'm skeptical about Turco's comment about iambic pentameter, as Hopkins is writing in his idiosyncratic sprung rhythm, which is not regularly iambic.

Whatever. I love Hopkins. Guy was a goof.

 

[Tzara]

Onegin Stanza

The Onegin Stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Alexander Pushkin and used in his verse novel Eugene Onegin. It somewhat resembles a sonnet, being fourteen lines long and maintaining a particular rhyme pattern, but differs from the sonnet in that it is written in iambic tetrameter (as opposed to the iambic pentameter characteristic of the sonnet) and the rhyme scheme explicitly involves both masculine rhyme and feminine rhyme, in the latter case ending on an unstressed syllable. The rhyme pattern is aBaBccDDeFFeGG, where uppercase letters represent masculine rhymes and lowercase letters represent feminine rhymes.

Neither Turco nor the Handbook of Poetic Forms mention the Onegin Stanza, but Wikipedia descrbes the form in this article.

Here's an example from the Charles Johnston 1978 translation of Eugene Onegin:

He was without that dithyrambic
frenzy which wrecks our lives, for sound,
and telling trochee from iambic
was quite beyond his wit, we found.
He cursed Theocritus and Homer,
in Adam Smith was his diploma;
our deep economist had got
the gift of recognising what
a nation's wealth is, what augments it,
and how a country lives, and why
it needs no gold if a supply
of simple product supplements it.
His father failed to understand
and took a mortgage on his land.​

Vikram Seth's novel The Golden Gate is also written in Onegin Stanzas. Here's a brief excerpt, by way of providing another example. In these stanzas, the novel's protagonist, John, reads a letter received in response to a personals advertisement he has posted:

2.26

He reads it through twice, somewhat chary
Of yet one more time being had.
It goes: Dear Yuppie, I am wary
Of answering a personal ad.
This is the first time, I should mention,
That I have broken my convention
Of reticence. But, well, here goes:
I rather liked your literate prose.
As an attorney, the clear crafting
Of words (our stock-in-trade) excites
My admiration. Nothing blights
A document like sloppy drafting.
Your ad, if I may be allowed
To matronize you, does you proud.


2.27

I'm friendly, female, 27,
Well-rounded too, and somewhat square.
I've not yet known romantic heaven,
But harbor hopes of getting there.
I'm fit—at least, I'm not convulsive;
And fun, I hope, though not impulsive.
To match the handsomeness you flaunt
(I do not mean this as a taunt;
I find immodesty disarming),
I have heard several people say
I am good-looking, in my way.
So if you'd like to meet, Prince Charming,
That shows discernment. If you flout
My charms, you are a tasteless lout.


2.28

With all good wishes. Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Dorati (Liz).
John reads, but sees no image clearly.
At times it seems as if she is
Nervous and stern, at others hearty.
Who is Elizabeth Dorati:
A cool manipulating minx
Or a wise imperturbable sphinx?
The hand's italic, warm and vigorous,
Crossed out, at times, with a clean line.
The paper's cream, of plain design
(No scent or frill), the ink's a rigorous
Black, and the pen, though narrow-tipped,
Maintains the strength of the clear script.​

Finally, an example from Vladimir Nabokov, who famously (and controversially) translated Eugene Onegin into prose. This link is to a blog entry that includes Nabokov's poem "On translating Eugene Onegin", which is written in Onegin Stanzas.

 

[Angeline]

According to Turco, an Acrostic is "a poem whose initial letters of each line, when read down, give the letters of the alphabet (in which case it is called an abecedarius), a name, or a phrase, or some other word or grammatical construct."

Acrostics are often layered over other forms—a sonnet, for example. The example in The Book of Forms is an acrostic rondeau.

A number of poets here at Lit have written acrostic poems. If I remember correctly, both Angeline and Champie have written acrostics, even double acrostics (where the ending letters of the line also form a name, word, or phrase—usually reading upward).

Here's a very simple example:

Consider this sleeping animal:
A bolt of boneless fur
That purrs and dreams of mice.​

Another example, from Lit poet JUDO, is here.

Tristesse wrote an amazing double acrostic a few years back. I can't remember the title or I'd go searching for it, but maybe she'll post it here. It's one of the best double acrostics I've ever read.

 

[Tzara]

Ballad Stanza

The Ballad Stanza is a quatrain stanza form that is often associated with longish poems that narrate a story. The Handbook of Poetic Forms says: "Traditional British ballads are written in ... four-line stanzas; lines 1 and 3 have four beats; lines 2 and 4, which rhyme, have three beats."

Turco carries on, as usual, in more detail than is probably needed for our purposes, talking about podic vs. accentual-syllabic meter. This page gives a clear description of the stanza form, summarizing the kind of thing Turco carries on about.

An example of the use of ballad stanza is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge. Here's the opening few stanzas:

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.​

My Pynchonian colleague ArnoldSnarb recently produced this rather inartistic example.

 

[Tzara]

Ottava Rima

Of Ottava Rima, Turco says: "Otttava rima, an Italian poem or stanza form, is an octave written in iambic pentameter lines and rhyming abababcc." Pretty straightforward, that, and not much to quibble about.

