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This is my playground for poetry written for children with ideas and inspiration for writing your own poems. Come on in. Sit for a spell, have a cup of words to swirl around and make your own cup of poetry. I'm so glad you are here. I hope you'll find the Kingdom of Poetry a fun place to be.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Boo!

Look carefully at this poem and see if you can figure out the form. 

If you go out on Halloween night
be prepared for a scary fright
if the moon is shining bright
and bats fly out of sight
beware of ghouls
who hold you tight
and witches
who shout
BOO!


     Did you figure it out?  Here is a hint--count lines, count syllables.
This is a nonce form based on the number 9.  There are 9 lines in this poem and nine syllables in the first line and one less syllable in each consecutive line, ending with a one syllable line.  Would you like to try writing a poem in this form?  Have fun.

5 comments:

  1. I think students will love trying this, perhaps especially at Halloween, Joy. Thanks for showing it off!

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  2. Dear Joy,
    I like this form of poem and I love your rendition of it.
    Cool. Happy Halloween!

    Love to you and yours,
    Joan

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  3. Joy,
    What fun! I'll watch out for ghouls. I don't want them to get a hold on me!

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  4. What fun! I didn't know this form... a nice challenge. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Violet,
      Someone else in the Poetry Friday gang posted a poem in this form recently. They'd written the poem as part of a challenge and called it a nonce form, but since "nonce" refers to all of the made up (one time only) forms, I couldn't find who had posted or where the idea had come from.
      If I figure out where I got the information about this 9 x 9 form from, I'll be happy to give them credit. If you come across it, please let me know and I'll link to the other poem.

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