Tag Archives: abba cddc abcd

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. 

The Douzet is a verse form with a unique rhyme scheme in the last quatrain. An exercise in meter and rhyme found in Pathways but is attributed to an unknown which Berg found in Clement Wood’s Poet’s Craft Book 1936, a book I have yet to get my hands on.

The Douzet is:
a 12 line poem made up of 3 quatrains.
metered, iambic pentameter.
abba cddc abcd.
  

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

Tombstone Romance (Douzet)

I rode to Tombstone for to see a show. 
It weren’t a cultural center, that I knew
but Josephine was there, and Fabian too.
Despite the outlaws, I just had to go.
For me it was a break from daily strife
and for the touring troupe, I’d have to guess
not being shot was proof of their success,
and Wyatt Earp there met his future wife.

He married Josephine you surely know,
a fated match as she was passing through.
For forty-seven years they shared their life
for neither one would settle now for less.

© Lawrencealot – September 8, 2014

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