The Pythagorean poem is another modern poetic invention using a mathematical pattern. Shari Green shared the form with Laura Shovan who shared the form with me and other PF folks. I challenged the Inklings to write one for our monthly challenge before trying one myself. It’s not as easy as it looks.
Like the Pythagorean theorem of geometry, the word count is based on a right triangle. Shari’s instructions:
Here’s the math background: Pythagoras’ theorem is a2 + b2 = c2. One possible “triple” is 3, 4, 5.
3×3 + 4×4 = 5×5
9 + 16 = 25
Using the triple, the poetic form works like this:
1st stanza: 3 lines of 3 words each
2nd stanza: 4 lines of 4 words each
3rd stanza: 5 lines of 5 words each*
* The third stanza must be composed of all the words found in stanzas one and two (in any order; variations okay). The third stanza should be a progression of sorts, a product of the first two in thought or theme or meaning.
The trickery comes when writing the third stanza. I wrote one about butterflies here. As I tried to write another one, I thought I should have saved that first one for this post. I chose another topic close to my heart, my puppy golden doodle “Albert (Albear)” Albert has been with us for almost 4 months, and he’s really doing well about most things, but he has an annoying habit of barking at us when we eat dinner. As we take our daily walks, he loves to pick up a stick and prance like the prince he is. My poem takes words from Mark Doty’s Golden Retrievals.
I hope you will try the form and tag Shari Green and me. Honestly, I haven’t tried it with my students yet. They are getting their feet wet with cinquains and fib poems.
Pythagorean Puppy
after Mark Doty
Walk? Trot? You
catch a stick–
Joy! A Treasure!Tumbling leaf chase…on!
You prance with pride,
Show off your bark–
Bow wow, bow wow!Your bark tumbles with you.
Bow shows pride. Wow!
You catch a leaf, Wow!
Bow a stick. Trot treasure, walk
on! You prance off. Joy!
(c) Margaret Simon
To see how other Inklings met this challenge:
Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Catherine Flynn @ Reading to the Core
Heidi Mordhorst @ My Juicy Little Universe
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Reflections on the Teche 