Category Archives: animal

Alphabestiary poetry form

By | | ,
Comments Off on Alphabestiary poetry form

The Alphabestiary a type of Acrostic or more specifically an Alphabet poem, which dates back to Greece in the 2nd and 3rd centuries but truly came into its own in medieval England. There is no required line length, meter, or rhyme scheme. The only requirement is that each letter of the alphabet is described poetically as an animal or in human terms. In medieval times illustrations of the animals accompanied the poem. It is a stylized variation of theBestiary or Physiologus.

[cryout-multi] [cryout-column width=”1/2″]
Alluring Abalone, Mother of Pearl, sea’s acclaim,
Bright Bluebirds, happiness chortling a song,
Chirping Cicada, singing its way to fame,
Dramatic Dolphins sleek and strong.
Energetic Elands roam plains and plateaus,
grazing in peace or running from foes.
Freaky frogs freely hop round bog,
Great Gulls, fearless flying in fog.
Hovering Hummingbirds, still in mid-air
Irritated Iguana hisses to scare.
Jiggly Jellyfish grace with a sting,
Krikey Koalas climb trees and cling.
Lithe Leopard, spots disguise the wise,
[/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/2″]
Mama Manatee’s girth, a sea cow’s worth,
Nature’s Nightingales serenade ’til sunrise.
Odd Ostrich, buries head in earth
Picky Penguins mate for life
Quick Quagga, extinct and can’t find a wife.
Raped Rhinoceros horns make thieves prosperous,
Slick Sea lions slip away from seas phosphorous.
Theatrical Toucan bright yellow and green,
Unseen Unicorn, fabled protector queen
.Venatic Vulture, carrion, seeking dead,
Watchful Whale nurses, mother-child bond,
Xanthic Xoni’s horn frozen to Pakistani pond.
Youthful yapok, black and white striped head,
Zealous Zopilote, black bird of dread.
[/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi]

Alphabestiary by Frank Gibbard
[cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/3″]
A Respect aardvark
Not first up on ark,
But by dint of a b c
Is in every dictionary.
 
B Be wary on meeting a genuine bear
Better by far if you can to forbear –
Best not be gulled by its Teddy Bear looks,
The barefaced depiction of forests of books.
 
C Cats are their very own best friends
Their comfort over all transcends.
The only reason they let us stay,
Unfed they’d up and run away.
 
D Dog is man’s best friend so they say
In essence just a wolf gone tame
That saw in life an easier way
When into our homes it happily came.
 
E Eagles have had the highest billing
As national symbols in Rome and the States
Appropriate efficient machine for killing
Predator assassin: one of the greats.
 
F Fox is wily, fox is cunning
Always hunted, ever running.
 
G The zoo enclosure held no gnu
The keeper knew not what to do,
Any animal’s bad to lose
But no Gnus is even worser news.
 
H Hound alphabetically goes after fox
Which parenthetically is how it gets off its rocks.
 
I A zoo ibex though knowing
It’s just a goat
Is inwardly glowing
With cause to gloat
It snoots at the average common creature
Without an “x” to boast as a notable feature
But vexing this ibex, and how
His life now stinks,
Next cage they’re annexing now
An exasperating lynx.
 
J Jaguar
A car
And more:
A carnivore.
 
K An Aussie koala bear,
Being astutely self aware
Knows it’s not a bear
And will tell any oiks who
Seem to think it’s bloody funny
To proffer pots of honey:
“Streuth mate! I’m not bleeding Winnie The Pooh.”
[/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″]
L Llama a bit like a camel
But flat backed with no lump
Known abroad not near so well
Is likely to get the hump
And morph into the queen of drama
If confused with the Dalai Lama.
 
M M is for man
And also for monkey
In terms Darwinian
We’re much the same, thunk he.
 
N The Australian numbat despite the “bat”
Is not a flying beast
And among things suffixed thus
Is probably known the least .
But brighter than ding,
You wouldn’t call it a kick-it failure
Though your num trails behind
After wom, fruit and cricket
In its native home Australia.
 
O Oh the okapi
Has a name that rhymes with happy
And I hear a tongue, such a lucky break
That sinuously like a snake
Your okapi chappy insinuates and steers
Into the crevices of its ears.
Thereby, effectively clearing
The aural fluff that’ll
Tend to muffle hearing.
 
