Tag Archives: dimeter

Roundabout

By | | ,
Comments Off on Roundabout

Our Poetic Asides inaugural Poet Laureate, Sara Diane Doyle, has been busy-busy-busy this summer working with teen writers. But not too busy to share with her fellow Poetic Asides crew a new poetic form she developed with one of her students, David Edwards. Since Sara knows the form best, I’ll let her explain the form to you in her own words.
*****
A few months ago I began exploring various poetic forms. With each form I tried, I would post my attempt on a forum for teen writers, where I am a mentor. One of the teens, David Edwards, got interested in forms, especially the “created” forms. He asked if anyone could invent a form and I said “sure!” Then, he got the crazy idea that we should create a form together.
 
To start, we wanted to throw in every poetic element that we really liked. David came up with the meter and feet and I added in the repeating line. We came up with the rhyme scheme and length together. The result is a form we call the Roundabout. In this form, the rhyme scheme comes full circle while offering repetition of one line in each rhyme set. 
 
The Roundabout is a four stanza poem, with each stanza consisting of 5 lines. The poem is written in iambic and the lines have 4 feet, 3 feet, 2 feet, 2 feet and 3 feet respectively. The rhyme scheme is abccb/bcddc/cdaad/dabba. Roundabouts can be on any subject. 
 
Several of the writers on our forum have written Roundabouts and have had a blast.” We would love for other poets to give it a try! Here are some examples to get you started.
 
Crash
by David Edwards
 
Around around the carousel
across the circles face
we cry we shout
we crash about
across the circles face
 
and ever always breakneck pace
by this unending route
and twists and turns
and breaks and burns
by this unending route
 
of ever always in and out
the yearling quickly learns
to run and yell
at ocean’s swell
the yearling quickly learns
 
to run and leap and then he earns
but he will never tell
there’s not a chase
that wins the race
but he will never tell.
 
 
 
When Spring Trips ‘Round
by Sara Diane Doyle
 
When wildflowers bloom once more
and raindrops touch the earth,
the faeries come
to start the hum
and raindrops touch the earth!
 
Come join the song, the dance the mirth!
Enjoy the juicy plum.
beneath the sun
’til day is done-
enjoy the juicy plum!
 
The clouds let out the beating drum-
rejoice with us as one.
Our joy we pour
for pain we bore-
rejoice with us as one.
 
Of gleeful hope, the snow knows none,
but speaks of faeries lore,
of magic birth,
the greatest worth
but speaks of faeries lore.

Pasted from http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poetry-craft-tips/new-poetic-form-the-roundabout
My Thanks to Poetic-Asides.

Specifications restated:
Roundabout is:
A 20 line poem, attributed to David Edwards
Stanzaic: Consisting of 4 five-line stanza
Metered: Iambic with feet of 4/3/2/2/3 per line
Rhyme Scheme: aBccB bCddC cDaaD dAbbA
Refrain: L2 is repeated as L5 in each stanza

My example

Roundabout

Roundabout (Roundabout)

The driver thought he’d save some time.
although the sign said no.
he’d always say
he knew the way
although the sign said no.

His load was long but even so
’twas shorter this-a-way.
He drove enough
and knew his stuff —
’twas shorter this-a-way.

He shrugged and said “I’ll be okay”,
he put the truck in gear.
He took his time
and did the crime;
he put the truck in gear.

Half through the loop, he could not clear;
it cost him many dime
to learn what’s so;
when he could go
it cost him many dime.

© Lawrencealot – January 20, 2015

Photo credit: taken by poet.

Visual template

Roundabout

Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

By | | ,
Comments Off on Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

The Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza was a popular stanzaic form in 12th-14th century England. Variations also can be found in France in the form of the Rime Couée and Scotland in the Burns Stanza. Tail Rhymed Stanza simply refers to a stanza from 6 or 12 lines long with 1 or 2 short lines that carry the same rhyme.

