Thai Poetry
• The Kloon or Klon (meaning simple verse) is sometimes known as the “true Thai poetic form”. It is the basic and most common Thai verse written with simple subjects and simple words.
The Kloon is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains
○ syllabic, 4 to 8 syllables per line.
○ composed with each line made up of 2 to 3 phrases.
○ rhymed with an intricate rhyme pattern. The internal rhyme can be optional or reduced. The tone is looser than most Thai forms but it the end syllable of each line is usually rising which is in sync with most Western verse of iambic meter.
x x a x a x a b
x x b x b x x c
x x x x x x x c
x x c x c x x d
x x d x d x a e
x x e x e x x f
x x x x x x x f
x x f x f x x g
Pasted from Poetry Magnum Opus, with thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
Cross rhyme: When the end word rhymes with a word in the middle of the next line.
Internal rhyme: Rhyming within a line.
Interlaced rhyme: A word in the middle of one line rhymes with a word in the middle of another.
My Example
Form: Kloon
Three Types of Rhyme
If I’m to rhyme inside and out
I’ll scout about before I start
for rhymes to fit into my art.
Apart from smartness, I’ll need wit.
Omit unfit words which outrage
as staged on page for rhyme alone.
When you are done you can’t disown
what’s shown by tone and rhythm here.
© Lawrencealot – January 27, 2015
Visual Template
Since one can exercise options with the internal rhyme in this poem, I moved the rhyming columns to fit iambic meter. One could just as well use the designated
columns with trochaic.
