Poetry Exercise No. 11: Open Forms

We have moved on from rhyme, to stanzaic forms. There are different types of forms – open forms, where the overall length is left to the poet, and closed forms which follow a set pattern and length.

The assignment does not hold much interest (at least to me). For each open form, we are supposed to write a poem which describes the form. I think I prefer writing about my dear little cats who are, after all, an endless source of interest and inspiration.

So here we go with the first open form :

Terza Rima :
Tercets are 3-line stanzas. Terza Rima can be any length but the rhyme scheme is ABA, BCB, CDC, and so on till the last stanza which is four lines long, in the format DEDE. My attempt, called "Feeding Time":

When evening comes, it's time to eat
We walk out with a jar of food
The cats rush back in, from the street.

Wait politely - I wish they would -
But urgently they beg and plead,
And push each other - oh, so rude!

Finally, they begin to feed
Heads all down, they keep munching on
Heaven knows, it's really just greed -
In five minutes, it has all gone!

Quatrains :
4-line stanzas. Can be cross-rhymed, or ABAB; envelope-rhymed, or ABBA. The Rubai is a quatrain form from Persia, with a rhyme scheme of AABA. I did not know that this famous verse was from the Ruba'yat of Omar Khayyam (translated by Edward Fitzgerald, in iambic pentameter to boot):

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Alas, my own effort cannot compare:

Our Casey cat often treats us with hauteur
We ask her to sit, to come and drink water
But unless she gets her favourite treats
She only obeys should it be her pleasure.

(Note: use of weak endings. Also, pleasure is not a perfect rhyme - assonance?)

Poetry Exercise No. 11 will be continued in my next post. There is still Rhyme Royal, and Ottava Rima to go! Plus the Spencerian Stanza!