P Porcupines by Nature’s deft designs
Protected against their enemy by deadly spines
Which lay a minefield for the sexual act
Unless approached with utmost tact
The simple business of reproduction
Pawplayed by careful introduction
Of one to the other, a precise seduction
Before attempted impregnation
While risking thus a painful prick
Porcupines pull off their prickly trick
Of prestidigitation.
 
Q Quail in bird terms is small potatoes
Its political namesake is too
And when it comes to spelling potato
That’s something Dan Quayle could not do.
 
R Reindeer antlers
From the Laplands
Headgear transplanted
Into hatstands.
 
S Skunk and swine
Both terms of abuse
But the progenitors of these names
Are inheritors of philological misuse
If I may so humbly opine.
[/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/3″]
That this natural punk when threatened stunk
Can hardly be denied
But herbal skunk inhales well in flames
Or so I heard implied.
Revere swine as the class porcine
Deify their meat as it eats divine.
or
A young but short-sighted suburban snake
looked around for a suitable date to take,
he thought he’d found a willing girl
around whom he threw a sensuous curl
but sadly not seeing what he tried to propose
would have no appeal to a garden hose.
 
T Ageing tiger turning white
Dozing through the long long night
Whatever power made you wither
May seem a sort of Indian giver,
Blake’s divine description does not say
Each mighty tiger loses sway.
 
U If you were a modern Noah
And a flood occurred
Would you put up an umbrella bird?
 
V Vegetarians are as strange birds
As you are like to meet,
They seem to think that sausages
Should not contain any meat,
Though bangers were made for the likes of us
So we might feel replete.
Why can’t they find their own bleeding names
For what they choose to eat?
 
W The wolf is a slavouring and predacious beast
Seeking fresh flesh on which he’d just love to feast
But this wolf-man lets down his much better bred males
And in pursuit of his desires often letches and fails.
By contrast real wolves rarely stray from their lairs
Inclined by fair Nature to bond in tight pairs.
 
X You never find the xenopus toad
Around an X ray fish;
One inhabits a dry abode
The other’s somewhat wettish.
 
Y It’s no Shangri La for the yak
A beast of burden Tibetans pack
With prodigious loads on its straining back
Oh put upon yak, alas alack.
 
Z The enclosures and cages of a zoo
Are like the pages of an Animals Who’s Who
From aardvark to zebra exotic fauna are filed
In our attempt to incarcerate the wild
[/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi]
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1249
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

I see no reason why to add my own example on this one. 

Related forms: ABC Poems, Abecedarius, Alliterated Alphabet Poem, Alphabesiary, Iroha Mokigusari, Twenty-six letter, twenty-six words

Serventisio

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Serventisio

Serventesio
Type:  Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:  An eight-syllable quatrain rhyming abab. A variant on the redondilla.
Schematic:
Rhyme: abab
Line meter: xxxxxxxx
Rhythm/Stanza Length:  4
Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/002/249.shtml

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

_____

Redondilla Stanza (from redondo meaning round) is one of the most popular Castillian stanzas since the 16th century. It appears to have been the standard for Spanish dramatic dialogue at one time. Apparently experimentation with the form by Ezra Pound brought about a resurgence in popularity in the 20th century.

The Redondilla is:
• syllabic, usually written in 8 syllable lines. (In Spanish an 8 syllable line can vary to 7 0r 9 syllables depending on the placement of the last accented vowel. In English sources suggests trochaic tetrameter.)
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. This could also be written in verse form, limiting the poem to 16 lines made up of 4 quatrains.
• rhymed, assonant or consonant rhyme. (Remember, consonant rhyme in Spanish prosody refers to full rhyme in English)The most common rhyme scheme abba. No where could I find a change of rhyme, this would suggest the entire poem is limited to 2 rhymes throughout. Luckily assonant rhyme is not true rhyme which could make it easier in English than if you chose “consonant rhyme”. abba abba abba abba etc.
• called the Serventesio when rhyme abab is used.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1013-redondilla-and-serventesio/

My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example poem

Slight Shadows (Serventisio)

Trees provide small shade at night
when the moon is sliver thin.
Shadows fall, obscured from sight
nestled ‘tween the leaves they’re in.

