Here are the poerty forms we have used for our special poetry contests. You can click on the link below to get to the page with the poetry form you want or use the navagation buttons on the left hand side of this page.
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Poetry Forms for Special Contests:
How to write a Tanka:
Tanka is the modern name of a form of Japanese verse that dates back over twelve centuries. Older than haiku, tanka differs from haiku in both its form (31 syllables) and its style of expression.
In Japan, tanka has long been considered the most important form of Japanese poetry.
The Tanka is very similar to haiku but Tanka has more syllables and it uses simile, metaphor and personification.
Tankas are written about nature, seasons, love, sadness and other strong emotions. A tanka evokes a single moment with vivid precision and emotional veracity.
There are five lines in a Tanka .
Line 1 no more than 5 syllables Line 2 no more than 7 syllables Line 3 no more than 5 syllable Line 4 no more than 7 syllables Line 5 no more than 7 syllables
EXAMPLES:
cold cemetery the long sleeves of your old coat warm my fingertips even from beyond this grave you manage to comfort me by an'ya
for the third time this long afternoon I catch myself watching the new shadow of the plant you left me with by John Barlow
How to write a Sestina:
In a traditional Sestina the lines are grouped into six sestets (6lines per stanza) and a concluding tercet (3 lines).
Thus a Sestina has 39 lines. Lines may be of any length, usually consistent in a single poem, but traditionally in hexameter (Six metric feet. Each foot is two syllables.
Ex: return / ing to / conven / tional / iam / bic bliss).
The six words that end each of the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of each of the subsequent five stanzas. The particular pattern is given below.
The repeated words are unrhymed. The first line of each sestet, after the first, ends with the same word as the one that ended the last line of the sestet before it. In the closing tercet, each of the six words are used, with one in the middle of each line and one at the end.
The pattern of word-repetition is as follows, where the words that end the lines of the first sestet are represented by the numbers "1 2 3 4 5 6":
1 2 3 4 5 6 - End words of lines in first sestet. 6 1 5 2 4 3 - End words of lines in second sestet. 3 6 4 1 2 5 - End words of lines in third sestet. 5 3 2 6 1 4 - End words of lines in fourth sestet. 4 5 1 3 6 2 - End words of lines in fifth sestet. 2 4 6 5 3 1 - End words of lines in sixth sestet.
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3) - Middle and end words of lines in tercet.
EXAMPLE:
Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop
September rain falls on the house. In the failing light, the old grandmother sits in the kitchen with the child beside the Little Marvel Stove, reading the jokes from the almanac, laughing and talking to hide her tears. She thinks that her equinoctial tears and the rain that beats on the roof of the house were both foretold by the almanac, but only known to a grandmother. The iron kettle sings on the stove. She cuts some bread and says to the child, It's time for tea now; but the child is watching the teakettle's small hard tears dance like mad on the hot black stove, the way the rain must dance on the house. Tidying up, the old grandmother hangs up the clever almanac on its string. Birdlike, the almanac hovers half open above the child, hovers above the old grandmother and her teacup full of dark brown tears. She shivers and says she thinks the house feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove. It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. I know what I know, says the almanac. With crayons the child draws a rigid house and a winding pathway. Then the child puts in a man with buttons like tears and shows it proudly to the grandmother. But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove, the little moons fall down like tears from between the pages of the almanac into the flower bed the child has carefully placed in the front of the house. Time to plant tears, says the almanac. The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove and the child draws another inscrutable house
How to write a Limerick:
A limerick is a five-line poem with a strict form (AABBA), originally popularized in English by Edward Lear, which intends to be witty or humorous.
The standard form of a limerick is a stanza of five lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one another.
Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other. The first line traditionally introduces a person and a place, with the place appearing at the end of the first line and establishing the rhyme scheme for the second and fifth lines.
Within the genre, ordinary speech stress is often distorted in the first line, and may be regarded as a feature of the form: "There was a young man from the coast;" "There once was a girl from Detroit" Exploitation of geographical names, especially exotic ones, is also common.
