Sunday, March 09, 2008

Poetry Exercise: Tetrameter, Trimeter

We take a break from the pentameter here. The exercise was to take the subject, television and write

(a) two quartrains of standard, eight syllable iambic tetrameter

A whirr of words and issues too
The PR crises fly. Control
The press, with truth, not lies, just spin
It lightly so. That's CJ's job.

The bargining, the compromise,
All part of cooking law, Thus Josh
And Sam and Leo too, all work
To get things through: the White House Corp

(b) two quatrains of alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter

A little town called Stars Hollow
Community abounds.
There's Luke, the grumpy diner man
And Taylor, grocer old

But most of all, the girls themselves:
The Gilmore daughter and mum
They're smart and sassy and their words
Do snap, crackle and pop

(c) Two quatrains of trochaic tetrameter: one in "pure trochee" (dum-di instead of di-dum) and one with docked weak endings in the second and fourth lines.


Dead man speak not through words.
Science clears the mist. Just blood
Spattered or paint scratched off can
Clue the team and cases crack

Murderers they find entrenched in
Crime. The lab reveals all that.
Intent still needs a human touch
Jigsaw the remaining facts



No prizes for guessing my favourite TV shows.

1 comment:

Doris Fennell said...

Do you sell southern pecan coffee?