The poems that I have documented for this category include
Trick Poetry (four in one – OR many more)
and Amera’s Style (2 in one ), both on this page
In First Loves, Margaret Atwood describes this “trick” poem (“I Saw a Peacock” by an anonymous British poet) as “the first poem I can remember that opened up the possibility of poetry for me.” The trick is the two ways it can be understood; read a line at a time, or read from the middle of one line to the middle of the next. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes notes that it appears in a commonplace book dated to around 1665; it seems to have been first published in the Westminster-Drollery in 1671.
I Saw a Peacock, with a fiery tail,
I saw a Blazing Comet, drop down hail,
I saw a Cloud, with Ivy circled round,
I saw a sturdy Oak, creep on the ground,
I saw a Pismire, swallow up a Whale,
I saw a raging Sea, brim full of Ale,
I saw a Venice Glass, full fifteen feet deep,
I saw a well, full of men’s tears that weep,
I saw red eyes, all of a flaming fire,
I saw a House, as big as the Moon and higher,
I saw the Sun, even in the midst of night,
I saw the man, that saw this wondrous sight.
Write a “trick” poem using this technique.
Each line must be able to be read separately, as well as from the middle of one line to the middle of the next.
Note: I made a simple template simply dividing your line in two parts.
Its advantage is simply that you can see separate parts and visualize how with will combine.
Note: in this poem . . each half is a complete rhyming poem,
each line can be read either way with the lines in the other column on the same line, or on the line above or below it, with rhyme in at lease one sequence.
In addition one can each of the different colored lines in a column, (either up or down) as a distinct poem.
Here is an AMERA STYLE where the bold words create a poem within a poem.
Secret place for Elves
Something we know how to do
Is build a place to hide from you
High up in the trees we climb
For scattles of years; in elfin time
So the king of elves came to me
Said build a house up in a tree
All he had to do was ask
Then the elves set to the task
A house in a tree, that’s what he said
To hide from humans that we dread
So we huddled we to whisper
To keep our plans much crisper
We need a name; what to call it?
A Tree House! That name will fit
So now our work has just begun
Hammering, singing elfin fun
A secret place high in the tree
A place where no one else can see
A place to hide for another scattle
To avoid a nasty battle
A cozy place, a place to love
High up in the tree above
Secret creatures, Elves are we
Now living high up in the tree
