Short, unrhymed twenty-two
syllable poems, written in five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables each. Invented by
Adelaide Crapsey between
1909-
1910, inspired by
Japanese forms of poetry. Her form became known
posthumously due to the efforts of
Carl Sandburg and
Louis Untermeyer. Crapsey's most famous work is called "Triad":
These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow... the hour
Before the dawn... the mouth of one
Just dead.
There are other
variations on the form.
American elementary school teachers often use a 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 word form to teach or reinforce parts of speech:
Line 1, the
title, is a
noun;
Line 2 has two words to
describe the noun (
adjectives);
Line 3 contains three
action words (
verbs);
Line 4 is a
phrase that describe the noun, this phrase may contain an
emotion;
Line 5 is a one word
summary or a
synonym of the first word. Example:
Nodes
didactic, facetious
explaining, complaining, entertaining
by users, for users
Everything