The most prized limericks incorporate a kind of twist, which may be revealed in the final line or lie in the way the rhymes are often intentionally tortured, or both. Many limericks show some form of internal rhyme, alliteration or assonance, or some element of word play.
EXAMPLES:
There was an Old Man of Kilkenny, Who never had more than a penny; He spent all that money, In onions and honey, That wayward Old Man of Kilkenny. by Edward Lear
There was a young lady from Spain, Whose man went away on a train, He always kisses his missus, And she misses his kisses, 'Till they're both together again.
An infatuated man from Dover, was left by his imaginary lover. He pulled his hair, in sheer despair, forgetting a wig was his cover.
There is a teacher from Leeds Who swallowed a packet of seeds And in less than an hour Her nose was a flower And her hair was a bundle of weeds by Stephen Gallagher
How to write a Pantoum :
The first line is also the last line. Each line has the same number of syllables as the first line. Each stanza has four lines. Each line is repeated once in a specific order and provides the rhyme scheme.
In a four stanza Pantoum the rhyme scheme is: ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, DADA.
The first line of the first stanza becomes the last line of the last stanza.
The second line of the first stanza becomes the first line of the next stanza
The third line of the first stanza becomes the second line of the last stanza
The forth line of the first stanza becomes the third line of the next stanza
The second and forth line of the stanzas between the first and last stanzas become the first and third lines of the stanza following it.
Example:
To Be Without By John Palozzi I'll find myself a bench all right On highway's curb or park's dark path Hard bench will be my house this night A house that has no bed or bath On highway's curb or park's dark path With food I eat that won't be hot A house that has no bed or bath No kitchen with a coffee pot With food I eat that won't be hot No yacht, no wife, no kids, no cars No kitchen with a coffee pot But shopping cart, with cans from bars No yacht, no wife, no kids, no cars Hard bench will be my house this night But shopping cart, with cans from bars I'll find myself a bench all right
How to write a Sijo: Sijo is composed in three lines of 14-16 syllables each. A pause breaks each line approximately in the middle. Each half-line contains 6-9 syllables; the last half of the final line is often shorter than the rest, but should contain no fewer than 5. The sijo may be narrative or thematic, introducing a situation or problem in line 1, development or "turn" in line 2, and resolution in line 3. The first half of the final line employs a "twist": a surprise of meaning, sound, tone or other device. The sijo is more lyrical, subjective and personal than haiku, and the final line can take a profound, witty, humorous or proverbial turn. Like haiku, sijo has a strong basis in nature, but, unlike that genre, it frequently employs metaphors, symbols, puns, allusions and similar word play. The three characteristics that make sijo unique: basic structure, musical/rhythmic elements, and the twist. Example: Let me ask you, butterfly, do you remember your cocoon? a caterpillar's ungainly crawl? maybe there is hope for me. ©1995 Larry Gross How to write a Ballade: The Ballade is a French form composed of three stanzas of eight lines and an envoy (conclusion) of four lines, with the last line of each stanza a refrain. It is usually iambic (unstressed/stressed: ta TUM, ta TUM, . . . ) and the most common line lengths are eight (tetrameter) or ten syllables (pentameter). The rhyme scheme is ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC. Example: The Ballade Of The Automobile by Ellis Parker Butler When our yacht sails seaward on steady keel Rules for writing a Ballad: Most ballads are written in four line stanzas
Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed in the scheme a, b, c, b. However, there is considerable variation on this pattern, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult.
In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a self contained story, often concise and relying on imagery, rather than description, which can be tragic, historical, romantic or comic.
Another common feature of ballads is repetition, sometimes of fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain, sometimes of third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of entire stanzas.
A question and answer format can be built into a ballad: one stanza asks a questions and the next stanza answers the question. Ballads contain a lot of dialogue.
Action is often described in the first person. Two characters in the ballad can speak to each other on alternating lines. Sequences of "threes" often occur: three kisses, three tasks, three events.
