Tag Archives: tetrameter

Denturn

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

  • Stanzaic: 2 stanzas of iambic tetrameter
  • 2 stanzas of trochaic tetrameter
  • Rhyme pattern: poet’s option.
  • It is comprised of two IAMBIC, 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 TROCHAIC metre, make the argument, (emphasised by the change of metre.)
  • SPECIAL NOTE: If two syllables are used at the TURN, then the following line should have ANACRUSIS in order to make the seamless transition between metres.

an·a·cru·sis
(ăn′ə-kro͞o′sĭs)
n.
One or more unstressed syllables at the beginning of a line of verse, before the reckoning of the normal meter begins.From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anacrusis

Turner’s Examples

Form: Denturn

Go For It

I’m in a quandary, on the spot:
Now, should I exercise or not?
I’d much prefer to just relax
Instead of pounding running tracks.
The gym is not the place for me;
The sofa is the place to be!
I’d rather browse the Internet
Than run a round and smell of sweat,

Although,

It’s true that heart disease is stealthy,
Even when you feel quite healthy.
Maybe running at the double
COULD be worth a little trouble.
My excess will take some shifting,
Maybe I could try weight lifting?
This great book will show me how,
Here’s my chance; I’ll start right now.

© Dennis William Turner

My Attempts

Form: Denturn

Puppies

The puppies chew on furniture,
and eat up books I’ve out on loan,
which now require expenditure
and thus become my very own.
They chew things just to hear them crunch
and chewed up paper lines our hall,
They miss the training pads a bunch
and won’t all come each time I call,

and yet,

I don’t believe I’ll give them up;
Can’t release a single pup
They have taken up my heart –
Dollars aren’t just cause to part!
All of them should outlive me.
(Vets and food and toys aren’t free),
Joy and love and laughter reign –
Puppies make me young again!

© Lawrence Eberhart – 7/18/17

Comments by Mr. Turner:

Although your piece was technically correct, the use of catalectic lines in the Trochaic section gives it the ‘feel’ of acephalous iambic. The real essence of the Trochaic section is the double-syllable end rhyme. It is this that gives the strong contrast with the first section, (along with the stressed syllable to start the line of course.) I know that I have used a catalectic ending for my final rhyme, but that was deliberate in order to finish with a stressed syllable for emphasis as in the punchline of a joke. In fact, I’ve used the same ploy on other Denturns that I have written. I much prefer the strict tempo approach in order to get the full feeling of contrast. My opinion. What do you think?

WHAT I THINK. Dennis is spot on! Here is my revised poem.

Puppies (Revised)

The puppies chew on furniture,
and eat up books I’ve out on loan,
which now require expenditure
and thus become my very own.
They chew things just to hear them crunch
and chewed up paper lines our hall,
They miss the training pads a bunch
and won’t all come each time I call,

and yet,

I don’t believe their ever leavin’
Can’t release one puppy even.
They own me now; I’m enchanted.
Planned to sell but I’ve recanted.
They’ll outlive me, so I reckon
We’ll share love ’til angels beckon.
Joy and love and laughter reign –
Puppies make me young again!

© Lawrence Eberhart – 7/25/17

Visual Template:

Taylor

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• The Taylor is an invented form, patterned from Upon a Spider Catching a Fly by Edward Taylor (1642-1729) who some call the finest colonial poet although his work was not published until 1939. A puritan poet, his poems are lyrical and yet reflect a staunch Calvinist tone.

The Taylor is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of cinquains.
○ metric, iambic, L1 trimeter, L2 and L4 dimeter, L3 tetrameter, L5 monometer.
○ rhymed or at least near rhymed ababb cdcdd efeff etc.

Upon a Spider Catching a Fly by Edward Taylor

Thou sorrow, venom elf.
Is this thy play,
To spin a web out of thyself
To catch a fly?
For why?

I saw a pettish wasp
Fall foul therein,
Whom yet thy whorl pins did not clasp
Lest he should fling
His sting.

But as afraid, remote
Didst stand here at
And with thy little fingers stroke
And gently tap
His back.

Thus gently him didst treat
Lest he should pet,
And in a froppish waspish heat
Should greatly fret
Thy net.

Whereas the silly fly,
Caught by its leg,
Thou by the throat took’st hastily
And ‘hind the head
Bite dead.

This goes to pot, that not
Nature doth call.
Strive not above what strength hath got
Lest in the brawl
Thou fall.

This fray seems thus to us:
Hell’s spider gets
His entrails spun to whipcords’ thus,
And wove to nets
And sets,

To tangle Adam’s race
In’s stratagems
To their destructions, spoiled, made base
By venom things,
Damned sins.

But mighty, gracious Lord,
Communicate
Thy grace to break the cord; afford
Us glory’s gate
And state.

We’ll Nightingale sing like,
When perched on high
In glory’s cage, Thy glory, bright,
And thankfully,
For joy.

Pasted from Poetry Magnum Opus, with thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My Example

Form: Taylor

Broken Names

I have a friend named Jack,
his brother’s Al.
Their mother wants her old name back
to boost locale
morale.

Since Ackbarr’s now her name
she thinks it’s broken,
perverted by the Islam game
when it’s a token
spoken.

One can’t now yell, “Hi, Jack”
most any where
nor “Allen Ackbarr, glad you’re back!
You been somewhere
by air?”

