Try A Triolet!

It’s not always easy to find inspiration to write poetry. 

Writing is just part of it. There can be devices, terms, forms to consider, and appropriate content to juxtapose in creating something unique. Articles in this blog suggest plenty of these, and I encourage you to seek them all!

It’s not that hard though. Pick a path and go for a walk to see where your mind takes you. 

Triolets are most likely the easiest form to incorporate into your poetry tool belt. However, don’t be fooled… there is a trick to it!

A triolet is a one stanza poem of eight lines with a rhyme scheme of ABAAABAB. The first, fourth, and seventh lines are repeated, as well as the second and eighth lines, making the last couple lines repeat the first couple lines.

Consider this triolet from fellow Wheelsong author and triolet queen Charlene Phare from her book Cobalt Skies entitled Drowning In Flowers!

Mother Nature surrounds

Still drowning in flowers

Silently thoughts compound 

Mother Nature surrounds

Enriched soil in the ground

Delicate rain, showers

Mother Nature surrounds

Still drowning in flowers

The trick to the triolet is making the repeating lines function to accentuate those lines that do not repeat… propping up a central theme. 

This poem’s theme could suggest a loved one being buried, or even suffocating under one’s “natural” ideals. Either way, despite “Mother Nature”s presence, peaceful thoughts, rain, and rich nourishment… there is still a drowning taking place, irregardless of the beauty Mother Nature provides. There is pain here that suggests a number of possibilities.

Triolets can be comical, satirical, or poetic. There is a craft about these poems, a way to weave seams of meaning to create a small tapestry of potent verse, as Ms. Phare has done in her triolet above.

Give it a shot! Try a triolet! It may surprise you what you come up with.

Matt Elmore