Tag Archives: 4 lines

Totok

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The following description and example are reposted with permission from Poetry Magnum Opus, with thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on that fine resource.

The Totok is a verse form in 4 unrhymed lines of anapestic tetrameter. I found this form in only one source although I was able to find that the word “Totok” refers to Cantonese immigrants that come to Thailand and tend to retain their Chinese language and customs.  The elements of the Totok are:

  1. a poem in 4 lines.
  2. accentual syllabic, anapestic tetrameter. uuS uuS uuS uuS
  3. unrhymed.

    Anticipated

    A tick ticking of earth’s endless seasonal clock,
    though our Winter stayed late, Spring began without fanfare,
    silent sprouts broke the surface of frost covered ground
    slipping Spring forth with showers and flowers and light.
                                                 ~~ Judi Van Gorder

My Example

Form: Totok

Thinking Ahead

As the weather gets cooler and nights start to chill
and the holiday seasons promote our good cheer
and we wave to our neighbors out raking the leaves
we are thinking ahead to next summer’s warm days.

© Lawrencealot – February 2, 2015

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Paraphrased Great Poetry

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Paraphrased Great Poetry is an invented form created by Amera on Allpoetry.com.

Take a well-known poem, then rewrite it in four lines of iambic trimeter (six-syllable lines with the stressed syllables in position 2, 4, and 6). These are monorhyme poems, meaning all of the lines end with the same rhyming word (rhyme scheme AAAA).

The Wreck of the Hesperus

The Hesperus did sail
 Into a blust’ring gale,
But like the poor in jail,
She couldn’t make the bail.

Evangeline

Evang’line, young and shy,
In exile lost her guy,
But found him, by and by,
In time to see him die.

The Daffodils

I wandered like a cloud
O’er hills both tall and proud,
And they were well endowed
In daffodilian shroud.

The Raven

A-rapping at my door,
A raven fluttered o’er,
And said I’d see Lenore,
But when? Why, “nevermore.”

Gunga Din

Oh here comes Gunga Din,
With water in a skin.
Although he’s frail and thin,
He’s better than I’ve been.

Paul Revere’s Ride

Now kiddies come and hear
The tale of Paul Revere,
Who shouted loud and clear,
“The British, they are here!”

The Charge of the Light Brigade

The gallant Light Brigade
Went charging up a grade.
They did as they were bade,
And then they all was dade.

Jabberwocky

“Beware” his dad implored.
He took his vorpal sword,
through tulgey wood explored.
Then snickersnack! He scored!

all of the poetry of e. e. cummings

with letters small in size
e cummings acted wise
he opted to stylize
and on that cap’talize

Specifications restated.
It is a 4 line poem. (A single quatrain)
Metered: Iambic trimeter.
Rhymed: Monorhyme. Pattern aaaa

My example

The Road Not Taken (Paraphrased Great Poetry)

The roads diverged, oh yes,
I chose and felt no stress
the road then travelled less.
‘Twas meant to be I guess.

© Lawrencealot – January 10, 2015

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Paraphrased Great Poetry

Gzha

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The Gzha is Tibetan folk poetry, a dance song.

The Gzha is:
• syllabic, written in 6 syllable lines, usually trochaic. The form ends with a spondee SS.
• written in 4 lines.
• unrhymed but parallelism is expected. The poem often employs internal consonance and assonance.

Super Sunday by Judi Van Gorder

Wearing pads and helmets
players fight for pig skin
ball. The Super Bowl is 
football’s final Big Game.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=641
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
Parallelism:
Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.
Also called parallel structure.
By convention, items in a series appear in parallel grammatical form:
a noun is listed with other nouns, an -ing form with other -ing forms, and so on.

My example

Seasonal Procrastination (Gzha)

Driving, walking, riding,
anxious always knowing
Christmas time is coming
I can’t wait, I must shop.
Next year I’ll do better
(promised that last Christmas.)
Seems the theme’s repeated
nearly every damn year.

© Lawrencealot – December 15, 2014

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Gzha

Cantar

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The Cantar in verse is an octosyllabic quatrain that assonates and is usually limited to one strophe. The form dates back to 15th century Spain. Cantar is the Spanish verb “to sing” and in Spanish literature is loosely used as a noun for the “words for a song”.

