The Understanding Chestnut

The Understanding Chestnut is a poetic riddle concerning current events, originating in The Bottomless Geyser. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is divided into three distinct parts: a quintain, two quatrains and a couplet. Use of alliteration is characteristic of the form. A form of parallelism is common throughout the poem, in that certain lines have similar grammatical structures.

• The first part is intended to describe the subject of the poem. Certain lines are required to maintain phrasing. The fifth line of the quintain reverses the word order of the fourth line. The fourth line of the quintain must expand the idea of the third line. It has lines with four feet with a syllable weight pattern of short-short-long (quantitative anapaestic tetrameter). The rhyme scheme respecting the full poem is ABBCA.
• The second part is intended to develop the previous idea. Certain lines are required to maintain phrasing and sometimes have reversed word orders. The fourth line of each quatrain must expand the idea of the third line. It has lines with four feet with a syllable weight pattern of long-short (quantitative trochaic tetrameter). The rhyme scheme respecting the full poem is CCDD.
• The third part is intended to make an apology. Certain lines are required to maintain phrasing and sometimes have reversed word orders. The second line of the couplet must expand the idea of the first line. It has lines with four feet with a syllable weight pattern of long-short (quantitative trochaic tetrameter). The rhyme scheme respecting the full poem is DD.

Events