Begin by
quoting the opening line of a well-known poem, ideally a pentameter line. (Adopting for yourself as author of this new work a pseudonym derived from the name of the composer of the poem you've chosen to amplify is optional.)
Example:
Quality by Tyll Wakespeare
The quality of mercy is not strain’d.
The five accented
syllables appear in boldface.
Compose a
second pentameter line which, if ever so loosely, follows the narrative or other sense of
the first, making sure its five accented syllables rhyme with those syllables in
similar positions within the first line.
Example:
The quality of
mercy is not strain’d.
Still, Dali, being nervous, kiss’d, then caned
Compose a third
pentameter line in which internal rhyme is optional – except for the final
syllable, which must rhyme with the final syllables of the first two lines. The
“sense” -- narrative or otherwise -- of the line should – again, more or less loosely – complete that of the
first two lines.
Example:
The quality of
mercy is not strain'd.
Still, Dali,
being nervous, kiss’d, then caned
each freshman, fuming, “Let this swamp be drain’d!”
This completes
the first tercet.
For the second
tercet, compose a pentameter line whose five accented syllables are identical
or nearly identical with those of the first tercet’s opening line but you array in a different order. Compose a second pentameter line whose accented syllables
rhyme with those of the first, as was done in the first tercet. The internal
rhymes of the third line are, as before, optional for all but the last
syllable which must rhyme with the final syllables of the first two lines. This
completes the second tercet.
Tercets three
through five are composed in similar fashion, with an attempt made to have the
last line of each tercet in some fashion wrap up the sense of the whole tercet -- though this wrapping up may be set aside in favor of continuity from one tercet to that following -- and to have the final tercet in some fashion meaningfully – perhaps meta-meaningfully? -- wrap up the whole poem, a poem of five tercets totaling fifteen lines.
Example:
Force by Tyll Andrahmas
The force that
through the green fuse drives the flower,
of course,
shows new, pristine and lively power.
It eyes me as
it cries, “You need a shower.”
As through its
green fuse thrives this flow’r, its force
lets two
pre-teens with knives devour my horse.
Ingesting
beasts? Alert Inspector Morse!
Weak
green-fuse-driving flowers’ forces? Through!
We’ve seen
Bath’s wives -- yours? Ours? Divorce won’t do.
What’s needed’s
discombobulation, nu?
What drives
said flow’r (if force be through) is green.
It strives
(though sour, though course) to “screw that scene.”
Now, ple-e-e-ease don’t claim you
don’t know what we mean.)
So: flower
force is through. It’s green fuse drives,
Which, dour of
source (though blue of jean) apes chives.
(Grandstanding
stanzas find their feet in fives.)
Ready to try one of
your own? The following will get you started:
Midway
by Ollie (“Dan”) Teejerry
Midway on the
journey of our life...