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In my estimation, there is never a bad time for a sonnet. Here's a great example.
Since I normally write Shakespearian sonnets, I thought I'd offer up the Italian form this week. Here are the basic guidelines to follow.
- A sonnet is composed of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter.
- The Italian sonnet is divided into an octave (8 lines), followed by a sestet (6 lines).
- The rhyme pattern for the octave is a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a. For the sestet the pattern can be c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c.
You can read more on sonnets in this
great post by Kelly Fineman.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a sonnet. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The Luc Bat is a Vietnamese form with a repeating rhyme scheme and lines of six and eight syllables. The rhyme scheme looks like this.
xxxxxA
xxxxxAxB
xxxxxB
xxxxxBxC
xxxxxC
xxxxxCxD
This form uses a climbing rhyme of sorts. There is no length requirement, only a need for the final syllable of the last line to link back to the initial rhyme (A).
You can read more about this form at
The Poets Garret.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a luc bat. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The triversen ("triple verse sentence") is a verse form invented by William Carlos Williams. Each stanza is composed of a single sentence, broken into three parts, which together form a stanza. The poems are generally unrhymed and often contain alliteration. They can be composed of any number of tercets.
You can learn more about the triversen and read some examples at Poetics and Ruminations.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a triversen. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The Wayra is a Latin American verse from popular in Peru and Bolivia. It is a short syllabic verse that follows these guidelines:
- a pentastich (5 line poem)
- unrhymed
- syllable count = 5/7/7/6/8
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a wayra. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Akshar-Mala is an Indian poetic form in which the initial letters of each line are in alphabetical order. There are no other requirements for the form.
I found this form in The Dictionary of Indian Literature, One, Beginnnings-1850. I haven't been able to find any other descriptions of it, or any another Indian form that resembles it closely.
A while back we wrote in the form of iroha mojigusari, where the first letter of the alphabet starts off the first line and the second letter of the alphabet concludes it. The third letter starts the second line and the fourth letter finishes it. This continues until all the letters of the alphabet have been used in order.
Since there are no other guidelines here than order, I don't see why you can't begin with any letter of your choosing and make the poem as long as you like.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing an akshar-mala. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Today I'm sharing a form known as ae freslige. Some say it's Irish, others Celtic. Some spell it ae freslige, other ae freslighe. There are even different descriptions of the form. Here are two I've seen.
From The Shapes of Our Singing, by Robin Skelton:
The Ae Freslige may be summarised as follows: the numbers in the brackets indicating th enumber of syllables in the last word of the line:
Syllables: 7(3) 7(2) 7(3) 7(2)
End rhymes: A B A B
From The Poets Garret:
Each stanza is a quatrain of seven syllables. Lines one and three rhyme with a triple (three syllable) rhyme and two and four use a double (two syllable) rhyme. As was stated earlier. the poem should end with the first syllable word or the complete line that it began with.
x x x x (x x a)
x x x x x (x b)
x x x x (x x a)
x x x x x (x b)
I hope you'll join me today in writing some version of an ae freslige. I love the added challenge provided in the form as escribed by The Poets Garret. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Today's poetry stretch takes the form of thievery. Actually, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so let's think about this as an exercise in honoring our favorite lines of poetry. Today's exercise in mental gymnastics takes the form of the cento.
The cento is a poem made entirely of pieces from poems by other authors. Centos can be rhymed or unrhymed, short or long.
(From The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms.)
You can read more about the cento at
Poets.org.
Not one to stick with the rules, a few years ago I wrote a cento using titles from my bookshelf.
You can also read the cento I wrote this month for
Draw a Bird Day. It's called
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Birds.
So, do you want to play? What kind of poem will you assemble? Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The Cyhydedd fer is a Welsh verse form, consisting of couplets of eight syllables. The Cyhydedd fer sonnet has 14 lines and no meter requirement. The only requirement is 8 syllable line of rhymed couplets. The rhyme scheme is a a b b c c d d e e f f g g.
You can read more about the cyhydedd fer sonnet at The Poets Garrett.
I hope you'll join me this week in writing a cyhydedd fer sonnet. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Gogyohka is a Japanese verse form that was developed in 1957 by the poet Enta Kusakabe. It is a five line poem that is NOT syllabic. Each line represents a stand along phrase. The idea behind this form was to take the traditional Tanka (also a five line poem written in a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count) and free its structure.
Here is an example written by Kusakabe.
What kind of
stained glass
have your
rose-coloured cheeks
passed through
You can read more about this form at Gogyohka (5-Line Poetry).
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a gogyohka. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Phillip Larrea is an American poet and syndicated columnist. He is the inventor of a poetic form he calls TriCubes. Tricubes are poems composed of three stanzas, each containing three lines of three syllables.
