Tag Archives: anapestic

Galloping Denturn

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GALLOPING DENTURN is a poetry form invented by Dennis William Turner, writing on All Poetry as Dennisturner19.

  • It is comprised of two DACTYLIC tetrameter quatrains stating a point of view.
  • This is followed by a stand-alone one, two or three syllable word or phrase. For example: but – unless – but then – although – until, – however etc., Providing the TURN.
  • The concluding two quatrains, in ANAPESTIC tetrameter, make the argument, (emphasised by the change of metre.)

Turner’s Example

Form: Galloping Denturn

Why Bother?

Sometimes, my targets are scarcely attainable;
All that I try to do seems to fall short,
Efforts invested are hardly sustainable,
Work and commitment can all come to nought.
Labour seems pointless with goals unachievable.
Destined for failure, why should I still try?
Thoughts of success can be quite inconceivable.
“Try, try again,” they say. I just say, “Why?”

Although…

There’s a lot to be said for attempting your best
And for pushing and striving that little bit more
And remaining committed when put to the test
And to put in more effort than ever before.
If I DON’T try at all, then I’m doomed from the start
And it’s not a nice thing to be doomed, I confess,
So all negative thoughts should be set well apart
And I’ll give it the best that I can — nothing less!

© Dennis Turner, November 2017

My Attempt

Form: Galloping Denturn

Self-Medication

Ardently I do eschew taking medicine
arguing strongly against such reliance.
Eating correctly provides all my lecithin,
AND all the nutrients known now to science.
Certainly sponsors will vouch with some clarity
championing benefits brand names provide.
Taking their claims as the truth would be charity
Knowing beforehand how many have lied.

However,

With my tendency shown to perhaps skip some meals,
to respond to the TV’s promoting fast food,
and to pay much attention to five dollar deals
well, I might then deduce that my diet’s no good.
And I do take my Bayer’s prescribed for my heart,
and some Anacin, rarely, without too much fuss
since my doc’ says take pills — well then maybe I’ll start
I’m not stupid, you know, just a growing old cuss.

© Lawrencealot, November 2017

A Visual Template:

Blood Quill

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The Blood Quill form was invented in 2008 by Jim T. Henriksen writing on Allpoetry.com.

The Blood Quill form has two stanzas, each made of six lines. First and fourth line rhymes, second and fifth line rhymes, and third and sixth line rhymes per stanza. First, second, fourth and fifth line has six syllables, while third and sixth line has nine syllables. Rhyming pattern is abcabc defdef, and rhythm pattern is 669669 669669, or visually:

Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice

I will tell you a tale
of a powerful guild,
with brave members all over the Horde;
And not once would they fail,
for this group was so skilled,
with a feather they held like a sword.

They fought till the last breath,
whether theirs or their kill,
and the ground trembled hard with a thud;
With their enemies death,
in their heart was a quill,
and a poem was written in blood.

© Jim T. Henriksen. All rights reserved.
January 8th, 2008

Specifications restated:
Stanzaic: Two Sestets
Syllabic: 6/6/9/6/6/9
Rhymed: abcabc defdef
Metric option: Anapestic dimeter and trimeter.

My example

Race Riots

Race Riots (Blood Quill)

In reacting to hate
caused by eras long past
the aggrieved now have earned disrespect.
When they somehow equate
one man’s acting too fast,
just to race, they’re not most circumspect.

In destroying a store
or committing a crime,
their behavior is rising a flood.
All their own ought deplore
men behaving like slime
and then forcing more payment in blood.

© Lawrencealot – December 8, 2014

Snapshot

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This is an invented form created by Mary Boren, aka Meter_Maid on Allpoetry.

It is a poem of 7 lines
It is metrical, requiring several specific metrical feet, to wit:
L1: A pair of spondees
L2-3: Dimetrical dactylic couplet plus a hard beat at the end
L4-5: Anapestic dimeter, not rhyming with each other
L6: Anapestic trimeter, rhyming with L4
L7: Anapest. amphibrach, or iamb, which may, but is not required to rhyme with L5
It is formulaic, requiring a person’s name in either line 2 or 3.
It is themed:
 ” to capture a person’s unguarded moment, breaking stereotypes.”  I’d like to somehow convey that the task is to zoom in on descriptive details that plant a distinct concrete image, preferably an unexpected one.  You could almost say it has a volta at L5, as it catches something a camera would miss.  
It is rhymed with rhyme pattern: xaabzbz, where “z” lines may rhyme or not.

