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Journey to the Sea - Form of the Week - The Duplex

Journey to the Sea

The river's tumultuous rapids
traverse gargantuan boulders.

Rapids race over giant boulders
on a frantic escape to the sea.

To the sea, to the sea, to be free
to navigate on the ocean deep.

I want to travel the ocean deep
where many sailors have lost their way.

Fear not that they have lost their way
for many more embrace the journey.

I too wish to take on the journey,
to strike the sails and glide with the wind

Filling the sails, gliding with the wind
I welcome tumultuous rapids.
                    ~~Judi Van Gorder

Notes ▼

14 Lines
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Verse Form The Duplex  
Duplex is a recent invention of Jericho Brown, associate professor and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University, Atlanta GA. He describes the Duplex as "a new form that renders the musicality and structure of the ghazal, the sonnet, and the blues on a single plane." The defining feature appears to have a little French flare, a tumbling refrain that creates a sort of domino effect.

The elements of the Duplex are:

         1.a quatorzain, a poem in 14 lines, made up of 7 couplets. If it sings and has volta or turn, it could be termed a sonnet.
         2.loosely written with lines of equal length and meter ( examples use 9 to 11 syllables) Similar to the ghazal although ghazal rhyme patterns are not employed.
         3. composed with a modified repeat of the 2nd line of each couplet as the 1st line of the next couplet creating a domino refrain, similar to the blues repeat of a modified L1 as L2 in each triplet.
         4. rhyme is created by the refrains repeat, if the end word of L2 in the previous couplet is repeated within the L1 of the next couplet, the end word of L1 should still rhyme with the previous end word. Rhyme scheme ab bc cd de ef fg ga