Construct Exercise -- Monostich

Monostich is a self-contained, stand-alone poem consisting of a single line, although it can also be inserted into a poem as a device. The former is where we'll pay attention to for this exercise. A lot of people see monostich poetry and think, 'one line? that's easy' or that no real effort has gone into it. Those people are WRONG, Monostich should:

• be a single line composed from 6 - 12 syllables (lesser monostich = 6, standard = 10, greater = 12, the more syllables, the harder to stay within the rules), but always an equal count
  
• incorporate at least 1 form of poetic device; most commonly metaphor or personification - never simile
  
• not have any possible punctuation other than a capital letter and fullstop (period)
  
• not be easily broken into multiple lines by natural line break
  
• be a complete thought and not a fragmented sentence
  
• encompass the entire poem and theme without the need of addition or editorial explanation
  

If you want to insert monostich into a poem as a device, the same rules apply - but here alowance is made for the line to be an extension of the rest of the poem's body - but will also work as a stand-alone without losing any intention.

As an exercise - we'll compose monostich poetry as a form and not device. The last word of the previous post becomes the first word of the following post. I'll start by way of example:

Dust is the only remnant of her heart.

First word next post: heart

E2A: the final word of the previous post simply needs to feature in the following post in some fashion, either as a word or part of a word, or for verbs - any form of it.

Kerr wrote:
Heart--one thing completely her own to give.

> -- constitutes punctuation, you basically mark out how it should be paced. Using any form of punctuation outside of the cap and period breaks the stich. This is what makes it difficult, as you can't staple two sentences together with a comma, or write in a dictate speech method by setting pace. <

Heart--one thing completely her own to give.

becomes ~

Her heart alone is her only gift to offer.

Gotcha, caps and periods only. But I thought it must begin with 'heart' as well which was my problem. In keeping with what you've put down, and the last rule to the form encompass the entire poem and theme without the need of addition or editorial explanation, it now feels like 'is' should be replaced by 'was' to best refer back to the first line. Or am I still not quite getting what you're saying?

PAIN

pain is the window to future considerations

window pain sits slightly beyond imagination

i have no idea!

futility-that would be the next one if i am doing this even remotely correcticuss

I understand basically what you are saying, HOWEVER, --- and I feel like Dave's poem "References" now, because I am saying reasons, I must have reasons to use this construct.

My question(s), why would one put this inside an otherwise perfectly fine poem, or if so, could one insert more than one monostitch in a poem. I can imagine one in prose, although I don't think I have ever seen it done - would it be considered more than a bar trick to show the writer's cleverness?

Kerr wrote:Gotcha, caps and periods only. But I thought it must begin with 'heart' as well which was my problem. In keeping with what you've put down, and the last rule to the form encompass the entire poem and theme without the need of addition or editorial explanation, it now feels like 'is' should be replaced by 'was' to best refer back to the first line. Or am I still not quite getting what you're saying?

You're on the right track -- but you don't need to refer to or use my post. Monostich is a single line which is itself the poem. Your post will be, should be a poem of its own, a complete and non fragmented thought and encompass the entire poem and theme (i.e. the entire theme/feel behind your line) without the need of addition or editorial explanation whilst incorporating at least 1 form of poetic device (commonly metaphor or personification, as the 'like' or 'as' of simile is a line stitcher). With regards to punctuation, it's not just a case of not using punctuation, there should be no possibility for it to be punctuated.

Kerr wrote: But I thought it must begin with 'heart' as well which was my problem.

That's right, but it can't always be done -- so at times you need to rework the styart to use that word differently. perhaps I should say 'not last word' but the 'last word of the previous post as the starting word for the next, or re-use the last used noun as the subject of the following'. I don't know how to rephrase that as a coherent instruction though.

davids wrote:PAIN

pain is the window to future considerations

window pain sits slightly beyond imagination

i have no idea!

Dave, 1 line of 6 - 12 syllables, so either 6, 8, 10 or 12, and 1 poetic device. Read my reply to Kerr for deeper explanation.

JustaMan wrote:I understand basically what you are saying, HOWEVER, --- and I feel like Dave's poem "References" now, because I am saying reasons, I must have reasons to use this construct.

