Tuesday Tryouts — Poetic Form: The Lanturne

8:10 a.m. — Atlanta

Hello everyone. I have a short and sweet form for you today. I am trying, more or less, to go through forms alphabetically. We should be on haiku, but a couple of other sites have recently undertaken the haiku, so I will leave it awhile. What I have for you is similar: a lanturne. Hands up: how many of you had heard of this form before? No. I hadn’t either.

At its most basic, it is a syllabic form: five lines, one syllable, two syllables, three syllables, four syllables, one syllables. And, the alignment is centered, so the poem looks like a lantern [it does require fiddling — I suspect I would ignore the lantern shape and play with the syllables].

   Swift
 winds blow
threatening,
 a tornado
   grows.

Copyright © 2003 Crystal Rose

Notice, that like the haiku there is a caesura, or stop point. This can occur after any line preceding the last, and is often after the second, or third. The effect is of a set up and then a result, a cause and effect.

      Sun
     rises
  over peaks,
morning glories
     bloom.

Copyright © 2003 Crystal Rose

Hmmm…more fir tree than lantern.

The first word is often, but not necessarily, the subject of the poem. The second and third lines describe what that subject is doing, or what the subject looks like. The fourth and fifth lines are usually the turn. I know it all sounds loose, but that gives us a flexibility, a little stretch room within the syllabic confines.

And, that is it. Seems too easy, doesn’t it? Remember to post your results so we can read them, and to wander around and read others.

I shall not see you Thursday as I had hoped, because I an in the throes of a wretched cold. I am at the point that I wish someone would shoot me. I shall see you Friday for the roundup and next Tuesday for an open prompt [hint: think about things that are meaningful to you] and next Thursday for a reader inspired discussion on language.

Happy writing everyone.