Another day, another prompt. Today was the Triolet—a favorite of one of my oldest and dearest poetry writing partners.

A triolet is an eight-line poem. All the lines are in iambic tetramenter (for a total of eight syllables per line), and the first, fourth, and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines. This means that the poem begins and ends with the same couplet. Beyond this, there is a tight rhyme scheme (helped along by the repetition of lines) — ABaAabAB.

Triolets were in vogue among the Victorians — all those repetitions can add a sort of melancholy gravitas to a poem, but watch out! They can also make the poem sound oddly gong-like. This was the challenge for today.

I will hopefully find time to revisit later in the evening, but I wanted to post my first attempt immediately just to show you that poems don’t have to be perfect to bring you joy in the writing process. What a fun way to start my morning!

Beauty in Treachery

The half moon winked and glistened bright, 
casting her spell o’er earth below;
treacherous roads belied by light.
The half moon winked and glistened bright 
as shadows shifted shape and sight;
we slept in bliss, no need to know.
The half moon winked and glistened bright,
casting her spell o’er earth below.

—Carla Jeanne