Even stars lend night some light
drifting through the woods again
further filtering it’s right
to dispel the black cat’s grin.

Clouds deny that meager bright
Making graveyard dark begin.
Only feline eyes still might
See enough to find din-din.

© Lawrencealot – August 19, 2014

Visual Template

Serventisio

Cavatina

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Cavatina

The Cavatina is a simple rhymed verse. One source, Poet’s Garret, indicates the poetic form originated in Italy in the 14th century. The same poetic frame is also described in Pathways for a Poet by Viola Berg. The frame is suited to both reflective verse which leads to a strong climax or for light verse.

The term can be found in the dictionary as used in 1830 to describe an opertic solo shorter than an aria. On the internet it primarily refers to a classical guitar piece. The term Cavatina does come from the Italian “cavata” which is the production or extraction of sound from an instrument or the Latin “cavus ” to dig or hollow out.

The Cavatina is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains made up of uneven couplets and finally ending in a declamatory couplet.
• metered, alternating iambic pentameter and iambic dimeter lines. The end declamatory couple is iambic pentameter.
• rhymed. Rhyme scheme xaxa xbxb xcxc, etc. dd. x being unrhymed. The end couplet is rhymed.

Eye of the Beholder by Judi Van Gorder
I never thought my Mom was very pretty–
the glasses ruled.
It was Dad we always deemed the stunning one–
the ladies drooled.
So tall with sea green eyes and wavy hair
he’d win your heart.
We all adored this playful handsome man
who stood apart,
and oh, so smart, he knew that Mom was first class,
her beauty shined right through the wire frames and glass.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1155
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
My example poem

Mad Dogs and Foolish Men Go Out in the Noonday Rain (Cavatina)

My doggie wants to take a walk today
despite the rain.
My wife says “Don’t you dare you foolish man,
just use your brain.”

My dog is clever, knows his mind and says,
“Let us converse.
We’ve walked in wind and strolled through snow, you know,
and that’s much worse.”

At times, you toss the ball into the lake.
Don’t I get wet?
Let’s go! Let’s play I need my exercise,
did you forget?”

I’m sold.  But mommy’s washed and waxed the floor!
We’ll play inside, for daddy knows the score.

© Lawrencealot – August 5, 2014

Fable

By | | ,
Comments Off on Fable

Fable
A fable is a poetic story composed in verse or prose with a moral summed up at the end. Usually using animals as characters to teach a valuable lesson.
Most commonly found example of fables are the Aesop’s Fables, but here are two poetic examples.
Example #1:
A Grain of Salt
While me irish eyes be smilin`
I be here to tell me story,
Those blyme things that me hates most
not one is in me glory.
Once me was an usher
for a very special settin`
Would not have minded half so much
but it was ME weddin`, that was upsettin`
Me wife insists, and has me wear
those scratchy three piece suits,
If truth be known, me`d rather own
green pants, green hat and boots.
Around me neck a noose of sorts
a tie from me graduation,
Me feels like someone`s got me throat
the fear of strangulation.
Oh judge me not, don`t take me wrong
me wife, me loves most sweetly,
When I get back from work at night
the home is picked up neatly.
She pulls me shoes off when I ask
and helps me light me pipe,
She brings in Shamrock blooms each day
so me really shouldn`t gripe.
It matters not the little things
that push us up the wall,
If one has patience, love and trust
may the flaws we bare be small.
To ease the creases from thy brow
put aside each nagging fault,
And heed this moral to the end
take only with a grain of salt.
Copyright © 2003 Sally Ann Roberts
Example #2:
the little flea
i spied a little flea
jumping here and there
i turned green with envy
despite it had no hair
this flea was free
to go where it desired
and me, i had no strength
Lord i was so tired
he hopped into a patch
of St. Patrick’s clover
that’s when i realized
his little life was over
he jumped onto a dog
playing in the patch
on the dog was a collar
no flea could live or hatch
be careful where you jump
that hop may be your last
don’t envy little green fleas
your future’s not your past
Copyright © 2003 Terri Anthony
Pasted from <http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/fable.html>
My Example
No Insomnia, the Fox (Burns Stanza)
The foxes sleep without concern
then yawn and wake and take their turn
at foraging with time to burn;
and when they’re done
from all their worries they adjourn.
and just have fun.
I often wished that I could sleep
without a need for counting sheep
but having problems seems to keep
my mind awake
I’ve bills to pay and floors to sweep
for heaven’s sake.
The things the neighbor lady said
about another neighbor’s bread
(a cause for gustatory dread)
now interrupt
with thoughts of recipes instead
I can’t keep up.
Today I didn’t gas the car.
Tomorrow I can’t drive too far.
I’m meeting Bobby at the bar,
and with his dad!
Is that unusual? bizarre?
or is it rad?
I need to get my clothes all clean.
I’ll wash them in our new machine.
Perhaps I’ll cut down on caffeine.
And then I’ll doze
without the thinking in between,
do you suppose?
The foxes living near our yard
don’t think of debts or their bank card.
They don’t find sleeping very hard.
Live for today
is seemingly a fox canard;
can that be hard?
The foxes sleep without concern
then yawn and wake and take their turn
At foraging with time to burn;
and when they’re done
from all their worries they adjourn.
and just have fun.
The foxes sleep without a care,
their ears alert to what’s out there
detecting sounds with time to spare
and then they play.
It’s here and now, not when and where.
Let’s live today!
© Lawrencealot – August 4, 2014
NOT a true fable, but he does learn from animals.
 