Monostich is the consolidation of the entirety of a poem in a single line - it's an ancient (pre-medieval) German form in origin and is heavily military with regards to structure. There is no 'reason' to use this form unless you need to practice coherency in individual constructs, you find you can't center the theme of your piece and need to weed the garden before continuing (in which case a little side note monostich can really be helpful), or if you want a concise poem as soundbite or quotable for a book's prologue (the most common modern usage).

JustaMan wrote:My question(s), why would one put this inside an otherwise perfectly fine poem,

As a poetic device, monostich was very much used in free form poetry of and from the mid 60's - because it allows for a somewhat schizophrenic approach where 2 seperate/parallel themes can be contained within a single piece. Beatnik, jazz and blues based poetry scenes also use monostich with great regard because of the 'complete thought' aspect.

JustaMan wrote:could one insert more than one monostitch in a poem.

Yes, you could have a stanza of 4 lines that follow the main construct of the poem, and then insert a line of monostich as device - continue with another 4 line stanza and repeat. Many poems that use monostich as an internal device will place it as a poem closer, because of it's 'complete thought' basis which works then as a summary - but many will also when doing this set it as an opener which will be at conflict with the closer, sort of a question or theme which then undergoes a process through the poem's body and is resolved/evolved as something different at close.

JustaMan wrote:I can imagine one in prose, although I don't think I have ever seen it done

I think you may have seen it used as a prose device more regularly than a poetic one to be honest -- Stephen King did so regularly in his early carreer. Think the moment of revelation in a piece of contemporary fiction where a dialogue is printed apart from the paragraph without inverted commas or directives for who has spoken it.

JustaMan wrote:would it be considered more than a bar trick to show the writer's cleverness?

It is a show of cleverness, but is also considered the European version of Haiku. Haiku and Chinquain are also of the brand that 'strokes one's ego' but they aren't considered any less because of it and have a grand culture conjoined with the warrior, martial, literary, religious and expressive arts. Monostich is a near forgotten remnant of Germanic culture that only sees the light of day in academia...why? It's a form like any other and should be approached so and treated the same.

Thanks for the answers, and I can believe how difficult can be to effectively use it in literary forms. I may have to search back through some of my previously written, more minimalist pieces, see if I can rework a stanza or two and get a monostitch as a part.

Kie, is what you are looking for that we try to write our own monostitch, but in order to give us some direction, we use the last word of the previous monostitch as the first word for ours?

so, in your first example, you ended with the word Heart.
Now I can start mine, using the word Heart as the first word with no punctuation and a complete thought in one line... an even number of syllables/beats in that thought?

something like

Heart and soul I lay down my life for you.

10 syllables, no punctuation, complete thought (maybe although high on the cornball plane).

so the next person would start their own, independant monostitch, using the word You as their first word, and theirs does not have to have anythign to do with mine?

yes -- that's right. But in your example punctuation can be added to pace the monostich:

heart and soul, I lay down my life for you.

In such cases it is acceptable reorder in order to avoid this situation, as long as the word heart (used purely for direction) is used in some form.

Right -- tell you guys what...forget using the final word from the previous post as the first in the second. Let's put it as the final word of the previous post simply featuring in the following post in some fashion.

Thus, to begin:

The open road winds into closed surrounds.

Word to feature: surrounds/surround

I haven't gotten to it yet, but I think my approach is to do a sample or two and let you take a look to see if I'm on track.

Okay Kie, I may be stretching, but see if this is in the spirit of the monostitch. This is a slightly modified stanza from a poem:

To windward bound
makes thunderous sounds
that puts us on our way.
Steer a course through newer waters
to keep the blues at bay.
Blue skies of crystal air transforms the lonely soul.

JustaMan wrote:

To windward bound <----The stanza starts here...
makes thunderous sounds
that puts us on our way.
Steer a course through newer waters
to keep the blues at bay. <----...ends here, so...

Blue skies of crystal air transform the lonely soul.<----...the monostich is set apart as a single loose line, a stanza in itself.

That's the idea if you were impementing the monostich as a poetic device - in all a good effort, but, and I know it sounds like nagging. The monostich should be seperated fom the stanza, otherwise it's just the final line of the stanza and would appear odd, especially when the voice diffres so strongly as it does here. Good monostich too as it would work without the stanza as well as it does with it. I see you opted for 12 syllables too -- i think that's an A+, lol. No, but seriously, that's how it works. For the purposes of this particular exercise thread we're using it as a standalone poem and not device, however, and I was going to do the poetic device version in a seperate thread in a few days. Guess you pre-empited me again...