Ballads most often are songs, and set to music.
Example:
Dance Band on the Titanic by Harry Chapin
Dance band on the Titanic Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee" The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me
Mama stood cryin' at the dockside Sayin' "Please son, don't take this trip" I said "Mama, sweet Mama, don't you worry none" "Even God couldn't sink this ship"
Well, the whistle blew and they turned the screws It turned the water into foam Destination sweet salvation Goodbye home sweet home
I'm in the dance band on the Titanic Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee" The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me
There was a trombone and a saxophone The bass and drums were cookin' up the bandstand And I was strummin' in the middle with this dude on the fiddle And we were three days out from land
And now the foghorn's jammed and moanin' Hear it groanin' through the misty night I heard the lookout shout down "There's icebergs around" "But still everything's all right"
Oh, the dance band on the Titanic Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee" The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me
They were burnin' all the flares for candles In the banquet they were throwin' in first class And we were blowin' waltzes in the barroom When the universe went CRASH!
"There's no way that this could happen" I could hear the old captain curse He ordered lifeboats away, that's when I heard the chaplain say "Women and children and chaplains first"
Well, they soon used up all of the lifeboats But there were a lot of us left on board I heard the drummer sayin' "Boys, just keep playin'" "Now we're doin' this gig for the Lord"
I heard the dance band on the Titanic Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee" The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me
There's a wild-eyed boy in the radio shack He's the last remaining guest He was tappin' in a Morse code frenzy Tappin' "Please God, S.O.S."
Jesus Christ can walk on the water But a music man will drown They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned up Well, I was strummin' as the ship go down
I'm in the dance band on the Titanic Sing "Nearer, my God, to Thee" The iceberg's on the starboard bow Won't you dance with me
Rules for writing a Rondeau:
The Rondeau is a form of verse which makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern.
It was customarily regarded as a challenge to arrange for these refrains to contribute to the meaning of the poem in as succinct and poignant a manner as possible.
The rondeau consists of thirteen lines of eight syllables, plus two refrains (which are half lines, each of four syllables), employing, altogether, only three rhymes. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows:
(1) A A B B A (2) A A B with refrain: C (3) A A B B A with concluding refrain C.
The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line.
Example:
We Wear the Mask :
We wear the mask that grins and lies, (A) It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— (A) This debt we pay to human guile; (B) With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, (B) And mouth with myriad subtleties. (A)
Why should the world be over-wise, (A) In counting all our tears and sighs? (A) Nay, let them only see us, while (B) We wear the mask. (C)
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries (A) To thee from tortured souls arise. (A) We sing, but oh the clay is vile (B) Beneath our feet, and long the mile; (B)
But let the world dream otherwise, (A) We wear the mask! (C)
Perhaps the best-known rondeau is the following World War I poem:
In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place, and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead; short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Rules for writng an Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet:
The Italian sonnet was created by Giacomo da Lentini in the 13th century.
The Italian sonnets included two parts. First, the octave (two quatrains), which describe a problem, followed by a sestet (two tercets), which gives the resolution to it.
Typically, the ninth line creates a "turn" or volta which signals the move from proposition to resolution. The a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a pattern is the standard for Italian sonnets. The sestet can use any of several rhyme schemes:
c-d-c-d-c-d, c-d-c-c-d-c or c-d-e-c-d-e.
Example:
by Milton,
When I consider how my light is spent (a) Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b) And that one talent which is death to hide, (b) Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a) To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a) My true account, lest he returning chide; (b) "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a) That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c) Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d) Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e) Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c) And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d) T hey also serve who only stand and wait." (e) Example:
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Thou art not lovelier than lilacs, -- no, Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair Than small white single poppies, -- I can bear Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though From left to right, not knowing where to go, I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear So has it been with mist, -- with moonlight so.
Like him who day by day unto his draught Of delicate poison adds him one drop more Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten, Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed Each hour more deeply than the hour before, I drink -- and live -- what has destroyed some men. |
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