Burns Stanza

By | | ,
Comments Off on Burns Stanza

Burns Stanza is the current name of the form also known as the Standard Habbie, the Scottish Stanza, or the Six-Line Stave.

Standard Habbie

Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic

Description: A stanzaic sestet with lines of two lengths and two rhymes. Lines 1, 2, 3, and 5 are four feet long with the “a” rhyme. Lines 4 and 6 are two feet long with the “b” rhyme.

Attributed to: Habbie Simson, the piper of Kilbarchan
Origin: Scottish
Schematic: Rhyme: aaabab

Meter (Iambic):

xX xX xX xX
xX xX xX xX
xX xX xX xX
xX xX
xX xX xX xX
xX xX

Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/002/297.shtml
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his work on the wonderful poetrybase resource.

Burns Stanza

The Burns stanza is named after Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). The form already existed before he made it his own; its old name was standard Habbie, after Habbie Simpson (1550-1620), the Piper of Kilbarchan, its earliest known exponent. (I have seen the spelling standart Habbie often enough to think that maybe it isn’t a misprint after all.) This form is also sometimes known as the Scottish stanza or the six-line stave.

Stanzas have 6 lines rhyming aaabab, the a lines having four feet each and the b lines two, something like this:

The Fire Brigade

Their uniforms are so divine,
A shiver tingles up my spine!
I swear I never saw so fine
A band of men.
Their mission: let nothing combine
With oxygen.

My heroes! For although each knows
The perils, through the fire he goes
Armed only with a rubber hose
With which he aims
His stream at all the reddest glows
To douse the flames.

Such gallantry! And yet he spurns
The prize his courage surely earns.
My ardour for his brave heart burns
And won’t extinguish.
I serenade him à la Burns
(Although in English).

The Burns stanza is an example of rime couée.

Notable Burns stanzas:

A great deal of Burns’ work, including To a Mouse, To a Louse, To a Haggis, etc. A nice modern example is W N Herbert’s To a Mousse.

Pasted from http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/burns.htm
My thanks to Bob Newman for his years of work on the wonderful Volecentral resource.

My Example

No Insomnia, the Fox

The foxes sleep without concern
then yawn and wake and take their turn
at foraging with time to burn;
and when they’re done
from all their worries they adjourn.
and just have fun.

I often wished that I could sleep
without a need for counting sheep
but having problems seems to keep
my mind awake
I’ve bills to pay and floors to sweep
for heaven’s sake.

The things the neighbor lady said
about another neighbor’s bread
(a cause for gustatory dread)
now interrupt
with thoughts of recipes instead
I can’t keep up.

Today I didn’t gas the car.
Tomorrow I can’t drive too far.
I’m meeting Bobby at the bar,
and with his dad!
Is that unusual? bizarre?
or is it rad?

