"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Monday, 28 December 2009

Rictameter

A rictameter is an unrhymed, 9-line poem with a syllable count of 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2 in which the first and last lines are the same.

Andromeda Jazmon on her blog 'A Wrung Sponge' recently wrote one and I decided to borrow the idea (and even borrowed her first / last line). This was the result.

Long night.
Can't sleep at all.
But then I rarely can.
It's one of the prices I pay
for being daft enough to be poorly.
Not that I chose to be ill
but I didn't look after myself
when I was young.
Long night

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the additon to the syllabus-counting verse forms. (My favourites since before being haiku and tanka.) Also "all too familiar" with the content of your poem... (been through a few long nights myself)

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  2. Thanks for the suggestion. I wrote a couple of rictameters. One is here: http://lizbethsgarden.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/paradise/.

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  3. Nicely done. I always enjoy a poem that captures a moment, a night, a reflection, or all three.

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  4. I shall have to try out this one. In the meantime I'm intrigued by the word verification below - thrudg. I wonder what that brings to your mind?

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  5. A thrudg sounds suspiciously like an unpleasant and somewhat violent person. No refelction on me, I hope.

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