Monday, June 22, 2009

Monday Poetry Stretch - Abecedarian Poems

It's time this week to revisit and old (i.e. - one we've already played with) form. An abecedarian poem is one in which the verses or words begin with successive letters of the alphabet. Here is an excerpt from a poem found in The Monarch's Progress: Poems With Wings by Avis Harley.
Wintering Over
by Avis Harley

Amazing
Blazing
Clusters
Decorate
Entire
Forest
Groves.

Hanging
In
Jeweled
Kingdoms
...
Psalm 119 (King James numbering) is also an abecedarian poem.
Poets.org has more information about the abecedarian form.

So, the challenge this week is to write in the abecedarian form. Leave me a comment about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

12 comments:

  1. WOW! My mind is blown! The Bible has not one, but several abecedarian acrostics??!?! Who knew? (Obviously, not me. But now I do. Thanks for continuing my education!) I love the one in The Monarch's Progress. Let's see if I can try one of my own this week...

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  2. Tricia,

    Have you read Julie Larios's poem "Double Abecedarian: Please Give Me"? I found it in THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2006. I'm in awe of Julie's poetry-writing abilities.

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  3. Thanks for pointing this out, Elaine. I loved it! It reminded me of some of the work of Barbara Hamby that I'm so fond of.

    For anyone who wants to read Julie's poem, try this link.
    Double Abecedarian: Please Give Me

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  4. Some surprises here. To me at any rate.

    Changes

    A
    Bunched
    Caterpillar
    Dozes
    Exhausted,
    Forming
    Green
    Hairpins
    In
    Jellied
    Kingdoms.
    Lying
    Motionless,
    Not
    Overplaying
    Pupa-ness,
    Quite
    Ready
    (Sort of)
    To
    Unfold
    Varicose
    Wings with an
    eXacting
    Yellow
    Zipper.

    c 2009 Jane Yolen

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  5. You know, as hard as I try, I can't get single-word lines to work, alphbetically. I've tried many times, and I'll put my head to it again until Friday, but meanwhile, I'll post another double-abecedarian written tonight over at The Drift Record just for laughs. Maybe I'll post two, as long as we're laughing. Double abecedarians do whatever they want to do, there's no stopping them.

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  6. Apparently, I can't spell "alphabetically" either.

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  7. The problem is that alphabetically isn't.

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  8. This is kind of an abecedarian and a half, but it's just A Few Short Lines

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  9. Here's my attempt. It needs a non-abecedarian ending, I think. Find it
    here

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  10. Tiel--that is exquisite.

    Jane

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  11. Hi, Tricia! I've been keeping up with reading these for weeks and weeks and am delighted to be able to participate this week.

    You can find mine at:

    http://havingwrit.blogspot.com/2009/06/still-cloudy.html

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  12. Well, tried my hand at an abecedarian here. Will be back over the weekend to read all the responses. I know I'm in for a treat, based on the couple I've seen already!

    http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/159602.html

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