Pennywise

A Rondeau horror poem

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for Best Medium Length Poem, 2024
for Dark (incl. Death, Horror/Scary, Tragedy), 2024
for Supernatural (incl. Ghost, Occult, Paranormal), 2024

Featured in the Poetry Newsletter, dated: 4 AUG 2026

Style of Poetry ▶︎

A Rondeau is a French form, 15 lines long, consisting of three stanzas: a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet with a rhyme scheme as follows: aabba aabR aabbaR. Lines 9 and 15 are short - a refrain (R) consisting of a phrase taken from line one. The other lines are longer (but all of the same metrical length).

Pennywise

It hides in the dark
Looking for a mark
Disguised as your greatest fear
It can hear your heartbeat near
Hold open your palm, feel the spark

Sludge and stench provides a home
Vacant small streets it roams
Autumn leaves thick in the park
It hides in the dark

It changes its face
To four losers, a game, a race
Losers hunt silver
Hoping to find It, the killer
There is no fairytale arc
It hides in the dark

15 Lines

Originally created for:

FORUM

13 Poetic Days of Halloween Contest 2026  (E) Let your spooky poetry shine. Oct. 13th 12:01 am WDC time. - closes 11:59 pm WDC Oct 25th #2328177 by Witchy Woman

REVIEWS:
Review of "Pennywise"