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Poetry Magnum Opus

Catena Rondo


Tinker

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Explore the Craft of Writing
American Verse

Catena Rondo is a stanzaic form created by 20th century Canadian educator, author and poet, Robin Skelton. The form lends itself to the longer poem because of the repetition of lines. It has an unusual cadence within the quatrain, suggesting that L2 and L3 form a couplet leaving L1 and L4 as separate thought units within the quatrain. L2 is then repeated as the first and last lines in the next stanza. The repetition of lines reminds me of the Pantoum but more complicated. The form was found at Poet's Garret.

The elements of the Cateno Rondo are:

  1. stanzaic, written in any number of 3 or more quatrains made up of 2 rhymed lines enveloping a rhymed couplet.
  2. meter at the discretion of the poet.
  3. rhymed, rhyme scheme ABbA BCcb CDdc DEed etc… until the enveloped couplet of the penultimate quatrain repeats L1 of the poem MAam bringing the final quatrain back to the original scheme of the 1st quatrain ABbA. It appear from this scenario that the only line of the last stanza that could be original is L3 since L1, L2 and L4 are repetitions of the same numbered lines of the first stanza. Poet's Garret makes it easier by suggesting the complete last stanza be a repetition of the first stanza.
  4. composed with repetition the 2nd line of each stanza as L1 and L4 of the next stanza. The poem should come full circle and end up with the same rhyme scheme used in the 1st quatrain. Therefore it is important that 1st and 2nd lines of the poem be strong enough to end the poem.

~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~

For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com

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