My Poetic Latticework

Number of Lines: 5

Rules: As the Than Bauk is to the Haiku, then the Ya Du is to the Tanka and consists of four-syllable lines and a fifth one that can comprise of 5, 7, 9, or 11 syllables. The staircase rule applies to the four lines, and the last syllable of the fourth and fifth line must rhyme, giving a pattern of:


O. O. O. a.
O. O. a. O
O. a. O. b
O. O. b. c.
O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. c.

Unlike the Than Bauk, this must be a completed stanza, and no more than three stanzas are permitted.

Altona beach days
were the ways gone
it pays to hide
stay inside now
otherwise horrible things may grow.


Choices for the poets to make this week: Your poem can be about any topic.

Number of lines: 8

Rules: A Rispetto, an Italian form of poetry, is a complete poem of two rhyme quatrains with strict meter. The meter is usually iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd. A Heroic Rispetto is written in Iambic pentameter , usually featuring the same rhyme scheme.

Choices for the poet this week: You may choose any topic

Example:
Tribute to Tuscany

In old Tuscany, this form of poetry
To stimulate the imagination's muse,
Has been passed down through every century,
To all writers whom the written words enthuse.

Even yet today, some vineyard covered hill,
Hung with clustered grapes, romantic souls instill
With a deep desire to try their hand once more
And resurrect a page from history's lore!

Copyright © 2006 Betty Lou Hebert

Rules: The poetry form, Etheree, consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Get creative and write an Etheree with more than one verse, but follow suit with an inverted syllable count.

Reversed Etheree: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Double Etheree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

...Triple Etheree, Quadruple Etheree, and so on!

Choices for the poet this week: You poem may be on any subject and have as many lines as you wish in multiples of 10. Have fun!

Rules:
A French form consisting of 13 lines: two quatrains and a quintet, rhyming as follows:

ABba
abAB
abbaA.

The capital letters are the rhymes.


Example:
A Rondel for Margarita
Copyright © 2004 Gail Kavanagh

On the carousel, on a summer's day,
As the rest of the fairground goes gliding by,
We coast together, now low, now high,
But how quickly the moment slips away.

She laughs at the music, elfin and fey,
She laughs for joy at the sapphire sky,
On the carousel, on a summer's day,
As the rest of the fairground goes gliding by.

How sweet her delight in simple play,
Someday, without me, she'll take to the sky,
Brave little fledgling, ready to fly.
We must hold these moments while we may
On the carousel, on a summer's day.


Choices for the poets to make this week: Your poem can be about any topic.

Number of Lines: 4

Rules: A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, aabb invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16. The poem is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme. In most cases, the first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person.


Choices for the Poets to make this week: You may write your poem about a real person or a fictional character.

Example:

Corporal Klinger,
M.A.S.H.'s best ringer
in dress, heels and sneer,
won "Kook of the Year."

Copyright © 2004 James Dean Chase

1. Acrostic Poetry is where the first letter of each line spells a word, usually using the same words as in the title.

2. The Acronet is a merging of the Acrostic and Nonet forms, as demonstrated in the following link: https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/paintings_______________the__acronet__style_8516...

Number of Lines: Minimum 4 lines, Maximum is poet's choice in increments of four.

Rules:
A stanza of four lines. Lines 1,2 and 4 are nine syllables long and share the same rhyme.
Line 3 is 10 syllables long and has an internal rhyme scheme similar to a Toddaid.

x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x b x x
x x x x b x x x a

Choices for the poets to make this week: This form can be composed of as many or as few stanzas as the poet wishes.

Form: Cywydd llosgyrnog (ku-with los-gear-nog)  
Number of lines: Down to the individual poet
Rules: A 12th century Welsh form written in six-line stanzas. Each stanza is comprised of two lines of eight syllables and a third line of seven syllables. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme and cross-rhyme with syllable 3 or 4 of line 3. This pattern is then followed for the next three lines. Lines 3 and 6 also rhyme.

This gives a stanza pattern of:

x x x x x x x a
x x x x x x x a
x x a x x x b
x x x x x x x c
x x x x x x x c
x x c x x x b

Choices for the poets to make this week: This form can be composed of as many or as few stanzas as the poet wishes.

Form: Rictameter
Number of lines: 9
Rules: Rictameter has a scheme similar to the Cinquain. Starting your first line with a two syllable word, you then consecutively increase the number of syllables per line by two. i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 Then down again, 8, 6, 4, 2. The final line has the same two syllable word you began with.

Number of lines: 20
Rules: This form is the creation of the popular Norwegian poet Jim T Henriksen, and it consists of four stanzas.

Each stanza consists of five lines, and each line has six syllables (or, if you prefer, each line can be Iambic Trimeter).

The first line of each stanza is a refrain (i.e. the line is repeated, so that each stanza has the same first line) and in the four following lines, lines three (3) and five (5) rhyme, lines two (2) and (4) do not rhyme.

This gives a stanza pattern of:

R.x.a.x.a

R.x.b.x.b

R.x.c.x.c

R.x.d.x.d