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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Short Measure

Meter: Iambic trimeter, EXCEPT line three which is iambic tetrameter
Rhymed: xaxa xbxb ...


Short Measure or Short Meter, is:
  • stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. When written in octaves doubling the short measure quatrains, the verse form is called Double Short Measure.
  • metered, most often L1, L2, L4 iambic trimeter, L3 is iambic tetrameter.
  • rhymed, Rhyme scheme xaxa xbxb etc x being unrhymed.
  • called Poulter's Measure when consolidated into 2 lines.

My thanks to Judi Gorder for creating the wonderful resource above.


Example Poem
Audition      (Short Measure)

The teacher greeted her,
the girl with hair in bun.
She wrote his lectures in a book,
as though his words were fun.

At work she did her job,
and filled the bosses cup.
Her brightness and congenial help
seemed never to let up.

In church she sat with legs
so primly crossed, and hands
reclining folded in her lap,
decorum church demands.

With me she is alive
and dresses to entice.
She shows some cleavage and some thigh,
the both of which are nice.

I'm looking seriously.
and want not just a tart.
her looks had hooked and reeled me in,
her mind got her the part.

   © Lawrencealot - January  6, 2013


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