The Yeats

The Yeats is a verse form patterned after Where My Books Go by Irish poet, William Butler Yeats. (1865-1939)

The Yeats is:
○ an octastich, a poem in 8 lines.
○ metric, accentual 3 heavy stresses per line.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme xaxaxaxa x being unrhymed. The even numbered lines have feminine or falling end syllables.

Where My Books Go by William Butler Yeats
All the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,
And sing to you in the night,
Beyond where the waters are moving,
Storm-darken’d or starry bright.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work creating this wonderful PMO resource,

My Example Poem

Annie’s Gone (The Yeats)

Every thought I’m thinking
and every word I write
revolves around your leaving;
I’m all alone tonight.
I could not have predicted
when all things seemed alright
that hearts so bound together
could not restrict your flight.

© Lawrencealot – August 1, 2014

The Thorley

The Thorley is a stanzaic form patterned after the poem Chant for Reapers, by English poet, Wilfred Thorley 1878.

The Thorley is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
○ metered, accentual with alternating lines of L1 & L3 with 5 heavy stesses and L2 & L4 with 3 heavy stresses. The trimeter lines have feminine endings.
○ unrhymed.

Chant for Reapers by Wilfred Thorley
WHY do you hide, O dryads! when we seek
Your healing hands in solace?
Who shall soften like you the places rough?
Who shall hasten the harvest?
Why do you fly, O dryads! when we pray
For laden boughs and blossom?
Who shall quicken like you the sapling trees?
Who shall ripen the orchards?
Bare in the wind the branches wave and break,
The hazel nuts are hollow.
Who shall garner the wheat if you be gone?
Who shall sharpen his sickle?
Wine have we spilt, O dryads! on our knees
Have made you our oblation.
Who shall save us from dearth if you be fled?
Who shall comfort and kindle?
Sadly we delve the furrows, string the vine
Whose flimsy burden topples.
Downward tumble the woods if you be dumb,
Stript of honey and garland.
Why do you hide, O dryads! when we call,
With pleading hands up-lifted?
Smile and bless us again that all be well;
Smile again on your children.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of effort creating this fine PMO resource.
My Example

My Nose (The Thorley)

Say what you will about my larger nose
I seldom think about it.
It anchors well the other facial parts
a package deal, I reckon.

Note: my nose is notable I think
spread out long and spacious.
Seldom seeing it myself allows
measured self-contentment.

© Lawrencealot – August 2, 2014

Note: Stanza 1 is iambic, stanza 2 is trochaic. Both meet the accentual requirement of The Thorley.

Visual Template
Any arrangement with 5 and three stresses for the respective lines will work. This template shows two common meters.

The Thorley

The Herrick

The Herrick makes use of alternating feminine and masculine end words. It is a verse form named for Robert Herrick (1591-1674) and patterned after his poem To the Virgins to Make Much Time.

The Herrick is:
○ stanzaic, a poem of 4 quatrains. (16 lines)
○ metered, alternating tetrameter and trimeter lines. Odd number lines are tetrameter ,even numbered lines are trimeter.
○ rhyme, rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef ghgh. Odd numbered lines are masculine rhyme, even numbered lines have feminine rhyme.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick (1st stanza)

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may:
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer ;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry :
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resouce.
My Example poem

Are Caterpillars Cognizant?(The Herrick)

When caterpillars go to sleep
I wonder if they’re knowing
that while their sleep is very deep
their lovely wings are growing?

Is metamorphosis a shock
or is it all expected?
Do larvae young ones watch the clock
and know it’s all connected?

When they crochet that crusty shell
that doesn’t look delicious
and hide in sight so very well
are they themselves suspicious?

Like teenage girls that want a bust
anticipating greatly
do they awake with pride or just
think, “What has happened lately.”

© Lawrencealot, – July 27, 2014
Visual Template
The Herrick

The Tennyson

The Tennyson is a stanzaic form patterned after Ask Me No More by English poet,Alfred Lord Tennyson (1802-1892).