Here's an example.
TriCube by Phillip Larrea
Don’t swallow
the whole pie.
Just a bite.
Platitudes
amplified—
Certitude.
What is left
is not right.
But remains.
So, your challenge for the week is to write a TriCube (or two). Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
In the last few weeks I've spent some time reading the book MORE OPPOSITES (1991) by Richard Wilbur. Here's a bit of info from the jacket flap of the latter.
"Richard Wilbur, his wife, and their four children used to play a rather unusual game around the dinner table. One member of the family would suggest a word, and then everyone would join in a lively quarrel about its proper opposite."
Wilbur's first book based on this game, OPPOSITES, was published in 1973. The poems in both volumes are a bit nutty, thoroughly entertaining, and downright clever. Here's one from MORE OPPOSITES.
The opposite of
kite, I'd say,
Is
yo-yo. On a breezy day
You take your
kite and let it
riseUpon its string into the skies,
And then you pull it
down with ease
(Unless it crashes in the trees).
A
yo-yo, though, drops
down, and then
You quickly bring it
up again
By pulling deftly on the string
(If you can work the blasted thing).
You might want to check out this
video of Wilbur reading a number of opposite poems.
So, your challenge for the week is to write an opposites poem. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Spring ushered itself in with a bit of sun and cold today. I'm feeling the need to write simply about my second favorite season of the year.
An apostrophe is a poem which directly addresses a person or thing that is generally absent, hence the more common name of poem of address. There are many days when I want to talk to someone who isn't here, to ask questions, to wonder. Poems of address require poets not to write about something, but to imagine what they would say if they could speak to the person, place, or thing being addresses.
Will you join me in writing an apostrophe to spring? Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Last Monday I spent part of the day at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It was pretty amazing to see the range of works by women. One of my favorite pieces was an accordion pop-up book on landscapes that included poems on every page. Sadly, it was in a glass case and hard to photograph.
One of my favorite paintings was by German artist Gabrielle Münter. It is called Breakfast of the Birds.
I've been thinking a lot about spring, birds, and this painting, so it seems fitting that we should let this work of art inspire our poems this week. I hope you'll join me this week in writing an ekphrastic poem or two for this piece. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
I made an impromptu visit to DC to spend a few quality hours with my sister, so today I'm sliding in just under the wire with this week's stretch.
Arte Mayor is a Spanish verse form. It is composed of an 8-line stanza with the rhyme scheme a b b a a c c a. Each line is composed of 12 syllables in two hemstitches. The lines use amphibrachic tetratmeter. This means the stress are on syllables 2, 5, 8, and 11.
You can read a bit more about this form at Encyclopedia Britannica and Poetry Magnum Opus. Note that this form is sometimes referred to as Copla de Arte Mayor. (Copla is the Spanish word for stanza, so arte mayor names the type of stanza.)
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing an arte mayor. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The
pregunta (pronounced pre-goon-tuh)is a Spanish poetic form that is a type of argument between two poets. It consists of alternating lines between the two voices, the first of which poses a question, and the second of which responds to it. Generally, the questions take on unrhymed lines, while the answers follow a rhyme scheme. The form looks like this.
x a x a x b x b x c x c etc.
In some cases the same question is repeated over and over.
In a variation on the form, Laura Purdie Salas wrote a pregunta for your Picasso ekphrastic challenge. This variation includes a question followed by a rhyming couplet. Check out her poem,
I Don't Know Art, But I Know What I Don't Like, and see a video of her writing and revising process.
If you want to read another perspective on this form, try
Poetry Magnum Opus.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a pregunta. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The shadorma is a Spanis poetic form consisting of six lines (a sestet) written in syllabic form. The syllable count is 3/5/3/3/7/5. A shadorma may consist of one stanza, or an unlimited number of stanzas.
That's it! Easy-peasy, right? I hope you'll join me this week in writing a shadorma. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The quintilla is a Spanish form consisting of a five-line stanza. Normally the lines contain 8 syllables and have only two rhyming sounds. There are many rhyming patterns used, the only one that is avoided is one that has a final rhyming couplet. Here are several rhyme scheme options.
a b a b a
a b b a b
a b a a b
a a b a b
a a b b a
You can read more about the form at this
Writing.com entry.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a quintilla (or two). Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The trine (prounounced treen) is a French Poetic form consisting of three rhyming couplets and a triplet. There is no fixed meter or syllable count. The rhyme scheme is a a b b c c a b c.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a trine (or two). Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
This in one of my favorite May Swenson poems, second only to Analysis of Baseball.
