The bananagram, a verse form of Ulysses Poe's own invention, is a poetic elaboration upon a single word, the so-called spring word, which functions as a partial, near- or quasi anagram in that numbers of smaller words can be spelt using one or more of its letters. These single words, so-called sub-words or seed words, are then used as end rhymes in the lines of an extended poetic composition, the final word of which is the spring word.
Example:
(1) The spring word: M A C H I N E
(2) A partial list of seed words derived from the spring word:
Ham, came, am, name, Che, "Ni," CIA, me...
(3) The bananagram:
Though he claimed, “I’m descended from Ham,”
as he conquered and saw and then came,
he’s descended from Eve, like I am.
Still, I fear I’ve forgotten his name.
Next, he chanted, “I’m Cuban, like Che.
And you’re right: I’m like knights who says “Ni.”
(I suspect the guy’s gay, or is ex-CIA
on a visit -- or is it just me…?)...
(And so on for, in the case of this example's final form, a total of 60 lines)
The split bananagram is similar to the bananagram except that every other end-rhymed line uses a word derived from the poem’s spring word.
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