The Tennyson is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of cinquains.
○ metric, iambic, L1-L4 are pentameter and L5 is dimeter.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme abbaC deedC fggfC etc.
○ written in with L5 as a refrain repeated from stanza to stanza.

Ask Me No More by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea;
The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape,
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape;
But O too fond, when have I answer’d thee?
————–Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: what answer should I give?
I love not hollow cheek or faded eye:
Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die!
Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live;
————–Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal’d:
I strove against the stream and all in vain:
Let the great river take me to the main:
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;
————–Ask me no more.
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO resource.
My Example Poem
Wastrel ( The Tennyson)
I wasted time throughout my early years.
and emphasized my chase for corporate gold.
I knew of course, that everyone grows old
unless an early death brings loved-ones tears.
I wasted time.
I wasted time while children’s magic bloomed,
and took for granted miracles in play.
I let too many moments slip away.
I failed to nurture love that was presumed.
I wasted time.
I wasted time just letting days go by.
But now I savor simple daily things-
a child that laughs, a parakeet that sings-
and cannot help but often wonder why
I wasted time.
© Lawrencealot – July 29, 2014
Visual Template
The Tennyson

The Fletcher

The Fletcher is a verse form that employs long and short lines, from the poem Away, Delights by John Fletcher (1579-1625)

The Fletcher is:
○ 2 octaves made up of 2 quatrains each.
○ metered, L1, L3, L5, L8 are pentameter and L2, L4, L6, L7 are dimeter*.
○ rhymed ababcdcd efefghgh, L1 and L3 of each octave are feminine rhyme.

Away, Delights! By John Fletcher
AWAY, delights! go seek some other dwelling,
For I must die.
Farewell, false love! thy tongue is ever telling
Lie after lie.
For ever let me rest now from thy smarts;
Alas, for pity go
And fire their hearts
That have been hard to thee! Mine was not so.
Never again deluding love shall know me,
For I will die;
And all those griefs that think to overgrow me
Shall be as I:
For ever will I sleep, while poor maids cry–
‘Alas, for pity stay,
And let us die
With thee! Men cannot mock us in the clay.’
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the fine PMO resource.
CORRECTION: Line 6 is trimeter.

My Example poem

Drinking Time (The Fletcher)

The bar’s a proper place to start your drinking –
but not too soon
for only drunks and chippies, I am thinking
begin at noon.
If you’re despondent, casting only gloom
we’d rather you just stay
within your room.
our bar’s a place to hunt and flirt and play.

The advantage of starting drinking later –
for normal guys
the early girls will find you looking greater,
surprize, surprize!
And you can differentiate before
you find yourself a ten
that’s but a four.
But then, a four’s a ten compared to men.

© Lawencealot – July 26, 2014

The Stevenson

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.’

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 Russell

• The Russell is a verse form composed of three alternating rhyme quatrains written with the first 3 lines iambic pentameter and the fourth line iambic trimeter. It is patterned after The Great Breath by George William Russell (1867-1935),

The Russell 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.

The Great Breath by George William Russell
ITS edges foam’d with amethyst and rose,
Withers once more the old blue flower of day:
There where the ether like a diamond glows,
Its petals fade away.
A shadowy tumult stirs the dusky air;
Sparkle the delicate dews, the distant snows;
The great deep thrills–for through it everywhere
The breath of Beauty blows.
I saw how all the trembling ages past,
Moulded to her by deep and deeper breath,
Near’d to the hour when Beauty breathes her last
And knows herself in death.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the years of effort on the wonderful PoetryMagnumOpus resource.
My example Poem
Somewhere a Prince

Picture credit: Robert Dowling

Somewhere a Prince (The Russell)

There’s room to land a flying dragon here
and I’m above the clouds so don’t get wet.
It’s falling off the edges that I fear,
I’m higher than Tibet.

My prince desired to keep me safe and chaste.
Deliveries are made each week or two.
I hope the campaign’s through and done post-haste.
There’s no one here to do.

If he don’t win, I hope the dragon knows
to bring along the prince who does prevail.
the winner will be handsome I suppose
to make a happy tale.

© Lawrencealot – July 13, 2014

Visual Template
The Russell

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

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