Cardinal Ideograms
by May Swenson
0 A mouth. Can blow or breathe,
be a funnel, or Hello.
1 A grass blade or cut.
2 A question seated. And a proud
bird’s neck.
3 Shallow mitten for a two-fingered hand.
4 Three-cornered hut
on one stilt. Sometimes built
so the roof gapes.
I love the notion of writing about the shape of things. What do you see in the number 6? Or the letter Y? What kind of ideogramatic poem can from the word S-P-R-I-N-G? (Ideogramatic? Yeah, I just made that up!)
Visit
Joyce Sidman's site to see how she used the words in her name to write an ideogram poem. Now it's your turn to write an ideogram poem. Won't you join us? Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The English Quintet is composed of any number of 5-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme ababb cdcdd, etc. The number of syllables may vary and there is no requirement for meter, though they are often written in iambic pentameter.
Here's an example.
Go, lovely Rose
by Edmund Waller
Go, lovely Rose—
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Read the poem in its entirety.
In this example, the syllable count is 4/8/4/8/8.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing an English quintet. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
I love the idea of taking a prefix and using it to form a series of words, each their own piece of a whole. If you need help generating a possible word list, try
More Words. Enter your prefix or word of choice and click search for words. Scroll down the page (past the definitions) until you find the link for
list all words starting with __. You'll find this a helpful tool.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a prefix poem. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
The rime couee is a French poetic form, written as an number of sestets.. The poem begins with an eight syllable rhyming couplet, followed by a six syllable line, another eight syllable rhyming couplet, and a final six syllable line. The rhyme scheme is a a b a a b.
You can read more about this form at Poetry Magnum Opus and The Poets Garret.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a rime couee. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Iroha mojigusari is a Japanese form of an abecedarian poem. Here's how it is defined in A Poet's Glossary by Edward Hirsch.
The Japanese iroha mojigusari (literally “character chain”) is a specialized version of the abecedarian.The first letter of the alphabet kicks off the first line and the second letter of the alphabet concludes it. The third letter starts the second line and the fourth letter finishes it. This continues until all the letters of the alphabet have been used in order.
While working on this I found that finding words ending in specific letters to be difficult. Try
wordHippo for help with this. Under select option choose "words ending with" and search for the letter you need. You'll find it brings up a helpful list of words.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing an iroha mojigusari. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
A kyrielle is a French form that was originally used by Troubadours. In the original French kyrielle, lines had eight syllables. Written in English, the lines are usually iambic tetrameters. The distinctive feature of a kyrielle is the refrain in which the final line of every stanza is the same. The name of the form comes from the word kyrie, a form of prayer in which the phrase "Lord have mercy" (kyrie eleison) is repeated.
A kyrielle can be any length as long as it is written 4 line stanzas of iambic tetrameters. A kyrielle also has a rhyme scheme. Two popular forms are aabB/ccbB/ddbB etc. or abaB/cbcB/dbdB etc., where B is the repeated refrain.
Here is an example of the form.
Kyrielle
by John Payne
A lark in the mesh of the tangled vine,
A bee that drowns in the flower-cup's wine,
A fly in sunshine,--such is the man.
All things must end, as all began.
A little pain, a little pleasure,
A little heaping up of treasure;
Then no more gazing upon the sun.
All things must end that have begun.
Where is the time for hope or doubt?
A puff of the wind, and life is out;
A turn of the wheel, and rest is won.
All things must end that have begun.
Golden morning and purple night,
Life that fails with the failing light;
Death is the only deathless one.
All things must end that have begun.
Ending waits on the brief beginning;
Is the prize worth the stress of winning?
E'en in the dawning day is done.
All things must end that have begun.
Weary waiting and weary striving,
Glad outsetting and sad arriving;
What is it worth when the goal is won?
All things must end that have begun.
Speedily fades the morning glitter;
Love grows irksome and wine grows bitter.
Two are parted from what was one.
All things must end that have begun.
Toil and pain and the evening rest;
Joy is weary and sleep is best;
Fair and softly the day is done.
All things must end that have begun.
If you want to learn more about the kyrielle you can read this
Wikipedia entry. or the article
Kyrielle: The Kyrie Reformed.
So, there's your challenge for the week. I hope you'll join me in writing a kyrielle. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Late Saturday I got to poke around in one of my favorite shops, Parcel in Montclair, NJ. It is a quirky little shop where you can open cupboards and drawers and find all kinds of interesting bits. I found a pile of old flash cards and thought they might make an interesting poetry prompt.
Here are the cards.
Choose any form that works for you. The only rule is that you must use these three words or some form of the words. I hope you'll join me this week in writing a flashcard inspired piece. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
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