What is the name of this poem format?

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Angelwings
Member

since 1999-08-27

Posts 222
IL, USA

0 posted 2001-11-01 02:20 AM

I just posted this poem in Teen 5.  But I can't figure out the name of the format.

Failure

Failure AGAIN
I can't understand
can I succeed
to want to pass
to want to succeed
I can understand
can't I?
again
FAILURE!

I'm not sure if there is a name but I didn't think I made it up.  If someone knows please tell me.  I really don't think I could've done this on my own.  And I want to be able to give the right person credit if it isn't me.  Thanks.
Chelsea

If we're told we're bad, that's the only idea we'll ever have. Maybe if we are surrounded by beauty someday we will become what we see.

The Lady of Shallot
Senior Member

since 2001-10-03

Posts 818
USA

1 posted 2001-11-01 12:32 PM

Dear one, this is free verse, if I'm not mistaken. Suggestion if you don't mind?
When writing, pour out the imagery, give the reader a description of the "failure" if you can. Don't just say the word....write it in visual form. The words are all we have on screen, or a book for that matter, make them work for you. Dig into the words, find ones that no one else has used in anything you've read. Forget about ideas and write words-words the reader will never forget, or you hope they won't.

No, it's not easy! NO one said it was!

Free verse is no rhyming, flows down the page, but there is uniformity. Stick with one thought and one metaphor and milk it like cream. There is form in all writing.

Thanks for listening to my 2 cents!

-befriend yourself and you will never be alone-

[This message has been edited by The Lady of Shallot (edited 11-01-2001).]

janmew
Member

since 2001-10-27

Posts 134
Canada

2 posted 2001-11-01 02:53 PM

This is more than free verse.

What you have done, it to make the poem read the same from the end to the middle as it did from the start to the middle, but in doing so, it changes and adds to the meaning. Ingenious!

I am not sure if there is a name for what you have done. There is a similar style, called Pantoume, but it is not eactly like this.

Poetry is an expression of feelings. I do not write poems, but rather, the poems use me to write themselves.

[This message has been edited by janmew (edited 11-01-2001).]

Kevin Taylor
Member

since 1999-12-23

Posts 185
near Vancouver, BC, Canada