Tetrasyllabic Couplets

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
Spanish Verse

Tetrasyllabic Couplets are rhyming couplets originating in Catalonia Spain. The 4 syllable meter broke tradition in the standard of 8 syllable lines in the 15th century in Libre de les Dones by Jaum Roig (1478).

Catalan is a romance language still spoken in the Catalonia region of Spain. When Spain became a fascist dictatorship under Franco, an effort was made to stamp out the language but the language just went underground. After the fall of the Franco's regime the language reemerged. It is a kind of cross between French and Spanish.
The elements of the Tetrasyllabic Couplet are:

1. stanzaic, written in any number of couplets,
2. syllabic, 4 syllable lines.
3. rhymed aa bb cc
   One Too Many by Judi Van Gorder
   
   A glass of wine
   relax and dine,
   one more, a touch,
   fill up, too much.
   
   Repeated thrice
   a shot with ice,
   not booze, just beers,
   bottles with cheers.
   
   Hair of the dog,
   mind in a fog,
   one for the road
   to kiss a toad.
   
   Spiral and fall
   and hit the wall,
   a trembling hand
   no legs to stand.
   
   Company car
   drive home from bar,
   plow into fence
   boss getting tense.
   
   Finally fired
   husband retired,
   alone with drink
   life on the brink.