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Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Sunday Mini-Challenge

Today we will be taking a look at the three line construction in poetry, which is known as the tercet.


© Joy Ann Jones

The Tercet is an innovation of the 14th Century Italian poet, Dante, who uplifted the ordinary three lines of folk verse to the recognized stanzaic for of his Divine Comedy. As such, the tercet is any three lines of verse grouped as a single idea or unit, which may be followed by another, with or without a line break. Examples of forms that employ tercets are terza rima, villanelle and it is the basis of the sevenling we had fun with last weekend. Thus it can form the frame of a poem with any number of 3 line units, or be used to write a tristich - a complete poem in three lines.


© Kenia Cris

Poets have used a variety of rhyme schemes for three line constructions, such as the interlocking aba bcb (etc), and the couplet based aab ccd (etc) or abb cdd (etc) but unrhymed tercets are equally effective, as in this example of The Snow Man, by Wallace Stevens.  The Sicilian Tercet is written in iambic pentameter with an interlocking rhyme, such as can be seen in Acquainted with the Night, a terza rima sonnet by Robert Frost.


© Susie Clevenger

Please read more on Poetry Magnum Opus, my source of information for today's challenge, which is to write a poem, either inspired by the photography which has been kindly shared by members of Real Toads or from your own source, using the tercet as your frame. Those who like to write haiku are also welcome to link up poems of that form, since they falls under the heading of tristich.
If you upload one of the photos to your own site, we ask that you acknowledge the name of the artist. The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the form challenge.  Please provide a link on your blog back to Real Toads.  We stipulate that only poems written for this challenge may be added to the Mr Linky.  Management reserves the right to remove unrelated links, but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.




16 comments:

  1. Serendipity just arrived in my mail box. It aligns with the number 3.
    I think it contained magic. I have to run to a Band competition, but I feel my muses need me to share~ I'll be back!

    Thanks for the inspiration~ All the photos are great, but Susie's pic will help me share the magic! :D

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  2. Corey!! You are first :)

    Ella, I love a moment of serendipity too.

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  3. Sadly, I will be away tomorrow and unable to devote my Sunday morning to this challenge, but I will read all the links when I return on Monday, and will definitely be returning to the tercet later in the week.

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  4. Technically I'm still on blog vacation, but I am *very* partial to this form, so it can't really count as work if one just appears, right? Love Susie's photo of the mailboxes!

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  5. Me too! I was thinking maybe I could squeeze one out tonight.

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  6. LOVE the images fellow Toads!! Love this mini challenge, Kerry!!

    Thank you!!

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  7. Will try to do this and submit for Monday's Open Link. I am at a Buck Brannaman horse clinic this weekend (the Horse Whisperer - the man the movie was based)

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  8. So enjoying your inspiration! thanks!

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  9. So enjoying your inspiration! thanks!

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  10. Took me all night and it is still rubbish, as well as frivolous.

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  11. Lovely challenge, Kerry. Tercets are one of my favorites.

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  12. I can write a haiku? Wow, I was worried there for a second...

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  13. Wow--everybody is having days away and horses and music and taking along the challenge anyway. I hope your weekends and beginnings are all good. Thank you for the photo inspiration, Joy, and for the challenge, Kerry and Susie.

    I started something much more ambitious than what I proffer, but it has guts and will go on from here. It is a happy poem, I think.

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  14. Kenia and Joy I love the photographs.
    Kerry, thanks for the inspiration.

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  15. Sorry to miss this one, toads--went out to do some gardening and once again aggravated my back. This was a great prompt and I regret missing it.

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