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The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

Lesson #6


Alaeha

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As was requested, this one involves differing syllable counts... Which I work in without even intending to most of the time.

 

I know of no real name for this, but here you go...

 

Choose a meter that you like. In my case, a slightly tweaked Anapestic Tetrameter.

 

Then write a few (two or three, at least) quatrains (ABAB pattern) with the B lines being one foot shorter. That is, two syllables less if you're writing in Iambic or Trochaic meter, or three less if writing in Anapestic or Dactyllic. So my A lines would have four feet and my B lines would have three.

 

If you're writing entirely in Spondees, you have my respect... and you don't need this.

 

Example:

 

You said that you loved me with all of your heart,

with your mind, with your being. You said

that you'd never hurt me. And so, from the start

I believed. I was greatly misled.

 

I would never have hurt you. You knew that, and yet

you cooled off, as I feared that you would.

"You could do much better than me" you don't get

it. You're wrong. I deserve nothing good.

 

I hope this helps those who have a hard time writing with an inflexible meter... These have been helping me... Writing helps to get stuff out of your system.

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  • 3 weeks later...

(a translation of terms (of sorts (you may need a translation of the translation!)))

 

I simply haven't a single clue

On what, when, or how to write

I really don't know what to do

As through Latin feet I fight

 

This meter thing just seems so wrong

I'm not with what's goin' down

Each time I find before too long

My face's plastered with a frown.

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i threw a grappling hook to find

it simply slid away

across the surface of my mind

where thoughts refuse to stay

 

i leaned a ladder up to climb

across the smooth high wall

the ladder slid before i'd time

to make it far at all

 

this surface is far higher now

and smoother than a rock

is dynamite the best way how

to break a mental block?

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  • 11 months later...

Okay, Alaeha! I found two of your previous poetry exercises that i had missed and not done! So, I gave this one a try! I'm not sure it's right, but it was fun. I tried only three lines per stanza with an AC rhyme. Then I stuck the line with the shorter foot in the middle. Does it work? If feels a bit choppy to me.

 

 

Mother Earth hiccupped thoughtlessly

A tiny village was

Shaken and swept into the sea

 

She twirled a finger through her hair

Sadly, that twister’s rage

Caught that southern town unaware

 

In her sorrow, she cried great tears

That raging water would

Flood the villa for many years

 

Oh mother Earth, though we deserve

Your contempt and swift ire

Please us, forgive-Please us, preserve

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