My Example

Just Notions  

Think long, think wrong!
Lawrence R. Eberhart thought
thinking of things he was taught
would most surely reveal
at least one salient fact
he was wrong all along on that deal
looking back.

© Lawrencealot – August 23, 2014

Note: This poem fails to be a Snapshot lacking the apparently candid moment required by the theme.

Try this one:

Neighborly Chat  (Snapshot)

Stop, look, think back.
Shoveling snow from the walk
Jerry MGee stopped to talk
with the girl from next door
he’d forgotten her name,
but remembered her shape from before,
quite a dame.

© Lawrencealot – August 23, 2014

Visual Template

Snapshot
Note: Several options exist for L7.

Cross Limerick

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• Cross Limerick is an American invented form, a variation of the Limerick found in Pathways of a Poet by Viola Berg. It adds a couple of lines to the Limerick verse form.

The Cross Limerick is:
○ metered verse written in anapestic patterns. L1, L2 and L7 are trimeter (3 metric feet) and L3,L4,L5 and L6 are dimeter (2 metric feet). (anapest = da da DUM or u-u-S = unstressed , unstressed, stressed syllables.)
○ a septet. (7 lines).
○ best used for witty, whimsical, bawdy themes, light verse.
○ written with a rhyme scheme aabcbca.
○ no title is used.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1094#cross>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example poem

The girls who in short skirts walk the street
are not those that mom wants you to meet.
When they’re plying their wares
it’s with commerce in mind
they invite young men’s stares
and more if one’s inclined.
But the kindest of them can’t be beat.

© Lawrencealot – August 5, 2014
Visual Template
Cross Limerick

The Stevenson

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• The Stevenson is an invented verse form patterned after the poem, Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish poet 1850-1894.

The Stevenson is:
○ an octastich (8 line poem) made up of 2 quatrains.
○ metric, L1-L3 & L5-L7 are iambic tetrameter, L4 & L8 are iambic trimeter.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme aaabcccb.

{Insert by Lawrencealot
Note:  I reject the metric representation and present RESTATED specifications below.}
Requiem by Robert Lewis Stevenson 1879
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This is the verse you grave for me:
‘Here he lies where he longed to be;
Here is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.’

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on the PMO resource.

I was having difficulty scanning this poem, so asked for help from Gary Kent Spain, who provided the following:

UND er the WIDE and STAR ry SKY,
DIG the GRAVE and LET me LIE.
GLAD did i LIVE and GLAD ly DIE,
And i LAID me DOWN with a WILL.

THIS is the VERSE you GRAVE for ME:
‘HERE he LIES where he LONGED to BE;
HERE is the SAIL or, HOME from the SEA,
And the HUNT er HOME from the HILL.

It IS three lines of tetrameter followed by one of trimeter, but not strictly iambic:  the tetrameters are basically iambic (if a bit trochee heavy, and that last foot in S2L3 is an anapest), but the trimeter lines are roughly anapestic:  most anapestic-style lines in English have some iambs strewn about in them.  Perhaps ‘sprung’ rhythm would better be applied to meter such as this, where the nature of the foot is less rigid than normal; but that would fly in the face of convention I guess.
My thanks to Gary for the above. We see the same kind of reliance upon stressed syllables in the form “The Stephens”.
My Example poem
My Requiem (The Stevenson)
Wherever I have been I’ve been
content existing there and then
and never wondered where or when
I’d cash my chips and die.
So when I transfer from this realm
I reckon I’ll not overwhelm
the maker if he’s at the helm,
for he’ll know when and why.
© Lawrencealot – July 20, 2014
Note: This poem was written using the specifications set forth by Van Gorder, above.
It is correct according to her metric specifications, but is a corruption of the Stevenson, shown by the 2nd template below.

Added to original content.