The Tail Rhymed Stanza is:
• stanzaic, most often written in any number of sixains but the stanzas could be 12 lines each.
• metered, often accentual with longer lines or 4 stresses and one or two lines of only 2 stresses. The lines are also found written in trochaic or iambic tetrameter with one or two lines dimeter. The shorter lines are most commonly in L3,L6,L9 & L12 but can be found in different arrangements as in the Burns Stanza
• rhymed, the most common schemes are aabaab or aabccb with L2 & L6 being the shorter lines. In a 12 line stanza common schemes are aabccbddbeeb or aabaabaabaab with L3,L6,L9 & L12 being the shorter lines.

Rural Architecture by William Wordsworth 1801

THERE’S George Fisher, Charles Fleming, and Reginald Shore,
Three rosy-cheeked school-boys, the highest not more
Than the height of a counsellor’s bag;
To the top of GREAT HOW did it please them to climb:
And there they built up, without mortar or lime,
A Man on the peak of the crag.
They built him of stones gathered up as they lay:
They built him and christened him all in one day,
An urchin both vigorous and hale;
And so without scruple they called him Ralph Jones.
Now Ralph is renowned for the length of his bones;
The Magog of Legberthwaite dale.
Just half a week after, the wind sallied forth,
And, in anger or merriment, out of the north,
Coming on with a terrible pother,
From the peak of the crag blew the giant away.
And what did these school-boys?–The very next day
They went and they built up another.
–Some little I’ve seen of blind boisterous works
By Christian disturbers more savage than Turks,
Spirits busy to do and undo:
At remembrance whereof my blood sometimes will flag;
Then, light-hearted Boys, to the top of the crag!
And I’ll build up giant with you.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2081
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Global Warming in Buffalo (Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza)

Right now there is no traffic flow –
because of snow.
In Buffalo it’s piled up deep
where winter’s put on quite a show
and automobiles cannot go
where hills are steep.

Can global warming take this hit?
It does not fit!
But neither did the facts they changed
to which their emails did admit
which made some folks become a bit
more deranged.
© Lawrencealot – November 20, 2014

Visual template

Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

Decathlon

By | | ,
Comments Off on Decathlon

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.

• Decathlon (Greek – contest of 10 Anne Pendleton. An exercise in meter and rhyme.

The Decathlon is:
○ a decastich, a poem in 10 lines.
○ metered, L1, L2, L4, L6,L7 are tetrameter, L3, L5,L8 are dimeter, L9-L10 are pentameter (a heroic couplet.
○ rhymed, axbxaccbdd. X being unrhymed.

Read White and Blue by Judi Van Gorder

The fervid and triumphant due,
creating frame by predesign.
Artistic try
to write ten lines into a tome
that’s something new
with book of words that match and rhyme
to help me waste way too much time.
Don’t think me shy,
I finish with iambic rhyming two,
heroic couplet read on white in blue.

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

An Exercise (Decathlon)

How klutzy can you make a form
just might have been the question here,
I thought at first.
To random lines and staggered rhyme
I must conform.
This form will truly be a test.
I’m sure that it won’t be my best,
and not my worst.
I see! It’s meant to be an exercise
for poets, thus therein it’s value lies.

© Lawrencealot – September 5, 2014

Visual template

Decathlon

The Stephens

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Stephens

• The Stephens is a stanzaic form that uses alternating rising and falling end syllables and is patterned after The Watcher and named for the English poet verse James Stephens (1882-1950).

The Stephens is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of sixains. (original poem has 5 sixains)
○ accentual, dimeter.
○ rhymed, ababxb cdcdxd etc. x being unrhymed.
○ composed with feminine endings in the odd numbered lines L1, L3 and L5 and masculine rhyme in the even numbered lines L2, L4, L6.

