Three Tercets

William Blake … ‘The Vision Of Christ Resurrected’

A Haiku, when written in English, is a 3-lined unrhymed tercet.
A Poetic  TERCET is essentially a verse of three-lines all of which end in the same rhyme and often written in iambic pentameter.  I print three of my own such Poetic TERCETS below .  . .

 THE DOUBTING THOMAS

To start each morning he would kneel and pray;

He needed that to get him through the day.

At least his god would let him have his say.

THE BOMBAST

He loved to speak and then have the last word.

His friends, such as they were, called him absurd,

The rest just closed their ears and nothing heard.

THE CHOICE

God said to Man I’ll give to you a choice,

Believe in me and then with me rejoice,

Or be a Trappist monk and lose your voice.

‘Another Unfortunate Choice’ by Wendy Cope

[  # 82 of My Favourite Short Poems  ]

 

redline-thin

handsonmyheart3

‘Another Unfortunate Choice’

 

I think I am in love with A. E Housman,

Which puts me in a worse-than-usual-fix.

No woman ever stood a chance with Housman

And he’s been dead since 1936.

 


 

A tale of unrequited love – By Wendy Cope

Reproduced from ‘The Big Book of Little Poems’ (Pub: Andrew Deutsch Classics)

redline-thin