The Dixon measures the differences between masculine and feminine rhyme. Patterned after the poem The Feathers of the Willow by English poet, Richard Watson Dixon (1833-1900)
The Dixon is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of sixains made up of 2 tercets.
○ metered, iambic* trimeter
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme aab ccb. The b rhymes are strong, masculine, the rhyme on a stressed end syllable. The a and c rhymes are feminine or falling rhymes, the rhyme is in the stressed syllable of an end word ending in an unstressed syllable.
The Feathers of the Willow by Richard Watson Dixon
THE feathers of the willow
Are half of them grown yellow
———- Above the swelling stream;
And ragged are the bushes,
And rusty now the rushes,
———- And wild the clouded gleam.
The thistle now is older,
His stalk begins to moulder,
———-His head is white as snow;
The branches all are barer,
The linnet’s song is rarer,
———-The robin pipeth now.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO resource.
*Added by Lawrencealot
My Example poem.
Unsmudged (The Dixon
I could not keep from fainting
aa you produced a painting
beneath my fairest skin.
You never have recanted
the claim that it’s enchanted.
A rune that’s blocking sin.
You said no one should see it
It’s awesome, but so be it
It’s there for only you.
Whichever face you’re seeing
it represents my being
and will be always true.
© Lawrencealot – June 19, 2014
Picture credit: Google pics, rights belong to photographer.
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