In music, a nonet refers to a group of nine instruments or performers. In poetry, it refers to a nine-line poem that begins with a nine-syllable line. The nonet is one of a number of ‘shrinking’ forms, such as Diminishing Verse (Week 2).
Key Features of the Nonet
Form: Consists of a single nine-line stanza
Syllables: Begins with nine syllables and diminishes by one with each proceeding line
Rhyme: Optional
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An Original Nonet
Witness the Power of Growing Things
Witness the power of growing things: Revolutions of nature, life Like leaves and petals spreading, Like stems and trunks rising, Voluminous fruits, Tender berries, Bound in a Single Seed.
The Dodoitsu is one of a wide variety of popular Japanese haiku variations. While some poetic forms can seem daunting and overly restrictive, the elegant simplicity of these forms gives them an air of accessibility that is inviting to poets of all ages and levels of experience.
Key Features of the Dodoitsu
Title: Title optional
Form: Usually consists of a single four-line stanza (quatrain)
Syllables: The first three lines contain seven syllables, and the final line contains five
Content: Traditionally have a theme of love or work and occasionally feature a humorous, unexpected twist
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An Original Dodoitsu
Spring Garden
Black-eyed Susans, snapdragons and lavender for the bees; sugar water, Wendy’s Wish for the hummingbirds.
In Greek, the word epitaph literally means, “on the tomb.” These short, sometimes pithy, sometimes funny, gravestone inscriptions are often found underneath the name and birth and death dates of the person being memorialized. Though not all epitaphs are poetic, the most moving and memorable ones often are. Shakespeare’s self-penned epitaph even comes with a curse:
GOOD FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES
Key Features of the Epitaph
Content: Remarks in some way upon the life and/or character of the person being memorialized
The Monotetra is a modern form developed by New Zealand poet Michael Walker. The form, with its meter and short monorhymed lines, has a singsong quality that lends itself to lighter verse.
Key Features of the Monotetra
Form: consists of any number of four-line stanzas (quatrains)
Rhyme: monorhymed within each stanza
Syllables: four metrical feet (or eight syllables) per line
Ending: the same four syllables are repeated in the final line of each stanza
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An Original Monotetra
I Sing the Blues
When all the words I write confuse; When my weak voice won’t reach the muse, And life shows me no other hues, I sing the blues; I sing the blues.
The English Madrigal is one of many varieties of the Italian madrigal, an early lyric form that began as a pastoral song. Medieval author and poet Geoffrey Chaucer (The Cantebury Tales) defined the rules of the madrigal in English, which include a number of formal requirements, including meter, end rhyme, and several repeated refrains. Some of the best-regarded English language madrigals are those of Scottish poet William Drummond, who wrote eighty madrigals in his collection Poems (1616).
Key Features of the English Madrigal
Content: Often includes a theme of love
Form: A thirteen-line form in three stanzas: Stanza 1] Three lines Stanza 2] Four lines Stanza 3] Six lines
[L4] a [L5] b [L6] A (refrain 1) [L7] B1 (refrain 2)
[L8] a [L9] b [L10] b [L11] A (refrain 1) [L12] B1 (refrain 2) [L13] B2 (refrain 3)
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An Original English Madrigal
Staying
For now, we are content to stay inside. The troubles of the world will wax and wane, But as each season ends, our love remains.
Sometimes the storms of early May will hide the sun and send a sudden rush of rain. For now, we are content to stay inside. The troubles of the world will wax and wane.
Although we’ve had to set some plans aside, The garden will be waiting and will gain As all of life will strengthen by our pains. For now, we are content to stay inside. The troubles of the world will wax and wane, But as each season ends, our love remains.
Though it is said to be a popular exercise in modern poetry workshops and classes, there’s not a lot of information to be found on this variation of the haiku, which consists of any number of sestets with a strict syllable count. It is rumored to be of Spanish origin, but even that claim is hard to substantiate. Of course, none of this detracts from the enjoyment in writing the shadorma, especially once you get locked into the rhythm and flow of its short lines.
Key Features of the Shadorma
Syllable Count: 3/5/3/3/7/5 Form: Any number of six-line stanzas (sestets)
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An Original Shadorma
Little Goldfish
you can’t swim your way out of this bowl little goldfish and you can’t learn to breathe this strange unnatural air
Along with the English Haiku and the Cinquain, the Alphabet Poem is likely one of the first poetry forms students are introduced to in school. There’s something about the simplicity of the challenge that makes the alphabet poem a lot of fun to play with.
Three Ways to Play with the ABCs
Approach One: List Them Out
Write a poem by listing each letter down the left-hand margin and assigning each letter at least one word. This approach is similar to what you’d find in an anagrammatic poem (more on that in a post to come!) The important thing is that each letter is clearly represented by at least one word.
[see example below: “An Original Alphabet Poem”]
Approach Two: Tell a Story
Write a story using each letter of the alphabet as the first letter of each word. Words can be in alphabetical order, reverse alphabetical order, or any other configuration, as long as each letter is represented by a single word.
Original Example Average bears can’t dance every fourth generation. However, ingenious juveniles know lazy Monday nights often provide quite remarkable situations to unleash various waltzes, xaxados, yurukikos, zydecos.
