Tyburns

The Tyburn is a modern 6-line, rhyming, syllabic form with a syllable count of 2/2/2/2/9/9 and a rhyme pattern of A/A/A/A/B/B (i.e. four short lines that rhyme and two long lines that rhyme). The short lines are all single words, and the long lines incorporate the short lines as the fifth-to-eighth syllables, in order. The fifth line consists of 4 syllables, followed by the first and second lines, followed by a final syllable; the sixth line consists of 4 syllables, followed by the third and fourth lines, followed by a final syllable.

Notes

The first four lines can be very simple rhymes, even rhyming just on suffixes (e.g. “-ing”, “-ed”, “-er”). Overall the form has a kinda rough musical aspect to me, and I think just the fact that some of the syllables rhyme helps give it that feel when actually spoken even if the rhymes are very basic.

That said, it feels kinda over-determined, so I'm not sure I'll write any more.

Poems

1. 2025-10-27
   Artificial Uhtceare

   Vivid.
   Livid.
   Leaving.
   Heaving.
   Waking—dawnless—livid—vivid sights,
   But colours fade, leaving heaving sighs.

2. 2025-06-01
   The Monks of Dust

   Deride,
   Inscribe,
   Inside,
   Transcribe.
   The monks of dust deride inscribed stones
   And write their faith inside transcribed tomes.

3. 2025-05-05
   Mind the Gap

   Oldest,
   Coldest,
   Broken,
   Open.
   The walls around that oldest, coldest place
   Can't hide blind Ymir's broken-open face.

   ---

   I went with 10 syllables, iambic pentameter, on the long lines instead of the usual 9.

4. 2025-05-02
   Fathers

   Braying,
   Praying,
   Slaying,
   Baying.
   The conclave's full of braying, praying priests,
   But in their heads they're slaying baying beasts.

   ---

   Kinda basic and uses 10 syllables instead of 9 on the last lines; I made the mistake of present-tense verbs so I had to rhyme on the first syllable as well (I could've just rhymed on the “-ing”, I guess), which makes it very repetitive.