I need to get my clothes all clean.
I’ll wash them in our new machine.
Perhaps I’ll cut down on caffeine.
And then I’ll doze
without the thinking in between,
do you suppose?

The foxes living near our yard
don’t think of debts or their bank card.
They don’t find sleeping very hard.
Live for today
is seemingly a fox canard;
can that be hard?

The foxes sleep without concern
then yawn and wake and take their turn
At foraging with time to burn;
and when they’re done
from all their worries they adjourn.
and just have fun.

The foxes sleep without a care,
their ears alert to what’s out there
detecting sounds with time to spare
and then they play.
It’s here and now, not when and where.
Let’s live today!

© Lawrencealot – August 4, 2014
Visual Template
(6 lines or multiple)
Burns Stanza

The de Tabley

By | | , ,
Comments Off on The de Tabley

• The de Tabley is a verse form patterned after Chorus from Medea by John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley (1835-1895). De Tabley’s poetry reflected his study of the classics and his passion for detail.

The de Tabley is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
○ metric, alternating iambic pentameter and iambic trimeter lines. L1 of each stanza begins with a trochee
○ rhymed, rhymed scheme abab cdcd etc.
Chorus from Medea by John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley
SWEET are the ways of death to weary feet,
Calm are the shades of men.
The phantom fears no tyrant in his seat,
The slave is master then.
Love is abolish’d; well, that this is so;
We knew him best as Pain.
The gods are all cast out, and let them go!
Who ever found them gain?
Ready to hurt and slow to succour these;
So, while thou breathest, pray.
But in the sepulchre all flesh has peace;
Their hand is put away.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the fine PMO resource.
My example poem
An Old Man’s Dog (The de Tably)
Fate had to play a part in bringing you
looking at pups that day.
Your wife thought it was something fun to do,
and thus you said okay.
Tiny, and still unsteady on my feet,
knowing we had a fit,
I curled up in your hand and felt complete.
How soon you did commit!
Less than a minute passed before we knew
we’d be each other’s pride.
The bond, so evident twixt me and you,
the kennel-master cried.
Never was I an incidental pet
Not just a thing or toy;
We taught each other and we’re learning yet,
thus multiplying joy.
Chewing on shoes is part of puppyhood
and I did spoil one pair.
You said, “Bad dog!” to me, then like you should
hid them from me somewhere.
Bad Dog! became a phrase without a smile
warning me to change my ways.
Those words I haven’t heard now for a while;
I try to earn your praise.
Likely I’ll live until you die my friend.
I’ll miss you every day
and dream of you each night until my end.
I hope it works that way.
Should I become so ill I cannot cope
please take me to the vet.
That in your arms I pass, remains my hope;
just give me one more pet.
© Lawrencealot – June 27, 2014
Visual Template
The de Tabley

Swinburne Decastitch

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on Swinburne Decastitch
This form combining the rhyming pattern of an interrupted Petrachan Sonnet, with the breathing  cadence of common meter may have somewhere been used before, but it was definitely used and captured for us by Algernon Charles Swinburne in his “A Ballad of Death”.
I merely record it here and give it a name by which we can refer as we attempt to write such poems of our own.
It is stanzaic, consisting of any number of stanzas.
It is Syllabic: 10/10/6/10/10/10/6/10/10/10
It is Rhymed: abbacdecde
It is composed in iambic meter.
Example Poem
Cultural Patrimony     (Swinburne Decastitch)
When any culture deems it right to maul
and kill, inflicting pain, can you explain
away my great disdain?
Can you excuse the citizens and all
who legislate and rule who use as tool
the very worst impulses of man’s mind?
Against such things let’s rail!
We simply cannot fool ourselves- it’s cruel
to torment any species that we find.
With that in mind I’d like to tell this tale.
Young boys are often wooed by danger’s taunt
and while still teens endeavor to learn skills
to please the crowds with thrills.
‘Tis machismo alone that these boys flaunt,
and doubtlessly they want to earn the fame
accruing to the greatest in this “sport”
so fam’lies can be proud.
And many boys who play this dangerous game
will end up lame or have their life cut short
where death and torture’s commonly allowed.
In training some are killed or truly maimed.
and never set their feet into bull’s ring.
This is an honored thing!
But culture failing still persists unnamed,
where people think this cost perhaps is small;
and small it well may be when men have learned
compassion has no role.
If humankind is not herewith appalled
by acts dispensing pain where it’s unearned
each man accepts canker on his soul.
When man pits bull against a lion foe,
again to entertain and titillate,
we each should fee self-hate.
The gladiator games we must outgrow,
like burning ants and pulling off fly’s wings.
Each species may do harsh things to survive.
But evil has its cost.
When man accepts it’s right to torture things
which share our space and roam our earth alive,
compassion for all life will soon be lost.
© Lawrencealot – April 13, 2014
Visual Template

