Miriam N. Kotzin’s Comments
“The Listener” is a narrative poem in seven parts, each of which
is written in a form of poetry with repeating iambic lines or repeating phrases
and having a set rhyme scheme. I chose, for the most part, a simple vocabulary
to create the voice of the little girl. Some of the sections are from her point
of view; others, from an observer’s. I used these repeating forms to suggest
recurring, obsessive thoughts. “The Listener,” “Jelly Bread,” and “The
Fall” are a series of triolets. “Boo Bear” and “Stars” are
rondeaux; “Judgments” is a rondeau redoublé. “Quilt” is
a villanelle.
The editors have asked me to explain the forms.
Lines are measured in syllables or in patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables,
each single unit of which is a foot. In these poems the lines are iambic—that is, the
foot is two syllables: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Iambic tetrameter is a line of four iambs; iambic pentameter is a line of five
iambs.
Rhyme is indicated by letters, the first rhyme represented by “a” and
the second by “b,” etc. All “a” lines rhyme with one
another. An uppercase letter represents a repeating line. An uppercase “A” rhymes
with all lowercase “a” lines.
“R” represents a repeating phrase.
A triolet is a poem of eight lines of the same number of feet, same meter. “The
Listener,” “Jelly Bread,” and “The Fall” are a
series of triolets. Sometimes series of triolets in a single poem maintain the
same rhymes throughout the poem. I chose different rhymes for each triolet. The
lines in these triolets are iambic tetrameter. In each stanza, the rhyme scheme is: A B a A a
b A B. That is, the first two lines appear as the last two, and the first line
is also the fourth.
A rondeau (“Boo Bear” and “Stars”) has fifteen lines: three stanzas. The first stanza is five lines (quintet),
the second stanza four lines (quatrain), and the last stanza six lines (sestet).
The lines are the same length—in this case, iambic tetrameter—except
for the lines in which the refrain appears alone. The refrain is composed of
the first few words—often the first phrase—of the first line of the
poem. The entire poem has two rhymes. The refrain usually does not rhyme with
the rest of the poem.
(Ra) represents a line that begins with the refrain and ends with an “a” rhyme.
First stanza: (Ra) a b b a
Second stanza: a a b R
Third stanza: a a b b a R
A rondeau redoublé (“Judgments”) has twenty-five lines: six stanzas, five quatrains,
and a final quintet. Each line of the first stanza appears as the last line of
a following stanza. The lines are the same length—in this case, iambic
tetrameter—except for the lines in which the refrain appears alone. The
last stanza ends with the repeton, the first few words of the first stanza.
(RA1) represents a line that begins with the refrain, ends with an “a” rhyme,
and is repeated. The 1 signifies that other lines with the same rhyme will also
be repeated.
First stanza: (RA1), B1, A2, B2
Second stanza: b a b A1
Third stanza: a b a B1
Fourth stanza: b a b A2
Fifth stanza: a b a B2
Sixth stanza: b a b a R
A villanelle (“Quilt”) has nineteen lines: six stanzas, five three-line (triplet) stanzas
and a concluding quatrain. It has two rhymes and the first and last lines of
the first stanza alternately appear as the last lines of successive stanzas,
and then as the concluding couplet of the last stanza—sometimes as A1 A2
and sometimes as A2 A1. Sometimes the lines are repeated with slight variations.
All the lines of a villanelle are of the same length; in “Quilt” the
lines are iambic pentameter.
First stanza: A1 b A2
Second stanza: a b A1
Third stanza: a b A2
Fourth stanza: a b A1
Fifth stanza: a b A2
Sixth stanza: a b A1 A2
For more about these and many other poetic forms, I recommend Lewis Putnam Turco’s
The Book of Forms. The fourth edition, revised and expanded, The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and
Invented Forms, will be published
in the fall of 2011 by the University Press of New England.
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