A Study in Verse Forms
by Peg Kay
Morphing Snavely: a tutorial
Poetry is distinguished from ordinary language by having either a defined rhythm, rhyme, or shape -- sometimes all three. (Except for free verse which has none of the above. I don't know why it is considered poetry).
imerick
Within the general class of "Poetry", are many special forms which obey their own particular rules. You can find the rules for Limericks, which comprise the noblest form of Poetry, by clicking
And while you are there, you can see the noblest limerick of them all -- the Saga of Snavely the Snail and his struggles with the Snorkelers from Wales. Since all of the poetry on this page will deal with the same subject, we'll reprint that limerick here:
Some unseemly snorkelers from Wales,
Were arrested and sent off to jails,
For acts most immoral
Among the reefs coral,
Such as writing graffiti on snails.
lizabethan 
onnet
William Shakespeare found this verse form nearly as lovely as that of the limerick. All sonnets have fourteen lines of five-foot iambic verse. And what, you may ask, is a five-foot iambic verse? Well, a foot consists of a group of syllables, one of which is accented. (Keep this in mind, you'll need it when we get to the double dactyls). An iambic foot contains five feet. The Elizabethan sonnet groups those lines in three quatrains (four lines apiece) with six alternating rhymes and a couplet (two lines). Here is how Snavely fares, Elizabethan-sonnet-wise.
There bounds the isles blue waters to keep free
Those golden lands that hold the verdant vales
Crouched impervious to the roiling sea
England, Ireland, Scotland, glorious Wales.
Bound, yet not, from time's first manifest year
With unruly spirit no man may squelch
Thus spew the ribald in snorkeling gear
Sent from the earth where births intrepid Welsh.
From whence comes the rash, impetuous Celt
To join rude Bacchus in his watery sport
The lure of license ever to be felt
Beneath the sea, far from those islands' port
Where restraint and where decent feeling fails
Graffiti are writ large upon the snails.
There are other kinds of sonnets (Italian and Spenserian) but they all have fourteen lines of five-foot iambic verse. If you are a glutton for glossaries, there is a good glossary of poetry terms here.
aiku
A haiku is a triplet (three lines) that does not rhyme. It does, however, have a syllable pattern, to wit: the first line has five syllables, the second line seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables. Here's Snavely done up in Haiku.
Welsh snork'lers cavort
Snails hide beneath and within
Graffiti and jail.
That makes no sense, you say? Haiku seldom does.
inquain
Some time around the turn of the century, an American poet named Adelaid Crapsey [sic] got exasperated with Haiku -- probably because Haiku is a Japanese verse form that seldom makes sense in other languages. Note: we have only the word of the Japanese that it makes sense in their language. At any rate, Ms. Crapsey developed her own non-rhyming verse form, which she called Cinquain -- from the French word for "five" (cinq), because they had five lines. The cinquain is an extremely stylized verse form which follows the pattern:
- Line 1 -- 1 two-syllable word giving the title
- Line 2 -- 2 words with a total of four syllables describing the title
- Line 3 -- 3 words (six syllables) expressing an action
- Line 4 -- 2 words (eight syllables) expressing a feeling
- Line 5 -- another two-syllable word for the title
Here's Snavely in cinquain form.
Snork'lers
Write graffiti
Bringing sadness snailward
Ineffable desolation
Jailbirds
iamante
If you think the Cinquain is nutsy, wait until you hear about the diamante. This is a non-rhyming seven line poem set up in a diamond shape thus:
- One noun
- Two adjectives
- Three verbs ending in "ing"
- Four nouns or adjectives
- Three verbs ending in "ing"
- Two adjectives
- Two-syllable noun or two nouns
Snails Slimy crawly Accepting erasing, sobbing Spoiled marred, Welsh scofflaws Graffiting penning trashing Silly stupid Snorkler
lerihew
After all of that, the Clerihew seems almost sane. It is a very simple rhyme, two couplets in length, rhyming aabb, usually dealing with a person designated in the initial line. It was named for its originator, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, an English writer. It goes thusly:
Snavely the Snail
Wound up in a pail
Completely defeated
Defaced and graffitted.
ouble actyl
(also known as the Higgledy Piggledy)
A dactyl is a foot (see under sonnet, above) which consists of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables -- DUM dee dee. A Double Dactyl is a rhyming poem with two 4-line stanzas, most of which consist of two dactylic feet. In other words, DUM dee dee DUM dee dee.
The first line is a nonsense phrase -- very often, higgledy piggledy. The second line is the subject of the poem. The third line discusses or describes the subject. The fourth line is shortened -- instead of going DUM dee dee DUM dee dee, it goes DUM dee dee DUM.
The fifth and the seventh lines have the same meter as the first and third lines. So does the sixth line, except that the sixth line consists of one double-dactylic word, such as "elephantiasis". And the last line rhymes with and is shortened like the fourth line.
Got all that?
Here's Snavely.
Glubbledy wubbledy
Snork'lers from Wales went and
Scribbled unlawfully
On Snavely's shell.Sentenced to croon ever
Uninterruptedly
Ghastly old canons made
By Pacobel.
We will now retire, exhausted.
