Terzanelle

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A terzanelle is a poetry form invented by Lewis Turco in 1965. It is a combination of the villanelle and terza rima.

Form

It is nineteen lines total, with five triplets and a concluding quatrain. The middle line of each triplet stanza is repeated as the third line of the following stanza, and the first and third lines of the initial stanza are the second and final lines of the concluding quatrain; thus, seven of the lines are repeated in the poem. The rhyme scheme is as follows, with bracketed letters representing individual rhymes:

Verse 1 (a)

Verse 2 (b)

Verse 3 (a)

Verse 4 (b)

Verse 5 (c)

Verse 2 (b)

Verse 6 (c)

Verse 7 (d)

Verse 5 (c)

Verse 8 (d)

Verse 9 (e)

Verse 7 (d)

Verse 10 (e)

Verse 11 (f)

Verse 9 (e)

-Concluding quatrain:

Verse 12 (f)

Verse 1 (a)

Verse 11 (f)

Verse 3 (a)

The middle lines of the final couplet can optionally be put in the opposite order, for an ending consisting of two couplets. Type II ending:

Verse 12 (f)

Verse 11 (f)

Verse 1 (a)

Verse 3 (a)

Alternatively, for those familiar with capital-letter rhyme notation, in which a capitalized letter indicated a line repeated verbatim:

ABA'

bCB

cDC

dED

eFE

fAFA'

Or, for the alternate (couplet) ending, the final stanza is:

fFAA'

External links

Examples

• "Terzanelle in Thunderweather" by Lewis Turco, with a further explanation of the form
• "Hortatory Terzanelle" by Lewis Turco.
• Transformation and Hunger by Mari Ness, part of her fairy-tale series of terzanelles.
• Terzanelle for the Burghers of Calais by Laverne Frith
• Terzanelle in Kosovo Fields by Richard Jackson
• Terzanelle at Twilight by Aparna Raghunath
• Terzanelle For Sarah-Jane Smith by Simon Bucher-Jones