If you want to read a little about the history of the form, the Wikipedia article on Ottava Rima gives some more information.

Byron used Ottava Rima in Don Juan. As an example of the form, here is the first stanza of the first canto of that work:

I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan—
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.​

I'm particularly fond of Ottava Rima as Kenneth Koch uses it for two of his great long poems, Ko, or A Season on Earth and The Duplications. Here's the first two stanzas from the latter as another example of the form:

One night in Venice, near the Grand Canal,
A lovely girl was sitting by her stoop,
Sixteen years old, Elizabeth Gedall,
When, suddenly, a giant ice-cream scoop
Descended from the clouded blue corral
Of heaven and scooped her skyward with a loop-
The-loopy motion, which the gods of Venice
Saw, and, enraged, they left off cosmic tennis

And plotted their revenge. They thought some outer
Space denizen or monster had decided
To take this child, perhaps who cared about her
And wished to spare her heart a world divided,
Or else who wanted to hug, kiss, and clout her,
And, lust upwelling, the right time had bided,
Or something such—so thought, at least, the gods of
Her native city, famed for bees and matzoh.​

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Tristesse wrote an amazing double acrostic a few years back. I can't remember the title or I'd go searching for it, but maybe she'll post it here. It's one of the best double acrostics I've ever read.

Flattery will get you almost anything.

SolsticeecitsloS

Skulking on the verge,
Oblique, the sun seems amblyopic.
Last light for Bernini.
Self-luminescent towers dark at last,
Taking with them their shadows
Immured in gloom, ethereal.
Chasing Sol, Luna, a pallid "O",
Exacts a path for the planets.

Seasons start afresh once more,
Old blood surges in happy panic.
Life's wheel, with all its brilliant raddii
Spins again - blindingly bright
Taking with it Winter's detritus.
I rejoice to see the sun return, eternal.
Caches of dormant life welcome the imago,
Efflorescence waiting with folded wings.

The word "solstice" appears backwards at the end of each verse so I suppose that makes it a quadruple acrostic with a back-flip.

 

[Angeline]

Flattery will get you almost anything.

SolsticeecitsloS

Skulking on the verge,
Oblique, the sun seems amblyopic.
Last light for Bernini.
Self-luminescent towers dark at last,
Taking with them their shadows
Immured in gloom, ethereal.
Chasing Sol, Luna, a pallid "O",
Exacts a path for the planets.

Seasons start afresh once more,
Old blood surges in happy panic.
Life's wheel, with all its brilliant rasdii
Spins again - blindingly bright
Taking with it Winter's detritus.
I rejoice to see the sun return, eternal.
Caches of dormant life welcome the imago,
Efflorescence waiting with folded wings.

The word "solstice" appears backwards at the end of each verse so I suppose that makes it a quadruple acrostic with a back-flip.

I remembered that it was very special and I was right.

 

[Tzara]

Tristesse wrote an amazing double acrostic a few years back. I can't remember the title or I'd go searching for it, but maybe she'll post it here. It's one of the best double acrostics I've ever read.

Flattery will get you almost anything.

SolsticeecitsloS

Skulking on the verge,
Oblique, the sun seems amblyopic.
Last light for Bernini.
Self-luminescent towers dark at last,
Taking with them their shadows
Immured in gloom, ethereal.
Chasing Sol, Luna, a pallid "O",
Exacts a path for the planets.

Seasons start afresh once more,
Old blood surges in happy panic.
Life's wheel, with all its brilliant rasdii
Spins again - blindingly bright
Taking with it Winter's detritus.
I rejoice to see the sun return, eternal.
Caches of dormant life welcome the imago,
Efflorescence waiting with folded wings.

The word "solstice" appears backwards at the end of each verse so I suppose that makes it a quadruple acrostic with a back-flip.

Thank you, poetic ladies both.

I think this was the poem I had in my mind when I said that stuff about double acrostics. (Though I did not remember it was double double, nor that it was seasonally appropriate, so this is where I say, "I am not worthy.")

Anyway, am so linking this in to the Acrostic definition.

 

[Tzara]

Blank Verse

When one thinks about Blank Verse, one normally thinks about unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter.

Just 'cuz. (Well, Shakespeare and Marlowe probably influence that 'cuz.)

But Blank Verse is not just for pentameter, you know. St. Turco says: "Blank verse is any unrhymed accentual-syllabic verse."

What that means is any regular accentual-syllabic line without rhyme qualifies as blank verse, assuming you (the poet) maintain that consistently throughout your poem. Wikipedia, as usual, has something to say about that (as well as about what that accentual-syllabic thing means).

So you can do blank verse in iambic pentameter (by far, probably, the most common blank verse meter in English), or in iambic tetrameter, or trochaic dimeter, or dactylic hexameter, or spondaic septameter. (Good luck with that last one, bud.)

Reality? You're probably talking about iambic pentameter, which is the classic form of blank verse in English, or maybe iambic tetrameter.

You wanna write some spondaic form, well, God bless you.

Examples? Hey. Why not Bill Shakespeare?