Approach Three: The Quick Brown Fox Method
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
This simple phrase is interesting because it includes every letter of the alphabet in nine short words, and eleven syllables. Poets up for a challenge could try to match the efficiency of the above phrase by creating their own collection of words that meet the same criteria in as many words. (Or less, if you can manage it!)
Original Example Quit flummoxing plucky wizard hives by June (7 words, 11 syllables)
My alphabet poem is also a list poem where I’ve listed some of my favorite words to hear and say out loud. What are some words that catch and thrill you when you hear them? The type of word that you can’t help but stop to appreciate and repeat out loud, even if it means interrupting someone in mid-sentence. Comment to share!
A unique experimental form born of the mashup of eastern and western poetic traditions, the Haiku Sonnet combines the syllable count and three-line stanzaic structure of the English Haiku with the fourteen-line structure of the sonnet. I first learned of the form –and many of the forms collected for this challenge– from David Lee Brewer at Writer’s Digest, but the form appears to be an invention of Chicago poet David Marshall.
David Marshall on the Haiku Sonnet
Conceptually, it’s an attempt to wed two like and unlike forms. To me, the sonnet seems the quintessential western poetic form, defined by the order and rationality of its problem-resolution organization. Depending how you see it, the haiku might be just as organized—haiku certainly have strong rules and conventions. Because haiku can rely, just as a sonnet does, on a sort of reversal—a “volta” in sonnets, a “kireji” in haiku—they may be distant cousins. However, haiku are eastern, and, where sonnets are rational, haiku are resonant. Where sonnets solve—or attempt to solve—haiku observe.
I remember winter now that it’s here—the next word in a song, a plea
for love you forget until a character speaks. Now I remember—
outside this window, one leaf clung all winter. Wind set it fluttering
like a hummingbird. Its sociable flicker was like life. One day
it flew away, and I thought— it wouldn’t ever come back.
Requirements of the Form
Structure
– Four three-line stanzas (tercets) followed by two-line stanza (couplet) for a total of fourteen lines
Content
– Written in the present tense – Syntax may be incomplete to maximize power of brevity – Refers to time of day or season – Focuses on a natural image – ‘Show, don’t tell’ approach – May contain a ‘volta’ or turn of thought – Captures essence of a moment – Aims at sudden insight, spiritual illumination
Syllable Count
– Begins with a sequence of four tercets with a syllable count of 5-7-5 – Ends with a couplet with a syllable count of either 5 or 7 syllables per line
The Bop may be the newest form on the list and it won’t have you counting syllables or even rhyming–this one is all about structure. With a total of twenty lines, it’s also the longest form so far. It’s got a set number of stanzas and line count with a refrain between stanzas, but beyond that, it’s pretty open. The problem/solution aspect of the poem (more on that below) adds an interesting twist to the form.
The Bop was invented and developed by celebrated Baltimore poet, Afaa Michael Weaver, winner of many prestigious awards including a Fulbright Scholarship and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His most recent poetry collection, Spirit Boxing, was published in 2017.
Caption: Afaa Michael Weaver–acclaimed poet, short-story writer, editor, and inventor of The Bop.
Example – “Rambling”
“Rambling” by Afaa Michael Weaver – 1950- in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
In general population, census is consensus—ain’t nowhere to run to in these walls, walls like a mind— We visitors stand in a yellow circle so the tower can frisk us with light, finger the barrels on thirsty rifles.
I got rambling, rambling on my mind
In general population, madness runs swift through the river changing, changing in hearts, men tacked in their chairs, resigned to hope we weave into air, talking this and talking that and one brutha asks Tell us how to get these things They got, these houses, these cars. We want the real revolution. Things…
I got rambling, got rambling on my mind
In the yellow circle the night stops like a boy shot running from a Ruger 9mm carrying .44 magnum shells, a sista crying in the glass booth to love’s law, to violence of backs bent over to the raw libido of men, cracking, cracking, crack…
I got rambling, rambling on my mind
Requirements of the Form
Structure
– Made of three stanzas, each followed by a single-line refrain. — Stanza 1 contains six lines — Stanza 2 contains eight lines — Stanza 3 contains six lines
Content
– Poet’s choice, but often a problem or conflict is introduced in the first stanza, which is then expanded up in the second stanza, and resolved (if possible) in the third.
–Don’t forget the single-line refrain after each stanza.
Syllable Count
– no requirements
Meter
– no requirements
Rhyme
– no requirements
An Original Bop
We were born between rivers [an original bop]
We were born between rivers in the green heart of the fertile valley. Our skin grew rich with sun and deep black soil. We saw a light and recognized a soul. Our dark eyes grew wide and pulsed with power. Our hands grew strong and eager and began to drum.
I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
In the chant we found a human voice; we cried and sang. We danced and the rhythm overtook our feet. Our feet that could not stop began to wander. In our wandering we found a world unconquered and in our new restlessness set to test our will against it. We marched from war to war–war within and war without– and we forgot the soul, the voice, the dance.
I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
When we remember our soul like water flowing, our eyes like oceans swimming in starlight, our hands like branches reaching, our feet like roots plunging, seeking a center, We will then remember the strength of stillness. We will then remember the power of peace.
I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.
A note on my original bop
My refrain is taken from the following quote: “There is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me.” — Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Part 50
Astra Poetica 