There's a great little book that has become my poetic bible for trying forms - The New Book of Forms (A handbook of poetics) by Lewis Turco. Don't be put off by the huge variety of forms, all the familiar ones are in there too. If you are serious about trying to write form poetry it is worth the investment.
There is always a lot of argument here as to what constitutes haiku form. I think it's fair to say that most of the Literoticans who have studied east Asian poetry would say the syllable requirement is not applicable to English-language haiku, for example, nor the three line requirement. Also the kinds of themes and images and the presence of a kireji are qualities that get discussed (and argued about).
I kind of feel like I'm doing your work for you, but here:
You don't really want to write one of those, do you? Why not just chuck that form and write a sonnet redoublée? I mean, that first one's only twenty-five lines, eh? The other's like 210.
As far as I understand, they are pretty identical.
Yah, it's hardly a form in itself. Rather a question of style, imo.champagne1982 said:
As Tzed mentioned Turco's definition of a Terzanelle I don't need to reiterate. I do understand that Villanelle and Terza Rima were combined in schema and refrains to come up with a friendlier form than both. This is just my opinion and springs from my enjoyment of writing rhyme and enjambment driven poems. (No, I don't share them all since that would be like wearing dirty underwear to the store. What if I get hit by a car!?)
OK, so we need to start putting together a list of forms. Just a list for now, then we'll take care of the explanations and examples. Could you go through that book and pick us a wide enough selection of the classics?
Bumping this to gather the building list onto the current page.
Agreed, except that Italian (Petrarchan) sonnets don't end on couplets. Perhaps we have two or three kinds of sonnets, given their importance in English-language poetry. But in any case, I don't want to restrict us to English sonnet form.
I would agree with that. I added prose poem to the list of form simply for discussion purposes.
Thanks. I'll make an entry on it when I get the chance. I already added it to the list in this thread.
I had thought about suggesting the paradelle, but I actually tried to write one once (one that at least kind of made sense, not an intentionally bad poem like Billy Collins' original) and couldn't make it work.
It can count under free verse, I would imagine - provided it corresponds to one of the 50 triggers than will be posted on January 1st.
That was my intent with this thread, although I don't know how concise I always am and I've already included forms that aren't in this list. Feel free to copy any definition out of that thread, modify the description as you see fit, and repost it here.
Oh, I hadn't seen it. Thanks!
No, that's a good call. I admittedly didn't spend enough time compiling the list, with everything going on with my life at the same time. I'll revise the list.
I thought the Cinq-Cinquain would add a little edge to the challenge of writing a Cinquain, but I can see your point. I think I lost sight for a second of the fact that we want to be writing poetry rather than building a puzzle.
Yep, I know. That's also why I didn't include the Acrostic and the Cento on the list of forms, even if they might pop-up as a trigger.
I could, but you'd have to pick on whether to score it under "terza rima" or "sonnet", not both.If you change the Terza Rima requirement to four stanzas and a finale, we could write a terza rima sonnet.
Yes, no repeats. I'm thinking, however, about adding some sort of immunity lottery, which would allow the winner to tick a trigger or form without using it.
No additional triggers, but you can't use the same triggers for the same forms. There will be different triggers and different forms on the monthly bonus rounds.
