The Collected Lyrics of Lewis Turco / Wesli Court, 1953-2004, www.StarCloudPress.com, 2004. ISBN 1932842004, jacketed cloth, $49.95; ISBN 1932842012, quality paperback, $26.95, 460 pages, © 2004, all rights reserved. ORDER FROM AMAZON.COM.
The American terzanelle is a villanelle written in terza rima. Like the latter, it is nineteen lines in length: five interlocking triplets plus a concluding quatrain in which the first and third lines of triplet one reappear as refrains. The center line of each triplet is a repeton reappearing as the last line of the succeeding triplet with the exception of the center line of the penultimate stanza which reappears in the quatrain. This is the rhyme and refrain scheme for the triplets: A1BA2 bCB cDC dED eFE. The poem may end in one of two ways: fA1FA2 or fFA1A2. Every line is the same metrical length (except in the original one below which had a short third line, repeated as the last line):
Recently I went looking on the Web for good examples of the terzanelle. I found dozens of poems written in the form, but very few good ones. I therefore began to collect the good ones I could find and to add them to the several I had written over the decades, then I began asking some of my poet friends to try their skill and luck with this pattern I had invented back in the ‘sixties. Below listed are the titles and authors of the best terzanelles that I was able to gather. If any of the readers of this blog would like to try their hands at the form, I’d be happy to see them. WARNING: I have no immediate plans for these poems, but they may be sent to me via e-mail at lewturco@roadrunner.com.
“Terzanelle,” Lewis Turco, 1965
“Thunderweather,” Lewis Turco; (subsequently, “Terzanelle in Thunderweather,” Wesli Court, 1973; listen to the author read Thunderweather).
“Terzanelle of This Room of Hours,” Wesli Court, 1978
"A Mole Lived on a Mountain," Wesli Court, 1978
“Terzanelle of the Spider’s Web,” Wesli Court, 1990
“The Burned Walls,” Christian Nguyen Langworthy, 1992
“Terzanelle in Blonde,” Chryss Yost, 2000
“The Swamp-Muskeg Complex,” Ruth F. Harrison, 2001
“Terzanelle,” Robert Schechter, 2002
“Terzanelle with Lines from Bhartihari,” Ned Balbo, 2005
“The Premonition,” Wesli Court, 2006
“Spring on Cape Cod,” Bobbie Ann Pimm, 2007
“The Black Death,” Wesli Court, 2007 (listen to the author read The Black Death).
“Passing the Time,” Wesli Court, 2008
"The History of the Republic of Ireland Football Team," Joey O'Brien, 2008
“The Shade,” Wesli Court, 2009
“Tempi” (using anagram rhyme), Wesli Court, 2011
“Hortatory Terzanelle,” Wesli Court, 2011
“Mr. Big,” R. S. Gwynn, 2011
“Terzanelle for the Pilgrimage to Rosedale,” Maryann Corbett, 2011
“It Tolls for Thee,” Rhina P. Espaillat, 2011
“Economics,” Rhina P. Espaillat, 2011
“After the Closing of the Mines at Leshine,” Thomas Kerrigan, 2011
“Days,” Jack Foley, 2011
"Spell," Miriam N. Kotzin, 2011
"On Goodbyes," Ned Balbo, 2011
"Through a Sea of Blackness," Martin Elster, 2011
"A Paraphrase of Light," Catherine Chandler, 2011
"Razor Stroke," Joseph S. Salemi, 2011
"Rhapsody on QA," Uche Ogbuji, 2011
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