POETRY YEARBOOK PROJECT Poetry Forms DIRECTIONS: Use this guide of poetry forms to help you create your poems about your memorable experiences during this school year. CLERIHEW Clerihews are funny poems your write about a person. 1. It has four lines. 2. The first and second lines rhyme with each other; the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other. 3. The first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with name of the person. Written by Kenn Nesbitt The enemy of Harry Potter Was a scheming plotter. I can t tell you what he s called; I d be ashamed To name he who must not be named. DODOITSU The Dodoitsu is a fixed folk song form of Japanese origin often about love or humor. 1. It has one stanza with 26 syllables four lines of 7, 7, 7, 5. 2. It is unrhymed and non-metrical. Buried Treasure by Suzanne Honour Gemstones the size of grapefruit hide camouflaged in the rocks buried like a treasure chest waiting to be found. {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 1
TRITINA The Tritina is modeled on the Sestina, a French poetry form. The Sestina was used by troubadours, lyric poets, to tell a story. 1. It is four stanzas long 3 three line stanzas concluding with 1 one line stanza. 2. Lines may be of any length, but it is consistent throughout the poem. The lines do 3. Three unrhymed words are used at the end each of the lines of a stanza are repeated in the following pattern: Stanza A: 1 2 3 Stanza B: 3 1 2 Stanza C: 2 3 1 Stanza D: (1, 2, 3) embedded within the line Tritina by Gloria Carpenter A ten line poem we ll write, just you and I But let s call it Tritina, shall we, love? Connecting lines together...fun with you! Could we take turns so I could share with you? Although it might be hard, for sometimes I Begin with words you might not like or love. But we could try, okay, for I would love Coordinating all the lines with you At last, our own creation, you and I. It ends, Tritina says, with I love you. {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 2
GHAZAL The Ghazal was developed in Persia in the 10 th century AD from the Arabic verse form Qasida. 1. It is seven stanzas long each stanza is a couplet (two lines long). 2. A refrain, a repeated word or phrase, appears at the end of both lines of the first couplet and at the end of the second line in each succeeding couplet. 3. Each couplet should be a poem that can stand alone. The refrain is the link among the couplets. 4. The last couplet can be a signature couplet using your name in the 1 st, 2 nd, or 3 rd person and giving a direct declaration of thought or feeling to the reader. The Ghazal of What Hurt by Peter Cole Pain froze you, for years and fear leaving scars. but now, as though miraculously, it seems, here you are walking easily across the ground, and into town as though you were floating on air, which in part you are, or riding a wave of what feels like the world's good will though helped along by something foreign and older than you are and yet much younger too, inside you, and so palpable an X-ray, you're sure, would show it, within the body you are, not all that far beneath the skin, and even in some bones. Making you wonder: Are you what you are with all that isn't actually you having flowed through and settled in you, and made you what you are? the pain was never replaced, nor was it quite erased. it's memory now so you know just how lucky you are. you didn't always. Were you then? And where's the fear? inside your words, like an engine? The car you are?! face it, friend, you most exist when you're driven away, or on by forms and forces greater than you are. {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 3
PANTOUM The Pantoum is a Malaysian form of poetry, adopted and adapted by the French. 1. It has four stanzas; each stanza is a quatrain (has 4 lines) that may or may not rhyme. 2. Whole lines are repeated in an interlocking pattern, creating a kind of circle. The second and fourth lines of a stanza become the first and third lines of the stanza that follows. In the last stanza, the first and third lines of the opening stanza are finally repeated as the fourth and second lines. Line Pattern: Stanza 1: 1, 2, 3, 4 Stanza 2: 2, 5, 4, 6 Stanza 3: 5, 7, 6, 8 Stanza 4: 7, 3, 8, 1 Tomorrow is a Brand New Day by Barry Franklin Tomorrow is a brand new day Nothing will remain the same Changing in a subtle way Forget all those who are to blame Nothing will remain the same The sun is gone but will return Forget all those who are to blame And all the things they said that burn The sun is gone but will return It takes with it the fallen few And all the things they said that burn Another day begins anew It takes with it the fallen few Changing in a subtle way Another day begins anew Tomorrow is a brand new day {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 4
RICTAMETER The Rictameter was created in the 1990s by Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford, Jr. 1. It has 9 lines. 2. The first and last lines are the same with the following syllable count: Line 1 two syllables Line 2 four syllables Line 3 six syllables Line 4 eight syllables Line 5 ten syllables Summer Storm by CR Ward Silence the night is still the summer wind has died dark clouds rush in and sky grows dark growling, crashing and then lightning flashing fading slowly storm is passing all we can do is wait for impending silence Line 6 eight syllables Line 7 six syllables Line 8 four syllables Line 9 two syllables THAN-BAUK A Than-Bauk is a climbing rhyme poem of Burmese origin. 1. It has one 3 line stanza. 2. Each line has four syllables. 3. The rhyme is on the fourth syllable of the first line, the third syllable of the second line, and the second syllable of the third line. Lighten Up by Suzanne Honour Turn on the lights; don t let sights of dark nights haunt you. {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 5
MONCHIELLE The Monchielle is a contemporary poetry form created by the Norwegian poet, Jim T. Hendriksen. 1. It consists of four stanzas each stanza has 5 lines. 2. Each line has six syllables. 3. The first line repeats in each stanza. 4. Lines three and five rhyme. Rules by Hendriksen You start each verse alike, Third line and fifth must rhyme. Line two and four is free For messages sublime. You must abide by rules To be the perfect bard. Each line six syllables, It is not very hard. Four stanzas you must write To get your message through. I know it may be tough, But something you must do. Is fun and challenging, It spreads like raging fire. Although it is my style, Use it as you desire. {Document Creator: Chanmi Chun} 6