This is a form created by Mary Lou Healy, writing as Mlou on Allpoetry.com.
The Shrinking Verse is:
Stanzaic: It consists of three or more stanzas of diminishing length written in common meter, followed by a single rhyming iambic tetrameter couplet. Usually the stanza preceding the couplet is four lines in length.
Metric: It is written in common meter (alternating lines 0f iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.)
Rhyme: Each stanza has its own alternating two rhymes and the final couplet rhymes aa.
Volta: The final couplet provides a turn, a twist, or a summary of the poem.
Mlou’s Example
Form: Shrinking Stanza
The Sacrifice
Dark forces held the earth in thrall and morning did succumb. In strict command, night covered all and beat a muted drum. But Blanche, the maid of light, did call her white doves swift to come, to sweep away the fearsome pall and new day’s guitar, strum.
They gathered all the darkness in, absorbed it, one by one, until day’s magic could begin to summon forth the sun. Blanche and her flock will always win though task is never done.
The price they pay to rescue day is burdensome and sad; to keep the clouded night at bay, they’re e’er in blackness clad.
Oh, white and black, those opposites on which time’s glass of hours sits!
The universe in iambs beat except when more excited and then there may be many feet that spring up uninvited. When two electrons chance to meet their meeting is high-lighted with touches that are short and sweet that leave mere men delighted.
God particles and nutrinos are hypothecated; entanglement that comes and goes with distance unrelated are guesses because no one knows (’til after they’re cremated.)
But we can listen to the clatter and some may then conclude that changing states of God’s matter ought be left to that dude.
Iambs will work, ‘cept when they won’t. Should we all care? Because I don’t.
The Rhyming Wave is a poetry form created by Katharine L. Sparrow, American writer and poet who writes on Allpoetry.com.
The Rhyming Wave is:
Stanzaic: Consisting of 2 or more quatrains plus an ending couplet.
Metric: Lines 1 through 3 are iambic tetrameter and
line 4 is iambic trimeter.
Refrained: Syllables 6 & 7 of line one are repeated as syllables 2 thru 7 and syllable 8 is the same in both lines and syllables 1 & 2 are of line 3 are repeated in line 4
Refrain: The ending couplet is the first and the last line of the previous stanzas.
NOTE: The author is amenable to having poets substitute rhyming as well as identical syllables. I have done so in my example poem.
Rhymed: Rhyme scheme Aaab BBbc CCd AD, where the capital letters represent refrain words or refrain lines.
Here is the author’s own explanation. At the end I have included a visual template that may help some.
The Rhyming Wave is a form of my own invention. The instructions seem complicated, but once you start writing it, you will get it pretty quickly. A Rhyming Wave is so named because words repeat themselves, similar to waves lapping over and over again on the shore. A Rhyming Wave has at least 2 verses and an ending couplet. Each verse is four lines with the first three written in iambic tetrameter (4 “feet” of 2 syllables each) and the fourth line three feet, or six syllables. The ending couplet will be the first and last lines of the poem repeated. To write a Rhyming Wave you must know how to write in iambic meter. This is the da-DUM, da-DUM rhythm. If you don’t know how to do this, your Rhyming Wave may not come out sounding as it should. As with all iambic metered poems, it does not have to be PERFECT, but it should sound melodious to the ear.
– First line: 4 iambic feet (8 syllables)
She dwells among the foamy swells,
– Second line : syllables 6 and 7 of line one are repeated as syllables 2 through 7 (three times) and syllable 8 is also repeated as syllable 8.
the foamy, foamy, foamy swells–
– Third line: 4 iambic feet (8 syllables) last syllable rhymes with last syllable of lines one and two
Beneath the cresting waves she dwells,
– Fourth line: first 2 to 3 syllables (whichever fits) of line three are repeated/ six syllables only
beneath the ocean’s roll.
Verses 2 through 4, same pattern – first line of each verse rhymes with last line of previous verse:
Her song floats from a sandy shoal
a sandy, sandy, sandy shoal–
her voice that creeps into the soul,
her voice, a crooning trill.
And over all a misty chill
a misty, misty, misty chill–
she’ll sing again, it’s sure she will,
she’ll sing her haunting tune.
Her humming soothes the silver moon,
the silver, silver, silver moon,
where stars will span the ocean soon–
where stars will hear her song.
Ending couplet, first and last lines of the poem:
She dwells among the foamy swells,
where stars will hear her song.
The poem must have at least 2 verses, but there is no limit to the number of verses
Sparrow’s Examples
Form: Rhyming Wave
Mermaid’s Song
She dwells among the foamy swells, the foamy, foamy, foamy swells– beneath the cresting waves she dwells, beneath the ocean’s roll.
Her song floats from a sandy shoal a sandy, sandy, sandy shoal– her voice that creeps into the soul, her voice, a crooning trill.
And over all a misty chill a misty, misty, misty chill– she’ll sing again, it’s sure she will, she’ll sing her haunting tune.
Her humming soothes the silver moon, the silver, silver, silver moon, where stars will span the ocean soon– where stars will hear her song.
She dwells among the foamy swells where stars will hear her song.
Rose Covered
A cottage in the shady wood, the shady, shady, shady wood– amid soft, leafy arms it stood amid the woodland trees.
Perfume hung on the hazy breeze the hazy, hazy, hazy breeze where roses opened for the bees where roses blossomed red.
The roses climbed and gently spread, and gently, gently, gently spread– they made the walls a flower bed, they made the cottage sweet.
A respite in the steamy heat, the steamy, steamy, steamy heat– a cool and comfortable retreat a cool and quiet place.
A cottage in the shady wood, a cool and quiet place.
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. I have included the syllabic invented forms on a separate page. Whether classroom exercise or sharpening your skill as a writer, some of these forms can be fun to play with.
• Dr Stella is a verse using sequential rhyme*. It was developed by James Gray in honor of Dr Stella Woodall who was at one time president of the American Poetry League and editor of a couple of poetry magazines.
The Dr Stella is: an octave made up of 2 quatrains. metered, alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter. rhymed, abcdabcd. L2 and L6 have feminine end words.
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.
*This is also known as external rhyme or remote rhyme.
My example
Nail-Biting (Dr Stella)
Two golden-agers in a room complained about mate’s habits. “It irritates and drives me mad, I need to find relief”.
“I know the way to cure your groom as I did mine, dad-nabbit. Do what I did to my old Brad and simply hide his teeth.”
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