The Watcher by James Stephens
A rose for a young head,
A ring for a bride,
Joy for the homestead
Clean and wide
Who’s that waiting
In the rain outside?
A heart for an old friend,
A hand for the new:
Love can to earth lend
Heaven’s hue
Who’s that standing
In the silver dew?
A smile for the parting,
A tear as they go,
God’s sweethearting
Ends just so
Who’s that watching
Where the black winds blow ?
He who is waiting
In the rain outside,
He who is standing
Where the dew drops wide,
He who is watching
In the wind must ride
(Tho’ the pale hands cling)
With the rose
And the ring
And the bride,
Must ride
With the red of the rose,
And the gold of the ring,
And the lips and the hair of the bride.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO resouce.
I would just call it predominantly amphibrachic with alternating catalectic lines and not bother with trying to identify and duplicate every variation.  Stephens clearly wasn’t concerned with metrical regularity.  The only reason it works is that there are two distinctly stressed beats in each line that are separated by strategically placed unstressed syllables, but very few poets understand the principles of stress or have the innate sense of rhythm that lets them pull off something like this. –
Knot To Be Undone
My thanks to Mary Borne for the analysis above.
My example poem
Nighttime Revival (The Stephens)
A time for the lovers
the magic of night
no need for covers
not tonight.
Doubts, though minor
give way to delight.
Just touching for pleasure,
a kiss on the lips,
tender stroking
fingertips.
Mundane cares are
so surely eclipsed.
With morning’s arrival
we’ll wake and ascend;
another revival
My darling, my friend.
Hopes still remaining
that this never ends.
© Lawrencealot – July 19, 2014

An incidental visual template:
The Stephens

The de la Mare

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on The de la Mare

• The de la Mare is a verse form patterned after Fare Well by English poet, Walter De La Mare (1873-1956). De La Mare is better known for his poem The Listeners.
The de la Mare is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of octaves made up of 2 quatrains.
○ metered, quatrains of 3 tetrameter lines followed by a dimeter line.
○ rhymed, xaxaxbxb xcxcxdxd etc. x being unrhymed.
○ composed with alternating feminine and masculine end words, only the masculine end words are rhymed.

Fare Well by Walter de la Mare
When I lie where shades of darkness
Shall no more assail mine eyes,
Nor the rain make lamentation
When the wind sighs;
How will fare the world whose wonder
Was the very proof of me?
Memory fades, must the remembered
Perishing be?
Oh, when this my dust surrenders
Hand, foot, lip, to dust again,
May these loved and loving faces
Please other men!
May the rusting harvest hedgerow
Still the Traveller’s Joy entwine,
And as happy children gather
Posies once mine.
Look thy last on all things lovely,
Every hour. Let no night
Seal thy sense in deathly slumber
Till to delight
Thou have paid thy utmost blessing;
Since that all things thou wouldst praise
Beauty took from those who loved them
In other days
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work creating the fine PoetryMagnumOpen resource.
My example poem
Tommy Teased Me (The de la Mare)
Tommy Teased Me
Tommy teased me to distraction
told me I was “just a girl”.
N’er-the-less he told all strangers-
I was his pearl.
Tommy taught me worms aren’t icky,
showed me how to fly a kite.
I most miss him in the daytime
Mom cries at night.
How I hope that heaven’s happy,
Daddy says that’s where he went.
Now there is a hole beside me
since his ascent.
Pictures on the fireplace mantle
Tell the tales of trips we shared
Mostly I’ll miss Tommy’s teasing
because he cared.
© Lawrencealot – June 11,2014
Visual Template
The de la Mare

Three-peat Refrain

By | | ,
Comments Off on Three-peat Refrain

The Three-peat Refrain was invented by Mark Andrew J. Terry of Allpoetry.

It is a 13 line poem.
It is stanzaic, consisting of two quintets and a three line tail.
It is syllabic: 4/4/8/8/6
It is metric written in iambic dimeter, trimeter, and tetrameter.
It is rhymed: AbbcbAddcdAcd
Where the first line is a Refrain, repeated in each stanza.

