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alligator ALcatraz Sparrowlet

alligator Alcatraz Sparrowlet

Just more detention Rammatazz
Alligator swamp mean blackdamp
Mass cruelty all that jazz
Immigrants stuck in the hot damp
concentration camp, alligator Alcatraz


The Sparrowlet is an invented stanzaic form created by Kathrine Sparrow that she calls a variation of the Swap Quatrain. The defining feature is the inversion of the 2 hemistichs of L1 in L6 of each stanza.

RRRA, RRRB

xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxa
RRRB, RRRA

The elements of the Sparrowet are:


1. stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
2. syllabic, lines of 8 syllables each. (Often written in iambic tetrameter.)
3. L1 and L6 of each stanza is written in 2 hemistichs.
4. rhymed, rhyme scheme BbabaA.
5. The 2 halves of L1 are inverted and repeated as a refrain in L6.
RRRA, RRRB
xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxa
RRRB, RRRA

Let's Talk

You think you're right, I think you're wrong!
This may end up a country song
I don't disagree out of spite
Both have opinions that are strong
Discussion can turn on a light
I think you're wrong, You think you're right
~~Judi Van Gorder
~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~