Balliols

The Balliol rhyme is a British 4-line, rhyming, accentual-syllabic form consisting of two rhyming couplets (a rhyme pattern of A/A/B/B). Both couplets share the same meter, which must be iambic or trochaic tetrameter. The poem lampoons a public figure or authority from the target's own point of view, as they introduce themself by name and describe some of their qualities and habits.

They originated at Balliol College, Oxford, in the 19th century, in a collection of poems that mocked the college's senior figures, and are inspired by character introductions from mummers' plays. The original collection made fun of both specific figures in the college hierarchy and the structure, behaviours, and absurdities of academia in general.

Poems

1. 2025-09-20
   B_G B_DYB__LD_R

   A Zonie yet of little fame,
   B_G B_DYB__LD_R is my name,
   I hang by the door an exit sign—
   It may be small, but this patch is mine.