Poetry forms

[Sweetcherrie]

After almost a year of writing, and trying to learn about writing I still manage to mix up most of the poetry forms.

 

Soooo, to attempt changing this I decided to not only read about them, but also write one in each form that I came across.

 

Of course, it’s a bit hard to write one in all possibilities at the same time, so I will tackle them one by one (also simply don’t have the time to write one for each form at the same time )

 

Together with the poem I will include the description of the poetic form, that way I can go back to them at a later time

 

In between anybody can post in this thread, but I would like to ask to not go to a next form without explaining that specific for as well.

 

Rightyo…should get started then

[Sweetcherrie]

Acrostic

 

How to write an acrostic poem?

 

An acrostic poem is a way to show what you know about the subject you are writing about. It can be anything from an apple to Aishwarya Rai. You might not think of it as poetry because it doesn't rhyme, but poetry doesn't always have to rhyme. Before you begin, make a list of all the things you know about the character: his or her likes, dislikes, abilities, fears, and so on. An acrostic poem is one where you choose a word or name (like the name of a character in a book) and use each letter in the name as the beginning of a word or line that tells something about that person or character.

 

Let’s say indianest

 

Influencing the minds of

New generation of people

Destined to lead the world

Into a new world

And

Negotiate life’s

Eternal puzzle and twists

Satisfying the quest for

Truth

 

Acrostic may or may not rhyme. Rhyming and meter don’t form part of the form of acrostic but both many be used to facilitate easy reading and complicate the form a little more to add challenge to the writer.

Simply writing an acrostic forming words that begin with the required letter are a good start but don’t make excellent reading. As you get more and more comfortable within the form, start telling a story within the confines of the form, incorporate a little humour. The first example of acrostic I provided using my name is where you start but it is dry boring and not likely to win any praises. You can find a huge wealth of acrostics in the internet, read them to get an idea of the magic you can create with acrostics. Come on try it, it is simple and can be practiced on that train or bus ride to work when we don’t have anything better to do than look out the window. It also reeves up your mind for the day ahead.

 

Double Acrostic

 

Double acrostic most probably developed from the acrostic and is the forefather of the modern day crossword puzzles. Double and triple acrostics occupy an important niche in the history of word puzzles, for it is generally recognized that they were the predecessors to the crossword puzzle. For those unfamiliar with the genre, a double acrostic consists of clues for a sequence of words (the cross-lights) to be written in a list, plus two clues to the words spelled out by the first and last letters of the cross-lights (the uprights). In a triple acrostic a third upright is formed out of interior letters in the cross-lights. The cross-lights may consist of words of varying lengths, but the uprights are obviously constrained to have exactly as many letters as there are cross-lights.

 

Probably invented in the 1850's, the double acrostic was a fad in the latter part of the 19th century. Queen Victoria was believed to be very fond of the double acrostic which, by this time, had evolved from a verse-form into a type of puzzle. This acrostic was supposedly written by her royal hand:

 

1 A city in Italy

2 A river in Germany

3 A town in the United States

4 A town in North America

5 A town in Holland

6 The Turkish name of Constantinople

7 A town in Bothnia

8 A city in Greece

9 A circle on the globe

 

1 NapleS

2 ElbE

3 WashingtoN

4 CincinnatI

5 AmsterdaM

6 StambouL

7 TorneA

8 LepantO

9 EcliptiC

 

The first letters spell out the name of a well-known English city (NEWCASTLE) while the last letters, when read upwards, name what the city is famous for (COAL MINES).

The acrostic craze continued well into the 20th century. A typical example of these puzzles is this one published in the 1930's when movies and actors were all the rage.

 

Here you may see, despite the veil of haze,

A heavenly body with most moving ways.

 

1. A bustle that surrounds both you and me.

2. This is not lawful; still may sometimes be.

3. A priest or beast-if an odd spelling's found.

4. The dregs of vinegar maternal sound.

 

The solution is:

 

1 FusS

2 IlliciT

3 LamA

4 MotheR

 

A comparative rarity, the triple acrostic appeared occasionally in puzzle books, almanacs and children's magazines until the mid-20th century at which time, it seems to have faded from view. Here's an example from The Second Penguin Problem Book published in 1944.

