Echo Sonnets

Type: Structure, meter, isosyllabic, rhyme, refrain

Description: The echo sonnet, created by Jeff Green, is similar to the kyrielle sonnet in that it consists of three quatrains and a heroic couplet. The last line of each quatrain (A2) and the couplet is the refrain line which can be a repeated whole line, phrase or end word. The first line of the first quatrain (A1)also repeats as the first line of the couplet. The form has a rhyme scheme and is preferably composed of lines of iambic pentameter.

Rhyme Scheme: A1bbA2 accA2 addA2 A1A2

Line Length: Decasyllabic

Poem Length: 14 lines

Example:

The Bridge of Dreams by Jeff Green

Each night inside a dream you walk with me
To lands where past and future fade away
Where everything is lost in just one day
The clouds have built a bridge across the sea

I learned to live a dream so we could be
The walkers on that road to everywhere
A perfect life that lovers seldom share
The clouds now carry us across the sea

With head upon the pillow I am free
To hold you as my own for evermore
We'll be together on that distant shore
The clouds have built a ship to cross the sea

Each night inside a dream you walk with me
Upon the bridge of ships that's crossed the sea

Resources:

http://allpoetry.com/list/59666-Echo-Sonnets

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Ballad

Type: refrain, structure, meter, rhyme, stanzaic.

Description: Short narrative poem compromising of quatrains. Usually written in ballad meter of alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme is usually alternating lines. Ballads have a refrain stanza.

Schema:

xX xX xX xA (Refrain)
xX xX xB
xX xX xX xA
xX xX xB

xX xX xX xc
xX xX xd
xX xX xX xc
xX xX xd

Stanza Length: quatrain.

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Balada

Type: structure, meter, refrain, rhyme.

Description: A dance song with an insistent refrain. The refrain is repeated after each stanza. The first line of the refrain is repeated after the first and second line or section of each stanza. The balada is usually three stanzas where the stanzas are separated into three parts, the first two being of identical structure and the third matching the structure of the refrain. The balada was common in Occitan circa 1300CE.

Schema:

RA bRbRa(RA) bRbRa(RA) bRbRa(RA)

where:
R is the first line of the refrain
A is the rest of the refrain
b is the first and second section of the stanza
a is the third section of the stanza.

Poem Length: 3 stanzas

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.