This is a form created by Lisa LaGrange on Allpoetry.com
It is Stanzic, consisting of any number of quatrains.
It is isosyllabic, eight syllables per line.
It is metered, generally iambic tetameter, but not limited thereto.
It has a repetition (Refrain) requirement
Except for the refrain, which is the first 4 syllable of line one, repeated twice as line 4, it requires mono-rhyme.
Rhyme pattern: aaaR
Note: Added 2/23/2014:
The Trifrain is a new form that I added to this blog in January 2014, which is so very like a Monotetra (created in 2003), that I have been contacted with the following message: I think you should be careful when giving credit to a poet for creating a poetic form. You documented that Lisa LaGrange created a new form called a “Trifrain”. She now insists that it’s her form when in actuality it’s nothing more than a modified Monotetra created years ago by: Michael Walker.
I agree with the statement that is it nothing more than a modified Monotetra, but it is just that – modified. It adds the REQUIREMENT of a REFRAIN (While dropping the requirement of MONO-RHYME.)
Lisa could well have simply credited her writing as such a modification, without giving it a name. But now we have a label we can refer to if we wish to write this style.
My dilemma, is that I cannot unilaterally decide that the new requirements are insufficient to allow a new name. Many sonnet forms were invented with merely a change of rhyme pattern, etc…
But I definitely can and will give credit to the inspiring poet upon whose shoulders one is standing.
Example poem:
Nap Time (Trifrain)
I need a nap to clear my head
that happens when I go to bed
to sleep instead, well just instead.
I need a nap. I need a nap.
My tasks await, I can’t delay
my puppy sez it’s time to play
my wife wants barking far a way.
My tasks await. My tasks await.
I’ll get things done I’ll catch up soon
I’ll still have all this afternoon
but with my muse I must commune.
I’ll get things done. I’ll get things done.
My head is clear. I took a nap
with puppy cuddled in my lap
I’m better now, My nap’s a wrap.
My head is clear. My head is clear.
© Lawrencealot – January 30, 2014
Visual Template:
This template shows iambic tetrameter.
