The Fruity Octopus is a light poetic form concerning someone recently retired, originating in The Government of Sports. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is a single couplet. A form of parallelism is common throughout the poem, in that certain lines often contrast underlying meaning. The second line of the couplet must expand the idea of the first line. The first line is intended to express grief over the subject of the poem. It has two syllables. The second line is intended to refuse consolation. It has six syllables.