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“You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.”
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
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Poetry By Numbers - Part Three: 8’s and up
Counting is important in poetry, from counting syllables and metrical feet, to counting lines and stanzas in order to follow certain forms. Today we will go over the vocabulary that accompanies some of these tasks, as well as a couple poetry forms for you to try.
When dealing with larger numbers, corresponding poetry forms and stanzas are harder to find, however I was able to discover some to share. Incredibly, there exists a 210-line poem: the sonnet redoubled (Turco, 99).
Poetry By 8’s, and 9’s
When looking at poetry by eights and nines you will find both stanzas and poetry forms. Some examples are: ballade stanza (eight lines), cyhydedd hir (eight-line form), ottava rima (eight-line form or stanza—see details below), triad (nine-line form), and the Spenserian stanza (nine lines).
Ottava Rima
The Ottava Rima has been used as either a stanza or poetry form, but is mostly used as a stanza in long works. It is “from Italian, meaning roughly ‘rhyme in eights’” (Padgett, 124).
BRIEF HISTORY
Poets have used this form for approximately eight hundred years. Born in Italy, it has been used throughout those eight centuries in England, Portugal, Spain and beyond.
MUST HAVES
--Eight lines per stanza.
--Must rhyme using: abababcc.
COULD HAVES or What's The Poet's Choice In All This?
--Amount of stanzas: 1, 2, 20, whatever the poet decides the poem needs.
--Any subject matter.
--Any meter, but generally iambic pentameter. When a meter is selected each line should use it throughout the poem.
Poetry By 10’s, 11’s and 12’s
As you work with poetry by tens, elevens and twelves you will find very few forms and stanzas to play with, but I was able to find a couple to share. Some examples are: decastich (ten lines—see details below), dizain (ten-line form), chant royal stanza (eleven lines), roundel (eleven-line form), and the rondine (twelve lines).
Decastich
Like the deca in the decastich implies, this is a ten-line poetry form. In fact, it’s “any whole poem of ten lines” (Turco, 169).
BRIEF HISTORY
Since this term applies to every single poem that is ten lines long, it’s difficult to pinpoint it’s history. A similar terms decima (any ten-line stanza) has been around for about 600 years, and decasyllable (ten-syllable line) has been in use for around 900.
MUST HAVES
--Stanza length: 10 lines
COULD HAVES or What's The Poet's Choice In All This?
--Any meter (or no set meter).
--Any rhyme.
Poetry Beyond 12’s
When looking at poetry with lengths longer than twelve you will find only poetry forms, but (with the exception of fourteen) they are minimal. Some examples are: Many of the sonnet forms (Italian, Spenserian, etc. - fourteen lines), terzanelle (nineteen-line form), roundelay (twenty-four lines), English ode (thirty-line form), and the chant royal (sixty lines).
Sonnet
Most sonnets are fourteen lines long, but there are several variations that are longer, and even one that is shorter. “To the Elizabethan, the word sonnet meant simply ‘a little song’ and described any short lyric poem” (Miller, 80).
See for sonnet variations.
BRIEF HISTORY
Francesco Petrarch, a poet in 1300’s Italy, may have started the fourteen-line tradition with a squadron of sonnets to his married (to another) ladylove, Laura.
MUST HAVES
--14 lines** (**A couple exceptions are listed in the variations link)
--Set up: An idea, issue, point of view, question, outlook or theme.
--Turn/Volta: Fortify a point, use an opposite point of view, answer a question, or take a change in direction.
--Summary: Wrap it up. Sometimes this step is combined with the volta.
COULD HAVES or What's The Poet's Choice In All This?
--Rhyme scheme (the sonnet you choose may dictate the rhyme scheme - see variations link)
--Meter (the sonnet you choose may dictate the meter - see variations link)
--Where to place the turn/volta. (The sonnet you choose may dictate where the volta is located - see variations link.)
--Topic/theme
~*~
METER ME in St. Louis, Louis
I didn’t go in depth with meter in this article. It can get long and complicated. However I will share these metrical terms: octometer = eight metrical foot, nonameter = nine metrical feet, and decameter = ten metrical feet.
Source Notes:
Padgett, Ron. The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms. 2nd. NY: T & W Books, 2000.
Williams, Miller (1986). Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1986.
Turco, Lewis. The Book of Forms. 3rd. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2000.
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Theme: Ottava Rima, decastich, and sonnet.
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I've decided to use The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach: (Available at Amazon.Com) in order to hone my skills.
Every month I will share a synopsis of one of the exercises I want to try. If you also try the exercise, please feel free to share it with me and the Poetry newsletter subscribers. If you send me a link to your item, I shall place that link in this section next month.
The exercise I will try this month comes from part two, page 66. The exercise is by Maura Stanton and is called "The Widow."
In this exercise--before you even begin writing your poem--you come up with a story about a man who has drowned. You come up with the how, why, where, when, etc. Then you write the poem in the POV of his "widow, who now hates the water" (Behn & Twichell, 66).
~*~
Have a question, answer, problem, solution, tip, trick, cheer, jeer, or extra million lying around?
If so, send it through the feedback section at the bottom of this newsletter OR click the little envelope next to my name Red Writing Hood <3 and send it through email.
Comments on last month's newsletter:
Submitted By: Fyn 
Submitted Comment:
Great newsletter on a subject near and dear to my heart!!!!!
Submitted By: David Hawk 
Submitted Comment:
A newsletter I will definitely come back to reference more than once. Also,"All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing" by Timothy Steele is a good book on meter and versification if one wants an in depth exploration of two potentially mind numbing components of poetry.
Submitted By: monty31802
Submitted Comment:
Super informative newsletter. Monty
Submitted By: percy goodfellow 
Submitted Comment:
Red Writing Hood, I have been writing "poetry" for most of my life exclusively for my amusement. My understanding of it is right up there with my wife's understanding of automobiles. She knows how to get in and drive like hell. One of the real benefits of Writing.com is having experts like yourself, explain the nuts and bolts of the art form. Percy
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Poetry: August 19, 2009 Issue [#3230]
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