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O, that she knew she were!​

Note that not all lines are ten syllables. Lines two, three, and seven of this passage are eleven syllables in length. The last line has neither ten syllables nor five accented.

I know. Poets. Geez.

Take another example, the beginning of Milton's Paradise Lost:

Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.​

Same kinda thing. Some lines fall over a syllable; some might be short a syllable. All, though, are five-beat lines, with a trough-rise, trough-rise rhythm.

Best I can describe to you, people. Your suggestions on doing better are welcome, all the time.

It's a flexible form. What can I say?

 

[champagne1982]

My favourite Blank Verse from Shakespeare:

O Charmian,
Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?
Or does he walk? or is he on his horse?
O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony!
Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest?
The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men. He's speaking now,
Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?'
....

She continues on about 'Tony for another 8 or more lines... but I know for certain, Bill was writing our good Pharoah Cleo as a size queen .

 

[Tzara]

Couplet

The Couplet, according to Turco, "is any distich used as a unit, whether rhymed or unrhymed." I think, though, for the purposes of Survivor, we should define Couplet as meaning specifically the Heroic Couplet, of which Turco says: "The heroic couplet is two iambic pentameter lines rhyming aa."

The Wikipedia article on the Heroic Couplet adds that the rhyme is always masculine and discusses other issues in poetry written in Heroic Couplets, such as whether the couplets are closed or enjambed and the occasional use of triplets and alexandrines to break up the tempo.

Here's an example of poetry written in Heroic Couplets, from the beginning of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock:

What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,
What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things,
I sing-This verse to CARYL, Muse! is due;
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the Subject, but not so the Praise,
If She inspire, and He approve, my Lays.

Say what strange Motive, Goddess! cou'd compel
A well-bred Lord t'assault a gentle Belle?
Oh say what stranger Cause, yet unexplor'd,
Cou'd make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?
In tasks so bold, can little Men engage,
And in soft Bosoms, dwell such mighty Rage?​

 

[Tzara]

Rubāʿiyāt

The word Rubāʿī, according to Wikipedia is Arabic for "quatrain." Its plural form, Rubāʿiyāt, denotes a series of such quatrains.

Turco says: "The Arabic rubai is a quatrain poem rhyming aaba; used as a stanza form, the poem becomes a rubaiyat.The interlocking rubaiyat is a form of chain verse which picks up the third line of the preceding stanza as the main rhyme of the second stanza, and so on: aaba bbcb ccdc. Normally, the last stanza would use as its third line the main rhyme of stanza one: zzaz."

The following example of a non-interlocking Rubāʿiyāt is the first three quatrains of the Edward FitzGerald translation of the Rubāʿiyāt of Omar Khayyam:

1

Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

2

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
"Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

3

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door!
"You know how little while we have to stay,
"And, once departed, may return no more."​

Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is written in an interlocking rubāʿiyāt form.

 

[champagne1982]

The rubaiyat form is fun to write, seriously. It only sounds complicated.

Here's mine: Solstice.

 

[Tzara]

The rubaiyat form is fun to write, seriously. It only sounds complicated.

Here's mine: Solstice.

Actually, I don't think it sounds hard at all, since there are no metrical requirements, nor refrains. It's just a rhyme pattern, so that should be pretty easy, especially if you write a non-interlocking one.

 

[champagne1982]

Actually, I don't think it sounds hard at all, since there are no metrical requirements, nor refrains. It's just a rhyme pattern, so that should be pretty easy, especially if you write a non-interlocking one.

True. I do think that for poets who love to rhyme though, the challenge is to make a good poem that does interlock with a metre that you can hear. The pattern makes for an excellent dramatic reading of the verse, which is why the Eastern poets use the form to immortalize myth and legend.

I never said it was difficult to write. For me, reading the requirements for a formula without knowing any examples makes any definition complicated. S'all. Poor word choice by me... I'll be punished now.

Please?

 

[Tzara]

True. I do think that for poets who love to rhyme though, the challenge is to make a good poem that does interlock with a metre that you can hear. The pattern makes for an excellent dramatic reading of the verse, which is why the Eastern poets use the form to immortalize myth and legend.

Most of the examples of the form seem to use a regular meter. Frost's poem that I cited is in iambic tetrameter and the FitzGerald translation Omar Khayyam is in iambic pentameter. Or was, so far as I tried scanning it.

Turco usually mentions metrical requirements, though. So that's kind of funny.

Good though, I think, for the contest, as some of the proposed forms are very difficult. It's nice to have a few that aren't that complex.

I never said it was difficult to write. For me, reading the requirements for a formula without knowing any examples makes any definition complicated. S'all. Poor word choice by me... I'll be punished now.

Please?

To punish our Champagne, I will
Compose rubaiyat that will chill
And mortify her sense of norm.
So bad are mine that they will kill,

Perhaps, her interest in the form.
(Which well could leave her quite forlorn,
For Champ rubaiyat fancies much.)
As verse, my rubai simply storm

Poetic beaches with no touch
Or feel, for I have nothing such
Resembling talent or the skill
To fashion more than verbal crutch.