 

Left, middle and right

Give us a choice of light

 

1 Kind of glance which he's who's lost his heart

Bestows on her who wears the latter part.

2 Here is one with a gun.

3 This is bound to go round.

4 Simplify taste and eliminate waste.

My meaning is made plain by my saying it again.

 

The solution is:

 

1AdoRinG

2MuskEteeR

3BanDagE

4EconOmizE

5ReiteRatioN

 

(AMBER, RED OR GREEN)

 

Later on these two forms were eclipsed by the crossword and rapidly faded from the scene and became extinct.

Source: http://www.boloji.com/poetry/learningzone/pkz13.htm

[Sweetcherrie]

Time for my own try

 

ACROSTIC

 

Always remember that this form of poetry

Consists of more than just

Randomly throwing words together

Often the poet needs to

Start over and over,

Tossing and turning the words

Into the exact right order, and with that

Creating the message he wants to deliver

 

Right, that took me ages and I even tried to start with an easy form of poetry

 

Oh well, anybody that would also like to give this a try is of course more than welcome

 

*bounces out towards the sunset and the next poetic form*

[drummondo]

I love acrostic poems.

 

Check out Jass's thread "Untitled!" here for some acrostic fun

[Zadown]

Here is a bunch of them as well. Check out Salinye's Gwaihir-poem.

[Sweetcherrie]

Cinquain

 

The traditional cinquain is based on a syllable count. Most cinquain poems consist of a single, 22 syllable stanza, but they can be combined into longer works. A cinquain consists of five lines. The first line has two syllables, the second line has four syllables, the third line has six syllables and the fourth line has eight syllables, the final line has two syllables:

 

line 1 - 2 syllables

line 2 - 4 syllables

line 3 - 6 syllables

line 4 - 8 syllables

line 5 - 2 syllables

 

The modern cinquain is based on a word count of words of a certain type.

 

line 1 - one word (noun) a title or name of the subject

line 2 - two words (adjectives) describing the title

line 3 - three words (verbs) describing an action related to the title

line 4 - four words describing a feeling about the titlem, a complete sentence

line 5 - one word referring back to the title of the poem

 

The line length is the only firm rule, but there are other guidelines that people have tried to impose from time to time.

 

Cinquain Guidelines

 

• Write in iambs (Two syllable groupings in which the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable stressed. For Example: i DRANK she SMILED we TALKED i THOUGHT) For the last line of the cinquain, however, both syllables should be stressed, NICE BAR.

• Write about a noun. Cinquains generally fail if you try to make them about emotions, philosophies or other complex subjects. They should be about something concrete.

• Don’t try to make each line complete or express a single thought. Each line should flow into the next or the poem will sound static.

• Cinquains work best if you avoid adjectives and adverbs. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any, but focus on the nouns and the verbs. This almost always works best in a cinquain.

• The poem should build toward a climax. The last line should serve as some sort of conclusion to the earlier thoughts. Often, the conclusion has some sort of surprise built into it.

 

One possible, but not required, format is as follows:

 

Line 1: Title Noun

Line 2: Description

Line 3: Action

Line 4: Feeling or Effect

Line 5: Synonym of the initial noun.

 

examples

 

Tucson Rain

 

The smell

Everyone moves

To the window to look

Work stops and people start talking

Rain came

 

Opening Game

 

Game time

Season looked good

National champions

We told ourselves as we sat down

Not now

 

New Bar

 

Across

The street I went

To drink at the new bar

I drank she smiled we talked I thought

Nice bar

 

Source

[Sweetcherrie]

My try

 

Fatigue

 

Tired

From all day long

Working with them people

That talk and talk, and talk some more

Sleep now

[drummondo]

So you mean something like this?

 

One-Sided

 

That kiss,

The touch that found

It's way into our night,

Left one of us alone in thought,

And love.