Didactic cinquain

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Didactic cinquain
A Didactic cinquain is sometimes used by school teachers to teach grammar, is as follows:
Line 1: Noun
Line 2: Description of Noun
Line 3: Action
Line 4: Feeling or Effect
Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun
An alternate version of the cinquain poem, often called a “word cinquain” is based on words, instead of syllables. “Word cinquains” have the following pattern:
Line 1 1 word
Line 2 2 words
Line 3 3 words
Line 4 4 words
Line 5 1 word
Line 1 — a noun (a word that refers to a thing, such as apple or book or elephant).
Line 2 — two adjectives, or describing words, that tell the reader about that thing.
Line 3 — three words ending in -ing that are related to the thing, maybe saying what it does.
Line 4 — a four-word phrase (group of words) about the thing, or about the way it makes you feel.
Line 5 — another noun that is a synonym of (means the same as) the noun in line 1, or else is a different way of looking at that thing.
Pasted from <http://cinquain.net/>
My Example
Butch      (Didactic Cinquain)
Bulldog
solid, sturdy
snorting, panting, watching
always ready to be faithful
canine
© Lawrencealot – February 16, 2014

Pendrangle

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Pendrangle
Pendrangle  is a form created by Penelope Allen aka  PenAllen on Allpoetry.
Stanzaic: Two or more of quatrain couplet pairs
Refrain:  The couplet is a refrain repeated throughout
Isosyllabic:  Hexameter (12 syllable lines)
Rhymed-   mono-rhyme throughout: aaaa BB cccc BB…
Example Poem
Objects of Art     (Pendrangle)
I’m fortunate residing in this time and place
for daily, if I wish I can watch horses race
across the plain or stand and graze with calming grace.
They’ve never pulled a load nor had to wear a trace.
Ascendancy of man, remarkable of course
was aided by domestication of the horse.
The spirit of the horse is recognized in art
in each and every age in which he’s played apart.
They’ve pulled our carriage our cannon and our cart.
They’ve captured man’s respect, and many young boy’s heart.
Ascendancy of man remarkable, of course
was aided by domestication of the horse.
In Nevada, they are allowed now to roam
protected in some areas once their natural home
where grasses, junipers, and sage have always grown.
And though they’re dancing free we feel that they’re our own.
Ascendancy of man remarkable, of course
was aided by domestication of the horse.
The V&T railroad now crosses their terrain
with stops to watch their beauty up above the plain.
They’re one delight of many, one sees from the train.
The horses drew me there, and I’  go back again.
Ascendancy of man remarkable, of course
was aided by domestication of the horse.
© Lawrencealot – January 1, 2014
 Visual Template

Etheree

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Etheree
The etheree is a little-known poetry format, consisting of ten lines with graduated syllables. It was created over twenty years ago by an Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong.
The first line is a monosyllabic word; the second line has two syllables, and so on, until the tenth line with, ultimately, ten syllables. The form and outline of your poem should look like the following diagram where X=a syllable:
X
XX
XXX
XXXX
XXXXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
  •  

A poem of 10 lines

Syllabic: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

Unrhymed

No Meter.

Example Poem
Wouldn’t Chu?
Duck
Pigeon
Meadow lark
Ring-neck pheasant
swallow, sparrow, hawk
Even owls in  the night.
All may at some time take flight.
Some still have to walk, the penguin,
ostrich,  and emu to name a few.
If they’d voted they’d all fly.  So would  I.
© Lawrencealot -May 7, 2012