The Cantar is:
• a 4 line strophe written as a stand alone poem or combined with other forms such as the Seguidilla or Flamenca.
• syllabic, all lines written in 8 syllables.
• rhymed, L2 and L4 rhyme with assonance, sometimes true rhyme but generally not. L1 and L3 are unrhymed however the end syllable should be stressed.

Cantar by Judi Van Gorder

The windward breeze sings high tenor
while rolling waves play bottom bass
along the ragged shore. The song
of the ocean follows my day.

• The Cantiga is a predecessor of the Cantar. The Galician-Portuguese poetic genre was written between the 12th and 14th centuries. Rhythm and musicality were central while the words were limited. The themes were focused on the individual, a woman singing to her lover, a man to his lady, and the best known cantigas were about the miracles of the Virgin Mary. The frame of the Cantiga is at the poet’s discretion although 8 syllable lines are common.
• Cantiga de Amigo is a subgenre of the Cantiga, it is the female voice speaking of a lover. The voice could be the woman, her mother, her sister, or her friend, the subject is always the male lover. They are written in simple strophic forms, with repetition, variation, and parallelism, and most often include a refrain They are the largest body of female-voiced love lyrics of medieval times.
• The Seranilla (Spanish – little mountain song) is a short lined strophic sub genre of 14th century Galician-Portuguese cantigas. It is often a light hearted poem built around the meeting of a gentleman and a pretty country girl. It is often written in 5 syllable lines without prescribed number of lines or rhyme, both at the discretion of the poet. When written in octasyllabic lines it is called a Serrano.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1018
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My Example


Fear of Heights (Cantar)

Upon this precipice I sit
because I’m quite afraid to stand.
I’ll crawl away or maybe slink
for I’m an acrophobic man.

© Lawrencealot – November 19, 2014

Photo credit: Visual Photos.com

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Cantar

Antonymical Poem

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This is a form invented by Hani_Nasar writing on Allpoetry.com.

 

Form name : Antonymical Poem 

 

Details : The form antonymical poem is a four line poem and is given after the name antonyms . The first line contains one word which is the antonym of the second line word . The second line contains one word which is the antonym of the 1st line . The third line contains the word of 1st line . And the fourth line contains the word of 2nd line. 

 

For example : 

 

Lock                                                                ( an antonym of the 2nd line ) 

Key                                                                  ( an antonym of the 1st line ) 

Lock your past ,                                        ( Contains the word of 1st line )  

To find a key for your future .            ( Contains the word of the 2nd line )  

 

Pasted from  http://allpoetry.com/contest/2638611-My-Poetry-Form
 

My example

Don’t Rush to Dawdle 

Dawdle
Rush
If you see a duckling dawdle, seemingly caused by his waddle,
don’t rush to match that toddle by quickly drinking from your bottle.

 

© Lawrencealot – September 14, 2014

Coin Poem

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Coin Poem
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Pivot Requirement
Description:
A two-couplet poem where the first couplet states a thought and the second flips it, or shows the other side. It is syllabic, showing some relation to many Japanese poems by alternating seven and five-syllable lines, but has rhyme. The rhyme can be as rhymed couplets or merely the second and fourth line of the poem.
Schematic:
Rhyme: ab cb or aa bb
Meter:
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
2
Line/Poem Length:
4
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for the wonderful PoetryBase resource.
My Example Poem
Early to Bed, Late to Rise   (Coin Poem)
Early in and out of bed
helps one get a head.
if sleeping late is allowed
you avoid the crowd.
© Lawrencealot – April 29, 2014
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Jue Ju

