A Treasure Trove of Triolets

April 2011 has been the cruellest month for me in regard to blogging. I’m still having problems with Blogger—and with my Internet connectivity. In fact, I lost my connection to the Internet twice yesterday. It’s so frustrating because I haven’t been able to do all the poetry posts that I had planned to do for National Poetry Month this year. Because of my Blogger issues, it often takes me four or five times as long to publish a post as it had taken in the past. In addition, the text in my posts isn’t usually uniform—and I can’t seem to fix it. This is one of the reasons I haven’t been leaving comments at other people’s blogs much lately. I’m spending so much time just trying to get my own posts published. I’m hoping my Blogger and Internet issues will be solved sometime in the near future.

Now on to my poetry post…

One thing I enjoy about blogging in the kidlitosphere is learning about different forms of poetry and participating in a variety of poetry challenges. A couple of years ago, I attempted writing my first triolet after reading some written by other kidlit bloggers.

The triolet is a poem of eight lines. It has only two rhymes. The endings of lines 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 (A) rhyme with each other—and the endings of lines 2, 6, and 8 (B) rhyme with each other. The first two lines of a triolet are repeated as the last two lines. The first line is also repeated as the fourth line. You, therefore, have to write just five different lines for the triolet.

A—Line 1

B—Line 2
A
A—Line 1
A
B
A—Line 1
B—Line 2

Here is a triolet I wrote about a true life situation a couple of years ago. The triolet seemed the perfect form for the subject of the poem. You can read my original post with that triolet, Dirty Dog!, here.

DIRTY DOG

Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!

Thought you’d run into the bog.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
(I rant in my mad monologue.)
You frolicked where you shouldn’t go.
Dirty, dirty, dirty dog!
Didn’t heed your master—NO!

Here’s another triolet I wrote that was inspired by the weather.

No Sun Today

No sun today.
No blue sky bright.
The clouds are gray.
No sun today.
No dazzling rays.
No yellow light.
No sun today.
No blue sky bright.

Here’s a triolet I just wrote today while I was taking a shower:

Washing Dishes

I’ll wash the dishes one more time.

A chore that I must do again.
I’ll clean off all the grease and grime.
I’ll wash the dishes one more time.
I’ll rinse away the oily slime.
I’ll wash the dishes now—and then
I’ll wash the dishes one more time.
A chore that I must do again.

More Triolets

Andromeda Jazmon wrote a lovely Birthday Boy triolet in 2009 when her youngest son turned four. You can read the poem here.

Andi also wrote two end-of-the-school-year triolets for teachers. Click here to read them.

Click here to read a triolet titled In the Museum written by children’s poet Marilyn Singer over at GottaBook. Also at GottaBook, you’ll find Alice Schertle’s Triolets That Trouble My Sleep.

You will find A Duo of Triolets written by poet Julie Larios at her blog The Drift Record.

You can read Laura Purdie Salas’s original triolet Conspicuously Absent here.

Check out the triolets at this post—The Miss Rumphius Effect: Poetry Stretch Results—Triolet.

Click here to read triolets that were written by Sara Teasdale.

Click here to read Triolets in the Argolid by Rachel Hadas.

How Great My Grief

by Thomas Hardy

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?

Why not try writing a triolet yourself? Then leave it in the comments or post it on your blog.