Whitney Verse Form

If you like the Japanese forms with their lack of rhyme and strict syllable counts, you’ll love the Whitney. This form was created by Betty Ann Whitney, an American poet, writer, and visual artist living in Florida.

The Whitney is a single stanza of seven lines with 28 syllables in total – 3, 4, 3, 4, 3, 4, 7.

Schematic:

xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxx
xxxx
xxxxxxx

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. There’s no mention of a theme, no constraints on subject matter, and there’s no rhyme involved. At first I thought this form is simple enough that even the most timid of novice poets can master it with ease. But when I went to write my example it took a little more thought than I expected. However, once I got the hang of it, it was kind of hard to stop.


Sun setting
temperatures
start to drop
the wind dying
night falling
the moon rises
the stars begin to appear


mist rising
foghorn sounding
a lonely
distant echo
of times past
when ships would sail
sans benefit of radar


one day you
will look behind
and all that
you will see is
regret and
broken pledges
act now, while there is still time