Friday, May 28, 2010

Have you ever wrote a 'triolet'?

One of my favorite magazines is Writer’s Digest, and one of my favorite regular features in the magazine is its Poetic Form item. In the Poetic Form piece, the magazine’s editors introduce (or reintroduce) readers to an unusual form of poetry.
In the March/April issue, the “triolet” was the featured poetic form. Never heard of this type of poem? Me neither, at least so far as I can remember.
A triolet is an eight-line poem that consists of repetitive lines, rhymes and has eight to 10 syllables per line in this pattern:
A: First line
B: Second line
a: Rhyme with the first line
A: Repeat first line
a: Rhyme with first line
b: Rhyme with second line
A: Repeat first line
B: Repeat second line
These types of unusual poems are often fun to try and you can write them in a short time or you can really put a lot of thought into them over an extended period of time. As an example, I’ll spit one out real quick for you.

I once had a dog named Winston.
He was as loyal as could be.
His curly tail wagged like a piston
I once had a dog named Winston.
Ol’ Winston was always much fun.
And I hate that he never saw three.
I once had a dog named Winston.
He was as loyal as could be.

OK, now that I’m on the backside of my first triolet, I can say that it requires a little more thought than I first thought. Next time, I’ll choose to end my first line in something that’s easier to rhyme with than “Winston.”
In the end, I’d encourage you to try this unusual poetic form, and if you want, post your efforts in the comments section below. I’m sure they’ll be fun to read and are bound to be better than my quick tribute to my ol’ buddy Winston the Pug.

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