The Roundabout

This form was developed by Sara Diane Doyle (former Poet Laureate for Poetic Asides, a feature in Writer’s Digest) and her student David Edwards. It’s 20 lines long, broken up into four quatrains (five line verses). What I find most interesting about this poem is that the creators describe it as having four, five line verses, and yet the examples they shared both had five, four line verses.

I’m actually grateful to others who have embraced this form, because while the original authors shared the rhyme scheme and advised that the Roundabout can be on any subject, they only vaguely referred to a repeating line, and failed to mention which line repeats.

The premise of the poem is that the rhyme scheme should come full circle (hence the name). It’s written in a series of four quatrains (five line verses). The first line is a tetrameter (8 syllables), the second line is trimeter (6 syllables), the third and four lines are dimeter (4 syllables), and the fifth line is a repeat of line two of the same stanza.

The rhyme scheme is: abccb bcddc cdaad dabba. As you can see, there are only four rhymes in the entire poem.

Schematic:

xxxxxxxa
xxxxxb
xxxc
xxxc
xxxxxb(repeated)

xxxxxxxb
xxxxxc
xxxd
xxxd
xxxxxc(repeated)

xxxxxxxc
xxxxxd
xxxa
xxxa
xxxxxd(repeated)

xxxxxxxd
xxxxxa
xxxb
xxxb
xxxxxa(repeated)

This form is a bit of a challenge. I have to admit I struggled with my example. Even now I’m not entirely happy with what I came up with, but it is what it is.


Summer

The morning sun slanting sideways
starting the dawn refrain
birds wait to sing
then taking wing
starting the dawn refrain.

Summertime is here once again
after waiting all year
the flowers bloom
the insects zoom
after waiting all year.

The humidity rises here
with heat that can entomb
horizon haze
meets my gaze
with heat that can entomb.

I think it is safe to assume
the summer sun will blaze
and once again
without restrain
the summer sun will blaze.