A SUMMER OTTAVA RIMA 

The crash of waves is always in the air,

And caravans adorn the crowded shore.

People roast on towels without a care,

Or find new rocky outcrops to explore.

Crunchy crystal sand grows too hot to bear,

Yet we stay: it’s what all Aussies yearn for!

In summertime, this is our golden place;

Then winter comes and banishes all trace.

                                               James Aitchison

THE OTTAVA RIMA is a very rhythmic form of Italian poetry, first written in the fourteenth century.

Lord Byron and William Butler Yeats also used the form.

The rules:

1. Each stanza has 8 lines
2. You can create one stanza as a stand alone 8-line poem, or write multiple stanzas
3. The first six lines have an a-b-a-b-a-b rhyme scheme, capped with a c-c couplet
4. Mostly an ottava rima is written in iambic pentameter or 10-syllable lines.

Have fun!

A RHUPUNT FOR SPRING

Spring’s colour thrills
when daffodils
and bold jonquils
burst into bloom.

Tulips tower,
freesias flower,
colours shower,
banishing gloom.

All spring we’re blessed;
bulbs give their best,
’til time to rest
in a dark room.

James Aitchison

A RHUPUNT (pronounced hree’-pint) is a Welsh poem with some curious rules:

1. Each line must have four syllables
2. The first three lines of each stanza must rhyme
3. The final line of each stanza must rhyme with the final lines of the other stanzas (in other words: aaab, cccb, dddb, eeeb, etc)
4. Each stanza works as a complete sentence or verse in itself.
5. If you prefer, stanzas can have three lines (aab, ccb, etc) — or five lines (aaaab, ccccb, etc) — it’s up to you.