Terza Rima - Don't Panic!

Terza rima is a rhyming verse form, in which the poem, or each poem-section, consists of tercets (three line stanzas) with an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme: The last word of the second line in one tercet provides the rhyme for the first and third lines in the tercet that follows (aba bcb cdc ). The poem or poem-section may have any number of lines, but it ends with either a single line or a couplet, which repeats the rhyme of the middle line of the previous tercet (yzy z or yzy zz ).

I don’t know about you but my eyes glazed over half way through that paragraph. It makes sense with an example such as Robert Frost’s:

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.                    a
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.                    b
I have outwalked the furthest city light.                            a

I have looked down the saddest city lane.                       b
I have passed by the watchman on his beat                    c
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.                   b

(etc)             

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right         e
I have been one acquainted with the night.                     e

The first use of terza rima is in Dante's "The Divine Comedy ", completed in 1320. In creating the form, Dante may have been influenced by the sirventes, a lyric poetry form used by the Provençal troubadours. He set his poem using hendecasyllabic (so well known that I’ll not bother explaining) lines which are suitable for the Italian language. Whereas in English, poets tend to use iambic pentameter which is a line of writing that consists of ten syllables in a specific pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Now I knew what to look for here’s an example from "The Divine Comedy ":

Tant’ è amara che poco è più morte;
ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai,
dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ho scorte.

Io non so ben ridir com’ i’ v’intrai,
tant’ era pien di sonno a quel punto
che la verace via abbandonai.

Ma poi ch’i’ fui al piè d’un colle giunto,
là dove terminava quella valle
che m’avea di paura il cor compunto...

It doesn’t matter what it means and anyway a friend tells me that English translations don’t do the words justice.

The first occurrence of Dante’s terza rima rhyme scheme in English is found in parts II and III of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem "Complaint to His Lady ". Here’s a few lines:

Hir name is Bountee, set in womanhede,
Sadnesse in youthe, and Beautee prydelees
And Plesaunce, under governaunce and drede;

Hir surname is eek Faire Rewthelees,
The Wyse, yknit unto Good Aventure,
That, for I love hir, she sleeth me giltelees.

I just about get the gist of that and the form gained popularity as it also allowed poets to connect stanzas to one another, creating a smooth transition from topic to topic or from image to image.

As ever with forms that are transposed from one language to another e.g. haiku, they can be modified. Frost’s poem keeps to the rules but then Derek Walcott in his book length poem entitled "Omerus " (which is brilliant) takes more than a few liberties with the Terza Rima form.

All the above begs the question of whether you view rhyming verse of any sort as a help or a straightjacket.

To be fair to Robert Frost, here is the complete poem:

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Terza Rima - JCC and The Machars

Terza Rima is an Italian poetic form which I believe to be invented by Dante Alighieri and used for his poem, the Divine Comedy. The poem is three line stanzas in iambic pentameter with a rhyming structure aba, bcb, cdc, and so on. It can have many stanzas. The poem ends with a single line or a couplet which repeats the rhyme of the middle line of the last tercet.

I'm offering two of my own, this one for one of my favourite modern poets.

Terza Rima for John Cooper Clarke

Those of the time embraced every word,
Listening in wonder to John Cooper Clarke,
The Bard of Salford who had to be heard.

Rapid from the mouth and skinny and dark.
'Evidently Chickentown', effing good.
He's magic with words, bright as any spark.

His wholesome description meant that we could
Smell the inhabitants of 'Beasley Street',
Rich mixture of urban decay and blood.

Life, humour and truth, a picture complete
And painted with colourful language that
Reaches all listeners not just the elite.

So thanks, JCC, I know where I'm at,
Laughing out loud at the poem called 'Twat'.

PMW 2012

Andrew Brown's statue, Port William, The Machars

We're currently away, touring favourite places in Dumfries & Galloway in our caravan and spending a few days in The Machars, exploring the peninsula.

The Machars

Garlieston, oh Garlieston, oh so quaint,
Swans on the water, snow-white in sunshine,
Gathered by the harbourside's weak restraint.

Isle of Whithorn while the weather is fine,
Blustery but sunny on the headlands.
St Ninian's Chapel, follow the sign.

Port William, gazing out to sea he stands
There in all weather's, leaning on the fence,
Andrew Brown's statue, the front he commands.

To Wigtown and let some browsing commence,
From bookshop to bookshop in this book town,
A bookshop-cum-cafe for lunch, makes sense.

Exploring The Machars, up hill and down.

PMW 2023

Thanks for reading, Pam x

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if winter comes can spring be far behind?

By Ashley Lister

If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?

This is the final line from ‘Ode to the West Wind’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley. I came across these words the week before last as I was researching poetic forms for one of my creative writing classes.

I was surprised by this line for two reasons.

Primarily, I was surprised because I’ve heard the phrase quoted before, but I’d never previously seen the whole poem. It was a pleasure to put the phrase in context – almost like mentally completing a jigsaw.

But I was surprised by the poem for another reason.

Over the past few years I’ve taught a wide variety of poetic forms and I sometimes worry that I’ve worked with every established form of poetry that’s been recorded. I’ve worked with poetic forms from abecedaries through to Zéjels and many more in between. But it seems there are an infinite variety of poetic forms. And, whilst I was looking through records of what I’ve taught and what’s still out there waiting to be taught, I came across Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind.’

Obviously, I’ve taught the concept of odes before. Technically, the ode is not a poetic form. Length, meter, rhyme scheme and structure can all vary in the ode dependent on the needs of the writer and the way the subject matter needs to be presented. But ‘Ode to the West Wind’ is written in the form of a Terza Rima and that’s a form I hadn’t previously covered in my classes.

The Terza Rima is originally an Italian form that’s been used by Milton, Shelley, Byron, Frost and Dante Alighieri. It’s written in tercets (three lined stanzas) with a rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc (and so on) until the final stanza. The final stanza can either be a single line, relating back to the middle rhyme of the penultimate stanza, (yzy z) or it can be a concluding couplet (xyx zz).

The structure suits iambic pentameter or iambic tetrameter and the interlocking rhyme scheme presents a neat little form that is a challenge to write and a pleasure to read. This is the opening from the aforementioned poem by Shelley. The rest of it can be found through this link: (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15693)

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odours plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!

And, if anyone here is up to the Saturday challenge of building a poem, let’s see if we can each contribute a tercet in the comments box below.

Which moron here chose the dragon topic

For this winter’s dead good poet’s event?

The theme’s making me feel misanthropic…

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