4-Line, 4-Foot Rhyming Trochaic Verse!

[Smartypants]

Are we ready for a new communal verse game?

Here are the instructions. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

"Trochaic verse" follows a strict rhythm based on the trochee, or two syllables, one accented, one not. To whit:

TUM ta

We will be writing collaborative four-foot trochaic lines with EIGHT syllables, as in:

TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta

A good example of four-foot trochaic verse is Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha:

Remember, "TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta":

By the shores of Gitchee Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

ACCEPTABLE VARIATION:

The one acceptable variation on this is to drop the last, UNaccented syllable so that there are only SEVEN syllables total:

TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM

A good example, the witches' incantation from MacBeth:

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poisoned entrail throw
Toad, that under co-uld stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweltered venom sleeping got
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

AND, in this thread, each finished verse will contain only FOUR lines, and they will RHYME using an ABAB rhyme scheme. In other words, lines one and three will rhyme, and lines two and four will rhyme.

example:

I am making up this trifle
Just to make ze monkeys pissy
Hope one don't take up a rifle
Rather they just call me sissy.

NOTE: Whoever writes the first line determines if the lines will be seven or eight syllables, and authors of the next three lines MUST follow suit.

Are we ready? (I knew you were getting tired of limericks.)

Let's begin. Remember! TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta /:


I am but a humble poet




Thanks to Clement Wood's The Complete Rhyming Dictionary for the inspiration and description.

[Hyakujo's Fox]

I am but a humble poet
But I offer to you this verse

[Smartypants]

I am but a humble poet
But I offer to you this verse
'though I may not always show it





HF, you are aware -- yes? -- that your line works, although it is slightly funky, as the accent on your line must read like this:

BUT i OFFer TO you THIS verse (TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta / TUM ta)

although naturally one would want to read it as

BUT i OFFer to YOU this VERSE (TUM ta /TUM ta / ta TUM / ta TUM)

which doesn't fit the scheme.

We are on a roll, though, and this works swell! Thanks!

[zenbabe]

I am but a humble poet
But I offer to you this verse
'though I may not always show it
It's your momma I will curse

[masterofNone]

dubya is a pile of shite.

[Smartypants]

Ok now you are going to all curse ME, because I am going to sound critical, but I am not. I just want to put this on track and we will eventually get the hang of it.

Remember the cadence of the trochaic line:

TUM ta TUM ta TUM ta TUM ta

-----------
If we take the last verse and emphasized in per the trochaic meter, it would read:

I am / BUT a / HUMble / POet
BUT i / OFFer / TO you / THIS verse
'THOUGH i / MAY not / ALways / SHOW it
IT'S your / MOMma / I will / CURSE ____

(and we rhyme, but we are missing a syllable)

This would more correctly fit the four-line, four-foot trochaic verse rules:

I am / BUT a / HUMble / POet
BUT i / OFFer / YOU this / VERSE now
'THOUGH i / MAY not / ALways / SHOW it
IT'S your / MOMma / I will / CURSE now

Does this help explain it? Let's do it again, Future Trochaic Poets of the World!


How I hate trochaic meter

[Hyakujo's Fox]

It is hard to get these beats right





What can I say? You read something over enough times, and the beats start to sound okay.

Smarty, what's your considered opinion on "I shall not let beats defeat me"?

[Smartypants]

dubya is a pile of shite.
we won't stand another term!

[Smartypants]

Originally posted by Hyakujo's Fox
It is hard to get these beats right





What can I say? You read something over enough times, and the beats start to sound okay.

Smarty, what's your considered opinion on "I shall not let beats defeat me"?

These BOTH work, I think. Just sound it out. Note the CAPITALS for emphasis:

IT is / HARD to / GET these / BEATS right <---four perfect trochees


I shall / NOT let / BEATS de / FEAT me <---four perfect trochees

moN's works, too, and uses the alternate 7-syllable version that drops the last syllable, and now the next three lines MUST have 7 syllables too:

DUBya / IS a / PILE of / SHITE.
WE won't / STAND a / NOTHer / TERM!




More! More!!

[Smartypants]

It is hard to get these beats right
But I won't let beats defeat me

[Willow Sylph]

It is hard to get these beats right
But I won't let beats defeat me
Please be patient and just sit tight

[Smartypants]

It is hard to get these beats right
But I won't let beats defeat me
Please be patient and just sit tight
I will grasp this task completely.

[Smartypants]

dubya is a pile of shite.
we won't stand another term!

[masterofNone]

dubya is a pile of shite.
we won't stand another term!
on the left and on the right,

[Smartypants]

dubya is a pile of shite.
we won't stand another term!
on the left and on the right,
vote for Ass, not Pachyderm!