Mid-Swap
Created by England’s Jenny Buzzard, this form requires adherance to a strict structure. It contains four quatrains with a center couplet, at a syllable count of eight per line. The rhyme scheme is: A1abb ccdd A2A1 eeff ggaA2 Or, to put that in an example: Start out with a line in rhyme “A,” XXXXXXXa XXXXXXXb XXXXXXXb XXXXXXXc XXXXXXXc XXXXXXXd XXXXXXXd Do once more a line in rhyme “A.” Start out with a line in rhyme “A.” XXXXXXXe XXXXXXXe XXXXXXXf XXXXXXXf XXXXXXXg XXXXXXXg XXXXXXXa Do once more a line in rhyme “A.”
Pasted from http://the.a.b.c.of.poetry.styles.patthepoet.com/ItoN.html
Specifications restated:
The Mid-Swap is:
An 18 line poem
Stanzaic, consisting of four quatrains separated by a couplet.
Isosyllabic, consisting of 8 syllable lines.
Rhymed: A1abb ccdd A2A1 eeff ggaA2
Refrained, as indicated by the capital letters in the rhyme scheme.
My example
Off-balance (Mid-Swap)
When you went crazy as a kid
like loosening the pepper lid
you managed then to stir the pot,
and frequently you were not caught.
You lobbed a snowball high and far,
before we even saw the car.
Of all our throws, that one was tops
despite the fact you nailed some cops.
You did for fun the things you did
When you went crazy as a kid.
The camp advisor you’d short-sheet
each time we went on our retreat.
In college you moved drunk guy’s bed
from quiet dorm to quad instead.
You disregarded proper form,
exciting times became our norm.
Don’t let age stop you, God forbid!
You did for fun the things you did.
© Lawrencealot – October 21, 2014
Visual template
Note: this template shows iambic tetrameter, but meter is not mandated.
