Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 30

Thursday is upon us, and with it the start of another week with JP at Olive Garden. Although I have been absent lately you once again find me, CC Champagne, resting in the shade of the olive trees with a nice glass of bubbly in my hand, ready to untangle some poetry forms (or at least get inebriated trying).

This week I've actually fallen in love with a poetry form. Yes, I know! I didn't think it was possible either!!! The triolet is a form I have seen now and then around the blogosphere, but never paid attention to. The good people over at dVerse Poets featured the form a few weeks back, and I know some of the blog poets I read have produced pieces in this form, but I never tried it. Until this week's National Poetry Month 2012 prompt... And it was what falling in love should be like if it were real (cynic present, please beware!)!

To quote Wikipedia a triolet is "a three stanza poem of eight lines" (well, that's simple enough, right?). It continues by letting us know that the rhyme scheme is 'ABaAabAB' and that iambic tetrameter is often used. From my earlier attempts at learning poetry form, this tells me that the rhythm used (iamb) is a two syllable rhythm where the stress is on the first syllable (TA-dum) and that we use four (tetra) such iambs to a line (in other words eight syllables)... Wikipedia further says that "an effective conventional triolet achieves two things; firstly the naturalness of the refrain and secondly the alteration of the refrain's meaning". To fully understand what on earth this means, let's have a look at an example:

How great my grief, my joys how few,

Since first it was my fate to know thee!

Have the slow years not brought to view

How great my grief, my joys how few,

Nor memory shaped old times anew

Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee

How great my grief, my joys how few,

Since first it was my fate to know thee?

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

If you have had the patience to read this through I hope the rhyming has caught you in some way as it did me. Ah, just a brilliant flow! As you can see, the 1st, 4th and 7th line are the same, as is the 2nd and the 8th. It still manages to change though... Somehow... Some more examples of this form - as well as a slightly more expansive dive into the history (dating back to Medieval France, I believe) and evolution of the form can be found here. I will try my hand at this form again in the future, I am sure of it! *smile*

Should you wish to share some poetry with us, whether in triolet form or otherwise, please feel free to join our Poetry Picnic at JP At Olive Garden Week 29, where the theme of the week is Art, Music and Poetry, or join in the always exciting Thursday Poets Rally over at Hyde Park Poetry (Promising Poets Parking lot). Me you will see here again next Thursday, hopefully with some other new found favourite poetry form to talk about!

*Cheers*