Teacher Tuesday ~ Poetry Form ~ Alexandroid

I'm a rhymer.

Yup, I said it.  I like to rhyme.

And I like a set form, whether it's a limerick or a haiku or a villanelle or a sonnet or one I impose on myself.  Writing in a fixed form can be maddening but I like the constraint it brings to my writing since I have a tendency to go on, ad nauseam, about a subject if I'm interested in it because there are ever so many words that make me happy.  Delighted, even.  Charmed.

 Ahem.

Fitting the pieces, the words, into the correct amount of syllables, using the correct rhythm, with the perfect rhyme is like a puzzle to me.

Except I don't really like puzzles--so many little pieces.  They drive me bonkers.

But words.  Words I can do.  Though I may be tempted to throw my notebook across the room when they don't quite fit.  But better a notebook than a 1000 piece puzzle, right?!

Last week I ran across a rhyming, metrical poetry form invented/discovered by Jared Carter, reported on by the Society of Classical Poets.  It's called the alexandroid.  Here's the description, as told by C.B. Anderson.

"...an alexandroid consists of six alexandrine (iambic hexameter) lines, where each line is broken into four-foot and two-foot segments, with end rhymes occurring in the corresponding segments in an abab rhyme scheme. The short segments should be indented roughly ten spaces. Two divided alexandrine lines constitute a stanza."

 "The minor segments should begin with a lower-case letter (unless grammar demands otherwise) in order to preserve the integrity of the component alexandrine lines. It can be noted that the major segment ought not to have a feminine rhyme-ending, since this would result in a metrical infelicity."

He also notes that enjambment is a good choice for this poetry form.

Well.

Let's break that down a bit, shall we?

I'm a relative newbie to the poetry writing world, so words like alexandrine, iambic hexameter, metrical felicity, and enjambment require a bit of research.  Feel free to click those links.

I'll wait.

So, as I understand it, the alexandroid:

• follows the iambic meter--da DUM (unstressed stressed syllables)
• has 6 lines that look like 12 with each line broken into 2 segments; the first segment has 8 syllables, the second has 4
• the second segment uses a lowercase letter at the beginning of the line unless it's a proper noun
• the second segment should be indented 10ish spaces
• is divided into 3 stanzas--2 lines (4 segments) per stanza
• each stanza follows the ABAB rhyme pattern
• enjambment (segment to segment and stanza to stanza) is good because it pulls the parts of the poem together.

Clear?

Here's an example--just the first stanza of an alexandroid I'm working on.  You can find the finished one here.

So far away and once upon
          a time there were
Four Droids. With varied brains and brawn
          the foe deter.

And again, with lines, stress, and rhymes marked.

Line 1.1     So FAR aWAY and ONCE uPON
Line 1.2               a TIME there WERE
Line 2.1     Four DROIDS. With VARied BRAINS and BRAWN
Line 2.2               the FOE deTER

So, let's run down the check list:

• Iambic?  Check.
• 12 syllables per line, divided into 8 and 4 syllable segments?  Check.
• 2nd segments indented with lowercase start?  Check.
• Enjambment? Check.
• ABAB rhyme pattern?  Check.

Here's how I showed the layout in my notebook before I started writing:

- / - / - / - / A
         - / - / B
- / - / - / - / A
         - / - / B

- / - / - / - / C
         - / - / D
- / - / - / - / C
         - / - / D

- / - / - / - / E
         - / - / F
- / - / - / - / E
         - / - / F

As with all poetry forms--feel free to break the rules.

I can't.  Because puzzle.

But you could.

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