Dizain Poetry Form

Let’s start the new year off right with a brand new poetry form.

The Dizain comes to us from 15th century France, becoming popular later with the English poets. In Old French, the word dizain means tenth part, so as might be suspected, this is a ten line verse. It’s usually written in iambic pentameter and the ten lines are rhymed ababbccdcd.

Here’s the schematic:

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An accepted variation of this verse is written with eight lines, written in iambic tetrameter (8 syllable lines), with a rhyme scheme of ababcdcd.

Though never as popular in the way that sonnets or ballads were, several well-known English poets, such as Philip Sidney and John Keats have used the traditional form. I have to admit, a few of the lines in my example have 11 syllables, but this is acceptable in iambic pentameter and it was necessary for the rhythm.


Hope Renewed

The New Year has started all fresh and clean –
new slate to write on and plans to be made
with pledges to fill and new dreams to dream –
the good and the bad have been carefully weighed,
the stress of the old year has started to fade.
We look to tomorrow with hope that is pure,
the New Year beckons to us with a lure
unsullied by failure, no sign of distress –
we choose our path wisely, feeling secure,
we inhale our hope and exhale the stress.