I Dream of Pathos
If in this world
when tears are shed
a golden cup would catch what’s bled
by eyes whose pain is free-unfurled
and all of us have read
If in this world
each human heart
could empathize and do their part
to stand between the pain that swirled
what greed and bleed impart
If in this world
pathos uncurled
and guided every choice’s chart
© Mark Andrew J. Terry, June 2014
Ddoubletake comment on All Poetry – Wonderful! The form seems familiar, but I’m not really familiar enough with form poetry to place it. This is highly emotional without being overdone, which I appreciate. Lovely sentiment.
Well, the form seems like it deserves to be familiar, but did not exist in my list so I wrote the following to Mark:
The form you’ve used-
unknown to me
has turned on high my OCD
and stimulates my need to know
and I can’t let it be.
The form you’ve used-
unique for sure
has properties with much allure.
My ignorance can’t be excused
for knowledge is the cure.
The form you’ve used
you must bestow
that it’s name may endure.
…and he bestowed the name….
Visual Template
Three-peat Refrain

The Phillimore

By | | , ,
Comments Off on The Phillimore

The Phillimore is a stanzaic form that moves from dimeter to pentameter and back again. It is named for John Swinnerton Phillimore (1873-1926) and patterned after his poem In a Meadow.

The Phillimore is:

  • stanzaic written in any number of octaves. (original poem has 6 octaves)
  • metered, L1, L4,L6 and L8 are dimeter, L2,L3,L5, and L7 are pentameter.
  • rhymed, aabbccdd.
    In a Meadow by John Swinnerton Phillimore

THIS is the place
Where far from the unholy populace
The daughter of Philosophy and Sleep
Her court doth keep,
Sweet Contemplation. To her service bound
Hover around
The little amiable summer airs,
Her courtiers.
The deep black soil
Makes mute her palace-floors with thick trefoil;
The grasses sagely nodding overhead
Curtain her bed;
And lest the feet of strangers overpass
Her walls of grass,
Gravely a little river goes his rounds
To beat the bounds.
—No bustling flood
To make a tumult in her neighbourhood,
But such a stream as knows to go and come
Discreetly dumb.
Therein are chambers tapestried with weeds
And screen’d with reeds;
For roof the waterlily-leaves serene
Spread tiles of green.
The sun’s large eye
Falls soberly upon me where I lie;
For delicate webs of immaterial haze
Refine his rays.
The air is full of music none knows what,
Or half-forgot;
The living echo of dead voices fills
The unseen hills.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on the fine PoetryMagnumOpus resource.
My example poem
With Love Possessed (The Pillimore)
I won’t repent.
I love your touch, your hair, your smile, your scent.
Anticipation takes my breath away
throughout the day.
A gesture made, a turning of your head,
with nothing said
provokes desire and happiness in me
for all to see!
If you ignite
desire by accident it’s quite alright
for fates have so aligned so both that lust
is right and just.
When I’m away, I agonize my dear,
that you’re not here.
Dispelled is every other form of strife
my darling wife.
© Lawrencealot – June 10, 2014
Visual template
The Phillimore

The Donne

By | | ,
Comments Off on The Donne

The Donne is named for the English Poet, John Donne (1573-1631) patterned after his A Hymn to God the Father. John Donne was known as a metaphysical poet and his poetic style directly influenced the poetry of the 16th century.
The Donne is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
• metered, L1 through L4 are pentameter, L5 tetrameter and L6 is dimeter.
• rhymed, with an alternating rhyme scheme ababab. The rhyme scheme maintains the same 2 rhymes throughout the poem ababab ababab etc.
Hymn to God the Father by John Donne (first stanza)
WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
— Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
— And do run still, though still I do deplore?
—— When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,
—————- For I have more.
Done Donne by Rex Allen Brewer
How can I find a way to write like Donne,
When comes the fun, who cracks the door?
My words are poor, like weeds without the sun.
I can’t find rhyme or pun, I am a bore.
I walk the floor, what have I won?
Foul done, no score.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the find PMO resource.
My example poem
Look It in the Mouth (The Donne)
ILook It in the Mouth
Look It in the Mouth (The Donne)
I’ve got a chance where I might win a horse.
It was purchased for me by Johnny Black.
I was appreciative, and glad of course
though I’ve not been upon a horses back.
It’s likely something I’ll endorse
though I know jack.
Then searching for a proper clothing souce
for boots and buckle, hat and clothes I lack
I found with that I’d only be midcourse.
I’d need a saddle and the horses tack.
Don’t let me win! I’ve such remorse
please take it back.
© Lawrencealot – June 22, 2014
Visual Template
The Donne

