Pathways for the Poet by Viola Berg (1977) is a book for and by educators. Classic poetic forms as well as many invented forms which appear to have been invented as teaching tools or exercizes for use in workshops or classrooms are included. Some of these invented forms I have found in use in internet poetry communities, a testament to their staying power. On this page I include the metric invented forms found there in which appear to be exclusive to the community of educators from whom Ms. Berg drew her support. I have yet to find these in any other source. …. Whether classroom exercise or sharpening your skill as a writer, some of these forms can be fun to play with.
• Sevenelle is a stanzaic invented form created by Virginia Noble which cannot only be found in “Pathways…” but is also in the Study and Writing of Poetry by Amy Jo Zook and Wauneta Hackleman, 1996.
The Sevenelle is:
○ stanzaic, written in no less than 2 septets, each made up of a rhymed couplet, tercet and couplet in that order.
○ metric, iambic tetrameter.
○ rhymed, aabbbCC ddeeeCC etc.
○ composed with L6&L7 of the first stanza repeated as refrain in the last 2 lines of all subsequent stanzas.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1199#dionol
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
My example
California Smoke (Sevenelle)
I left the teeming crowds behind
with auto’s smoke so I could find
a healthy place to walk my dog
where one could if he cared to, jog
without the blight of all the smog.
Unhealthy ash from fires ablaze
corrupt Nevada’s autumn days.
But forests burning in the west
has messed my plans, you may have guessed.
My doctor says I must take care,
with particles now in the air
can’t take my puppy anywhere.
Unhealthy ash from fires ablaze
corrupt Nevada’s autumn days.
© Lawrencealot – September 27, 2014
Visual template