In October 2015 I noticed about the meter. At that time in my development I had a much broader and hopefully more complete understanding of meter generally than I did when this was first entered here. This is my current analysis:
One can keep the definition for L1-L3, L5-L7 presented by Van Gorder if one realizes that single foot substitutions are allowed almost anywhere except the final foot in a line and trochee substitutions occur in the first foot in ALL of the tetrameter lines.
I think that is quite reasonable, BUT there is no way the trimeter lines can properly be called iambic.
One can NOT make final foot substitution and keep the metric name imho.
Therefore to answer the question recently put to me by Avraham Roos, I hereby boldly reject the specification presented above and PROPOSE that this is the correct metric specification for the Stevenson:

The Stevenson is:
An Octastitch made up of two quatrains.
Metric with L1-L3 and L5-L8 composed in IAMBIC TETRAMETER, and
with L4 and L8 composed of ANAPESTIC TRIMETER.
Each tetrameter line begins with a trochee foot substitution, and
each trimeter line contains an iamb foot substitution as foot two.

Visual Templates

Here is the template as used by Stevenson.The Stevenson

Stevenson2

Here is Stevenson’s Requiem, had he followed the metric without
extra substition or headless feet. Only L2 and L7 are changed,
and the L7 change makes the line unnatural.

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig me a grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
and I laid me down with a will.
This is the verse you grave for me:
‘Here he lies where he longed to be;
‘Here is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.’

Meisenheimer’s Sestet

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This form was created by Glenn Meisenheimer, aka gmcookie on Allpoetry.
It is stanzaic consisting of two or more sestet stanzas.
It is syllabic, each stanza being a sestet of 11/8/11/11/11/8 syllables.
It is metrical, with the long lines consisting of three anapestic feet and an iamb, and each short line consisting of two anapestic feet and an iamb.
Rhyme pattern:  xabbba
My Example
April 7th Phone Call     (Meisenheimer’s Sestet)
And what was the promise that went unfulfilled,
and why did it happen like that?
You promised to cherish, to love and obey
I promised the same yet you left me one day
and none of my pleas could persuade you to stay
so home with my two boys I sat.
But one time you tried to rejoin me and them;
by then I was slightly involved.
I’d promised another to be her escort
one day to a wedding as symbol of sorts.
I’d told you I’d promised and could not abort-
one day! then the problem’d be solved.
One day was too much for your too needy heart
I think you’d expected I’d stay
and forget a promise for now things were changed.
I couldn’t and wouldn’t get things rearranged
so after a month we were newly estranged.
You took our girls; you went away.
And what was the promise that went unfulfilled,
that caused you to call me last night?
You’re dying and know it and facing the end,
have mem’ries to reckon with, fences to mend.
You know I still love you and think you my friend.
I wish that could make it alright.
© Lawrencealot – April 8, 2014
Visual Template

EPJohnson Quintet

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This is a form I simply documented, attributing it to Emily Pauline Johnson, because in the four hundred twenty plus forms I have documented, I’ve never come across a quintet with this rhyme pattern.  I used the first stanza of her poem “The Lost Lagoon” as the template for the metric schema.
The form is stanzaic, consisting of two or more quintets.
It is of Canadian origin.
The rhyme scheme is abbba accca…etc.
 (Indicating that the ending words of L1 and L5 are repeated in each stanza.)
It is syllabic: 8/9/9/9/8
The short lines are anapest, anapest, iamb
da da DUM da da DUM da DUM
With the  middle three lines being iamb,iamb,anapest,iamb
da DUM da DUM da da DUM da DUM
My example poem:
Surviving
When a brother is left behind
it’s seldom thought that his time was due.
No battle raged, and the sky was blue,
the day that Tim told us he was through.
“I’ve no more strength that I can find.”
We would not leave our friend behind.
he talked about his sweet wife, his mom,
his father’s farm, his young brother Tom
his faith in God, which so helped becalm
him all things good that he could find.
When we found those we’d left behind
to greet with loving so very warm
and praises we had escaped from harm–
we traveled next to Tim’s father’s farm
for in our hearts still Tim we find.
© Lawrencealot – February 19, 2014
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Anaduo