The Swinburne

By | | , ,
Comments Off on The Swinburne
      • The Swinburne is a stanzaic form patterned after Before the Mirror by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909).The Swinburne is:
        • stanzaic, written in any number of septets.
        • metric, L1,L3,L5, & L6 are trimeter, L2 & L4 are dimeter, and L7 is pentameter.
        • rhymed ababccb dedeffe etc, L1 & L3 have feminine or falling rhyme.
This named form was documented by Judi Van Gorder, on her most wonderful resource site: Poetry Manum Opus, in a section about poetry form named after English poets.
Note: In addition to the specifications above, it is also required that the sixth syllable in Line 7 rhyme with lines 5 and 6.

Before the Mirror
I.
WHITE ROSE in red rose-garden
Is not so white;
Snowdrops that plead for pardon
And pine for fright
Because the hard East blows
Over their maiden rows
Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright.
Behind the veil, forbidden,
Shut up from sight,
Love, is there sorrow hidden,
Is there delight?
Is joy thy dower or grief,
White rose of weary leaf,
Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?
Soft snows that hard winds harden
Till each flake bite
Fill all the flowerless garden
Whose flowers took flight
Long since when summer ceased,
And men rose up from feast,
And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.
II.
“Come snow, come wind or thunder
High up in air,
I watch my face, and wonder
At my bright hair;
Nought else exalts or grieves
The rose at heart, that heaves
With love of her own leaves and lips that pair.
“She knows not loves that kissed her
She knows not where.
Art thou the ghost, my sister,
White sister there,
Am I the ghost, who knows?
My hand, a fallen rose,
Lies snow-white on white snows, and takes no care.
“I cannot see what pleasures
Or what pains were;
What pale new loves and treasures
New years will bear;
What beam will fall, what shower,
What grief or joy for dower;
But one thing knows the flower; the flower is fair.”
III.
Glad, but not flushed with gladness,
Since joys go by;
Sad, but not bent with sadness,
Since sorrows die;
Deep in the gleaming glass
She sees all past things pass,
And all sweet life that was lie down and lie.
There glowing ghosts of flowers
Draw down, draw nigh;
And wings of swift spent hours
Take flight and fly;
She sees by formless gleams,
She hears across cold streams,
Dead mouths of many dreams that sing and sigh.
Face fallen and white throat lifted,
With sleepless eye
She sees old loves that drifted,
She knew not why,
Old loves and faded fears
Float down a stream that hears
The flowing of all men’s tears beneath the sky.

Algernon Charles Swinburne
Example poem
Caretaker      (The Swinburne)
When forced to go and going
with all due haste,
you leave already knowing
there must be waste.
I never, as a boy
expected old man’s joy
at seeing an old toy I had misplaced.
The things you leave behind you
are not all done.
They’re simply tasks assigned to
another one.
When your life takes a turn
the habits you adjourn
may tickle Time who spurns a lack of fun.
© Lawrencealot – May 8, 2014

Amphion

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Amphion
• Amphion, another 20th century American verse form invented as a teaching tool. It alternates tetrameter lines with dimeter lines, created byViola Berg.The Amphion is:
○ a poem of 10 lines.
○ metered, tetrameter lines alternate with sets of rhymed dimeter couplets.
○ Rhymed, rhyme scheme  abbaccdeed
Super Bowl Sunday by Judi Van Gorder
A day of football at its end,
the bowls of chips
and gooey dips.
Emotions now are on the mend
the ups and downs
the fan base clowns.
The black and gold have got the win,
the players crow,
the losers go
their loss is carried on the chin.
Pasted from
A great thanks to Judi Van Gorder for making PMO a premier resource.
Syllabic 8/4/4/8/4/4/8/4/4
Example Poem
Bar Bully Ballet (Amphion)
He sits there staring at his drink.
his life is bad
and he’s so sad
A bully entered– what’d ya think?
He grabbed the glass
He’s such an ass–
The sad guy cries he is so blue.
“Damn all’s gone wrong,
“Twas my swan song–
Then this ass drank my poisoned brew! ”
© Lawrencealot -November 26,2013
Visual Template
amphion