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Storyline(jue ju)
This is Chinese style poetry
jue ju—– the curtailed or frustrated verse, does not mean to tell a story but to create a mood. It does in the most frugal way imaginable, and with a high tone. The impression one gets is much like that from a symphony orchestra where a solo instrument takes up the theme. A jue ju has only four lines of five or seven syllables each.
Jue Ju (curtailed or frustrated verse) is one of the oldest of the Chinese patterns and in the 3rd century AD the Jue Ju was very popular. It often carried “suggestively erotic themes”. It does not tell a story but attempts to create a mood.
The basic rhythmic unit of Chinese poem is the single character (zi), which is pronounced as one syllable. In English the word represented by the character might be more than one syllable. Originally the Jue Ju was composed in 5 character lines. By the Tang era, 8th century it had evolved to a 7 character pattern and became fundamental to Chinese poetry.
The Jue Ju is:
  • metered, 5 or 7 character or word lines. (lines should be same length)
  • composed of 4 lines.
  • often erotic.
  • compared to Western poetry could be considered terse and compressed. 
    秋月 (程颢) 
    清溪流过碧山头，空水澄鲜一色秋；
    隔断红尘三十里，白云红叶两悠悠。Autumn Moon by Cheng Hao translated by Xiao-zhen aka worm, Nov 6,2009
    Over green hills a limpid brook flows
    Sky mirrored in the water of autumn hue
    Away from the distant earthly world
    Maple leaves and velvet clouds leisurely float
    “The Autumn Moon, a seven-character-‘cutshorts’ (jue ju), was composed by an ancient Chinese poet Chen Hao (1032–1085), a philosopher of Northern Song Dynasty. No line of the poem touches the autumn moon, but it shines every line.” ~~Xiao-zhen aka worm     
    pillow woman by judi Van GorderRaven strands of silk tangle
    and spread over her pillow.
    With soft eyes, pleasure waits
    white curves stretch upon futon.
Thanks to Judi at PMO.
Example Poem
Steady breathing warms my neck
laughing at winter’s cold assault.
My thighs touching your curves;
winter coldness overcome by warmth.

Dodoitsu

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Dodoistu is a Japanese form of poetry that is sometimes performed as a folk song. The Dodoitsu comes from the old agricultural roots of the Gombei, the people of Japan’s back-country. The majority of Dodoistu poetry was handed down through oral tradition and was performed to the accompaniment of shamisen, a three- stringed instrument.
A lot of Dodoistu poetry focuses on love, humor or the unexpected, though there are many Dodoistu poems that also look at nature and beauty.
It has 26 syllables: 7 in the first, second and third lines, and 5 in the last line. (7/7/7/5).
Example Poem
‘Tis Better…   (A Dodoistu)
All triumphs end differently,
some with flourish and refrains,
some with frequent curtain calls,
others fade to black.
© Lawrencealot – Oct. 19, 2012
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Naani

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Naani is one of Indian’s most popular Telugu poems. Naani means an expression of one and all. It consists of 4 lines, the total lines consists of 20 to 25 syllables. The poem is not bounded to a particular subject. Generally it depends upon human relations and current statements. This poetry was introduced by one of the renowned Telugu poets Dr. N.Gopi, presently working as vice-chancellor to Telugu University, Andhra Pradesh.
Example #1:
A dialogue
When lengthens
Remain questions
Without answer as criticism.

Copyright © 2001 Bollimuntha venkata Ramana Rao

Example # 2
Should I Critique Only Perfect Poems
 
Sometimes criticism bites
other times it sucks
choosing honesty over fluff
may cost you friends.
 
 © Lawrencealot – June 15, 2012

Rannaigheacht bheag (ran-á-yah voig)

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A traditional Irish quatrain of 7-syllable lines [7/7/7/7] (‘old-school’),
 or 8/6/8/6, ending in 2-syllable words all linked by consonance
(in its old meaning, ‘having the same vowels’),
 with at least two cross-rimes in each couplet
 (can be consonance in first but should be rime in second)
and alliteration in every line, which in the second couplet
 must be between the last two stressed words in each line,
and with the dunedh, of course (ending in the same word, phrase,
 or line it began with).
Poem ExampleRon-a’yach Rhyme
Writing rhyming words, giving
living lines, fit for fighting
biting boredom while living
in style with witty writing.
(c) Lawrencealot – May 16,2012
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As with the other Irish forms, a template can show you the syllable count and a bit more, but cannot be definitive as so much variation is possible while meeting the formal  requirements.
In the example below some words not hi-lighted could have been as serving one or more rules.