© Lawrencealot – January 26, 2015

Visual Template

Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

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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

Twin-Rhymer

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This is a form created by Mary Lou Healy, writing on Allpoetry as Mlou.

I had originally named it the Spanner, drawn from the title of  the poem below.  However she has written several with the general form, including a sonnet version, so I am changing the form name in both cases to “Twin-Rhymer” which in more descriptive and is the creator’s preference.

Her first such poem was “I Span the Sky”

Like the forest in which I stand,
I raise my arms to embrace the sky.
I’m one with tall trees and greening land
with never a need to question why.
Life is what it is!  On either hand,
I grasp its truth with a gladsome cry.
I hold it fast by a single strand
and all the whims of chance deny.
The farthest vistas my arms have spanned,
intensely blue as lazuli,
hold secrets I may not understand
but I’ve no need to identify
the mystery of a cloud, wind-fanned
or the wing-tilt of dark hawks who fly.
All is just as creation planned
for the life of such as you and I.
 
 
Pasted from http://allpoetry.com/poem/10301105-To-Span-The-Sky-by-Mlou

I named it the Spanner and provided the specifications below, so that we might try it.

The Spanner is:
The poem is a strophe of any even number of lines.
Meter: Tetrameter lines, consisting of primarily of:
Iamb + Amphibrach +2 iambs
Rhyme pattern: alternating rhymes, also called cross-rhyme i.e., ababab

Note: The template I present to the world will be of a
poem that adheres strictly to the quoted meter, although
we know that in practice a line may  range from 7 to 10 syllables.

My example

Snoozing with My Muse (Twin-Rhymer)

I sleep so soundly when very tired
as opposed to when I merely doze,
and I get tired when I’m uninspired
that’s very often, I do suppose.
While doing nothing will make me tired
I tire much more wielding rakes and hoes.
I put in all of the years required
in solving corporate cares and woes;
then time arrived and I was retired.
I’ve time to think now, and to compose,
but can’t begin till a theme’s acquired.
So there I sit. You know how that goes!
I drift off thinking of things desired…
I’m working honey, in sweet repose.

© Lawrencealot – October 18, 2014

Visual template
Now renamed Twin-Rhymer
Spanner

Decathlon

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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

Arkaham Ballad

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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.

• Arkaham Ballad can be identified by the last line of each stanza being repeated as the first three metric feet of the next stanza. One more invented stanza form appears to be a teaching tool created by Queena Davidson Miller. It is not really a ballad but is suited to relate current events and news articles.

The Arkaham Ballad is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of cinquains.
○ accentual syllabic, iambic, L1, L3, L4 tetrameter and L2 and L5 trimeter.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme xabba xcddc xeffe etc. x being unrhymed.
○ composed with L5 repeated as the 1st three metric feet of L1 of the next stanza.
○ suited to current events and the news.

Police Shooting by Judi Van Gorder

They say an unarmed man was shot
by cops who’ve run-a-muck.
A family man who cut some hair
and shaved a face or two. A pair
of punks highjacked a truck.

The punks highjacked a truck and he
was at the same address,
police arrived and shots were fired,
the barber hit and soon expired
The why of it a guess.

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

Conduct Unbecoming (Arkaham Ballad)

Subcultures determine the flow
when hate has been accrued.
For race and religion involve
some problems most hard to resolve.
Perhaps mankind is screwed.

Perhaps mankind is screwed my friend,
as Ferguson has shown,
and Watts before, and Rodney King,
and every other racial thing.
The hateful seeds are sown.

The hateful seeds are sown by acts
that we can justify.
We’ll plunder, hurt, and break the laws
and disregard, it harms our cause
but still won’t satisfy.

© Lawrencealot – September 1, 2014

Visual template

Arkaham Ballad

Swinburne's Sestet

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The form is patterned after Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Ilicet”

It is stanzaic, consisting of any number of sestets.
It is metered, written in iambic tetrameter.
It is rhymed: aabccb, with all but the b-rhymes being feminine.

My example poem
Retribution – Part 1 (Swinburne Sestet)
The desert stretched before the brothers
with air that clings and nearly smothers
and things that live here go to ground.
Now only driven desperation
could make them risk the dehydration
that others crossing here had found.
The renegades had raped and slaughtered
both Henry’s wife and teen-aged daughter
while Tom and he had been away.
The men had now a fearful mission
and they would kill with no contrition
but first they had to live today.
Their water gone, their strength was failing.
Despite the sun, Tom’s face was paling
The waterhole was miles ahead.
Now… just ahead- they were arriving
the waterhole that meant surviving,
without the water they’d be dead.
The spring was poisoned by the outlaws
their evil, dammit, was without flaws.
In it were bloated putrid sheep.
The sun was hot and acted willing
to help them with their slow distilling
enough to drink then more to keep.
The next two days they traveled nightly
and persevered ’til sun shone brightly.
They set their horses free to roam
in foothills. To continue healthy
their only movements must be stealthy.
or death would call these mountains home.
Each bandit kept his horse and cattle-
delighted with their ill-gained chattel
and forced therefore to stick to trails.
The brothers both had served as trackers
and army scouts, and were not slackers,;
they were in fact as hard as nails.
One had a crossbow, one a rifle
both carried knives to wreak reprisal.
Now vengeance was their only aim.
The renegades had thrived on terror,
but their last raid had been an error
now retribution surely came.
© Lawrencealot – July 21, 2014
Visual template
 

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.’

The de la Mare

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• 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

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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