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This is an invented form created by Lisa La Grange of Allpoetry.com.
It is Stanzaic, composed of any number of sestets
It is Syllalbic 11/11/8/11/11/8
Meter: All lines are acephalous* anapestic
              The long lines are anapestic tetrameter
              The short lines are anapestic trimeter
Rhyme Scheme:  aabccb
*Acephalous = headless, lacking its first syllable
Example Poem:
Chased by a Cloud     (Anaduo)
Below the horizon, beneath where I stand
the streets of a city lie quilting the land.
It’s there that I work and I live.
I set out today, with no purposeful aim
My nose led my feet; up the mountain I came
for nature has beauty to give.
Just barely, below me the sounds I can hear
of traffic and people who don’t know I’m here.
I view what’s so rarely allowed.
I’ve climbed here before and I’ve stayed overnight
but never been treated to quite such a sight.
I’m proud to be chased by a cloud.
© Lawrencealot – January 30, 2014
Visual Template

LaDán

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This is a new form designed in June, 2013 by Laura Lamarca.
It is composed of 5 quatrain stanzas with varying length and meter, (20 lines)
but every line begins with an anapest foot.
This is a moderately  difficult form to write.
The requirements of the form in her own words  are:
Verses 1, 3 and 5
Rhyme scheme abab
L1 and L3 – 11 syllables, stressed syllables needed on beats 3, 6, 8 and 11
L2 and L4 –  9 syllables, stressed syllables needed on beats 3, 5, 7 and 9
Verse 2 and 4
Rhyme scheme baab
L1 and L4 – 9 syllables, stressed syllables needed on beats 3, 5, 7 and 9
L2 and L3 – 7 syllables, stressed syllables needed on beats 3 and 5.
MUST be a metaphoric poem, preferably dark and deeply emotive.
Rhyme scheme “abab cddc efef ghhg ijij” for the easy version (ababcddcefefghhgijij) or
Rhyme scheme “abab baab abab baab abab” for the more challenging version. (ababbaabababbaababab)
Example Poem
This was written for a contest to name the form, I thought LaAnapestia would have been descriptive, but my thinking did not prevail.
Liberty’s Tree     (LaDan)
Disagreeable though it may be my friends,
a time comes when men who are born free,
(as all are), must leave kings who won’t make amends.
They are kings because we let them be.
The untried Americans-to-be
who’d displayed recalcitrance
now displayed recognizance
of the threat to their own liberty.
As the spirit of patriots now depends
on the Jefferson’s and Paine’s to see
better ways to assure the power extends
to the common man, they write their plea.
They were radicals,  to disagree,
and they lacked the competence
to deny the providence
of the kings throughout our history.
It seems sometimes the voice of reason portends
a much greater change than taxing tea,
and revolution comes when man comprehends;
But it may cost blood from you and me.
© Lawrencealot – July 24, 2013
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BushBallad Meter

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Informal name created by Mary Boren Sullivan, aka Meter_Maid on Allpoetry.com.
Am adding it so others can have a go at a delightful metric experience.
OK, that’s not the official name for it, but this particular rhyme scheme & metrical pattern echoes of thundering hooves, which makes me think of Banjo Paterson.  If you’re stuck in iambic mode, it’s a good way to break free.
The form lends itself to light verse, but is versatile enough to support serious topics as well.  The meter is anapestic, as follows, presented in six-line stanzas with a rhyme scheme of aabccb.
ta da DUM / ta da DUM / da
ta DUM / ta da DUM / da
ta DUM /  ta da DUM / ta da DUM
If it feels more natural, you can substitute with an iamb for the first foot and/or move the feminine trailing syllables into the next line, like so …
ta DUM / ta da DUM
ta da DUM / ta da DUM
ta da DUM /  ta da DUM / ta da DUM 
Example Poem
Unfriended
My words are exacting
yours simply distracting
You argue in circles, at best.
You think that deceiving
just  ‘cus you’re believing
Is okay, your  thinking is blessed.
Now, when you disparage
an old friend’s new marriage
or put down another’s good work
or put on two faces
when speaking of races,
you’re behavior drives me berserk.
I’m mostly quite friendly,
but  if in the end we
diverge so in our views, my friend,
though I’ll still be mellow
and a jolly fellow,
I reckon our friendship will end.
© Lawrencealot – April, 2012
Visual Template