"A triolet is a poem of eight lines, typically of eight syllables each, rhyming ABaAabAB and so structured that the first line recurs as the fourth and seventh and the second as the eighth"

How to Triolet





Line one comes back seventh and fourth,

line two is how the poem will end.

Line three's free but rhymes with one: north.

Line one comes back seventh and fourth.

'orth' Line five's your choice but rhymes that

from one and three—six rhymes two, and

line one comes back seventh and fourth.

Line two is how the poem will end.

Line 1 is repeated as line 4 and line 7

Line 2 is repeated as line 8 (final line)

Rhymes with line 1

Rhymes with line 2

My heart has made its mind up

And I’m afraid it’s you.

Whatever you’ve got lined up,

My heart has made its mind up

And if you can’t be

signed up

This year, next year will do .

My heart has made its mind up

And I’m afraid it’s you.

1) ____________________

2) ____________________

3) ____________________

4) ____________________

5) ____________________

6) ____________________

7) ____________________

8) exercise 5_[your food] freshly [fried/baked].

1) ___line from exercise 6____

2) ___line from exercise 5_____

3) ____________________

4) ___line from exercise 6____

5) ____________________

6) ___line from exercise 7__

7) ___line from exercise 6____

8) ___line from exercise 5_____.

1) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

2) a crisp pecan pie, freshly baked

3) ____________________(rhymes with atop)

4) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

5) ____________________(rhymes with atop)

6) The sweet, buttery goo sub-strate.

7) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

8) a crisp pecan pie freshly baked.

1) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

2) a crisp pecan pie, freshly baked

3) from your home oven. What could top

4) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

5) the caramely mess that holds the slop,

6) the sweet, buttery goo sub-strate?

7) The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

8) a crisp pecan pie freshly baked.

9) Now you have the poem, but there's a little messiness to it. It doesn't quite have enough. You know why? Well, there's likely a few reasons. For me, is caramely too weird? Sub-strate sounded good when I came up with it but now I'm second guessing going geologic with the imagery. Whatever your second-guessing is, before addressing that, you need to add the final piece! You need yourself a title. And what is extra good about this part, is you have essentially another line with no syllable limitations to give that triolet context.





Leslie Timmins used her title to provide the context of the Afghanistan conflict to the poem, immediately bringing to mind the specific image of UN peacekeepers with their blue helmets or berets. The way I've decided to attack the title is to use it to smooth the transition between lines six and seven. Line seven, despite my best intentions was a little abrupt, being the answer to the question finished in line 6. As this was the intended turning point of the poem, I draw attention to the question. So, using this method, here is a triolet I've written as an example.





Another Slice, That's What!





The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

a slice of crisp pecan pie, freshly baked

from your home oven. What could top

caramelized crunchy nuts atop

flaky crust and caramely slop—

that sweet, buttery goo sub-strate?

The caramelized crunch of nuts atop

another slice of crisp pecan pie freshly baked.





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If you're still having a problem putting the pieces together, or need a moment to get out of your head, perhaps a few more published triolets would help with inspiration on ways you can alter the repeating lines.





From The New Verse News , here is a triolet from poet Robert West.





Triolet to a Rainmaker





If only you could get this through your head: we’re drowning in a bloody flood of guns. We need to stem the torrent, count the dead; if only you could get that through your head. You call for more guns, everywhere, instead. Who knows whose daughters might grow up, whose sons, if only you could get it through your head we’re drowning in a bloody flood of guns?





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Notice West's use of the colon in his first/refrain line? That allows the final two lines to read differently than when they first appear, because that way of breaking the line into essentially two declarative sentences joined by the colon, and then running the lines together with enjambment is a technique you might employ. Being that it's a cooking poem I don't think it'll be as heavy as West's poem, but it's a good example of punctuation altering the refrain. How about this triolet, also, from Literary Review of Canada. They do like their triolets, and for that, we thank them. This is the poem doesn't utilize punctuation to alter its refrain, it doesn't use punctuation at all. Instead it, like Leslie Timmins' Triolet earlier in this article, maintains key words in the repeated phrase, but riffs around them. Here is "Arrival" by Kim Goldberg:





Arrival

A land where wolves did howl 'til dawn Where muskrats wove each home from reeds I don't know why the bees have gone Have never heard a wolf at dawn The beaver's tail does sound alarm no squash will grow from last year's seeds On land where wheels now howl 'til dawn And townhomes rise where once stood reeds





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Now, I'm not a huge fan of the poet's use of the words "did" and "does" in this poem, I feel they're filler words that allow the phrasing they were wanting to use, but at the same time making the line sound archaic, not like something you'd hear someone say. But notice how she maintained wolf and dawn in the first two, then substitutes out "wolf" for "wheels" but brings back the "howl", and in the other refrain maintained "home" and "reeds". It is good to remember that there is no Triolet or Villanelle or Sestina police. If you wanna alter the rules, go right ahead. If you wanna keep calling it that form is up to you. The further you drift from the original stipulations, the more you open yourself up to criticisms or you may distract your reader/potential editor, but you do what you feel is correct.





And because a triolet article simply would not be complete without that Hardy guy, here's two of his triolets. He is, afterall, the form's essential caretaker, being its most famous practitioner.





How Great My Grief





How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee! —Have the slow years not brought to view How great my grief, my joys how few, Nor memory shaped old times anew, Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee?





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See that sneaky punctuation in there? The first time the refrain appears it's a statement, the second time it is a rhetorical question. It's also common for multi-syllabic assonance to be employed with triolet's rhymes, for instance here there's "show thee"/"know thee" and in Wendy Cope's poem there's "mind up"/"lined up"/"signed up". Here is another Thomas Hardy triolet, in this one he demonstrates the tactic of breaking the line in the middle with a period and enjambment to alter the refrain.





Birds at Winter Nightfall





Around the house the flakes fly faster, And all the berries now are gone From holly and cotoneaster Around the house. The flakes fly!—faster Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster We used to see upon the lawn Around the house. The flakes fly faster, And all the berries now are gone!





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Well, you're done! Or, now's the time to finish it at least in some form. The pieces don't have to fit perfect, they should just fit well. Sand down their sharp edges, their jagged and rough bits. Pare away the unnecessary and don't be afraid to rephrase lines you already are fine with a hundred times as experiment/exercises. See if you can get a line just a little tighter, pack a little more meaning, connotation, description in there. And overall, don't let yourself stop yourself from finishing this poem. You have almost all of the pieces of the puzzle, just finish it up, and worry about giving it a real shine later. Editing is great like that.