Monday, April 27, 2009

Monday Poetry Stretch - Tritina

I recently wrote my first sestina. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't very good either. I wish I had known about the tritina when I began grappling with the sestina from. It might have made it a bit easier to handle/understand.

In writing about Helen Frost, today's Poetry Maker, I found a number of worksheets on poetic form on her web site. She suggests starting with the tritina since the sestina is a more difficult form. What a great idea! Here are the nuts and bolts of the form.

10-line poem made of three, 3-line stanzas and a 1-line envoi

There is no rhyme scheme but rather an end word scheme. It is:

A
B
C

C
A
B

B
C
A

A, B, and C (all in the last line/envoi)
So, your challenge for the week is to write a tritina. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week. Have fun!

8 comments:

  1. Oy. I should really be working on finishing my sestina, but it's just NOT COMING together... if I have time I'll try this.

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  2. Not sure this is what you mean:

    The Moon and Me: A Tritina
    Looking last night at the moon,
    I thought how it resembled a stone
    Skipped by a child into the sky.

    But who would have thrown into the sky
    Something so precious as that moon,
    Such an enormous gem stone?

    I would have rather hung that stone
    Around my neck, bedecked like the sky
    With ear-stars as well as that hanging moon,
    And strolled into sky town, the boys whistling at the moonstone and me.


    c Jane Yolen 2009

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  3. Boy, Harriet, do I love the last line of the second poem. It really works.

    Jane

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  4. A Noir-ish Tritina


    If Mr. Potato-Head
    met Ms. Lonelyhearts, what
    would he ask?

    What does a head ask
    a heart, even when that head
    is empty? Could be "What's

    up, Beautiful? What's
    the rush?" Hearts get asked
    that question by heads.

    When P-Head asks, "What's up, Little Lady?" Ms. L-heart says, "Who's asking?"

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  5. Well, I think that last line wrapped because of the space restrictions here...but it should all be on one line.

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  6. Jane, you have totally made my day for saying that. Thank you.

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  7. I enjoyed this challenge again Tricia, though have ended up rushing it. Also enjoyed reading the others examples. I'm here as usual - http://theweekthatwas.wordpress.com/. Thanks Jacqueline.

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