Oulipo: Revorto

Poetry

Humour

Write a poem in ‘revorto’ form.

_A revorto poem consists of seven couplets that alternate between one highly poetic line and one very unpoetic line. The form is meant to jar the reader back and forth from a sense of beauty to a sense of something other than beauty. A proper revorto is structured thusly: AABBAACCBBAACC. _

_(Example: _

_The sun drew my desire on the ocean waves and painted my world gold_

_Derek won the coin, scoured dishes while George scrubbed the toilet’s mold)_

Comments 4

Rubbish

6 months ago

The example is just a couplet with two lines being A and A

You really don’t have to focus on that aspect of it. You won’t find any info on this form of poetry online. I created it. It’s my brainchild haha.

Here’s an example of the first few lines in ‘proper’ form:

I am a fire eating the frozen world raw (A)

my uncle lost his fingers to an ol’ table saw (A)

I took big bites of both blue seas and land (B)

he lost three fingers but they saved his left hand (B)

The goal would be to almost write to disconnected poems and mash them together in the provided structure. This one is a primitive example, but a ‘good’ Revorto would capitalize on the contrast between each line a bit more. I hope this helps.

Let me know if you have more questions.

And it means a lot to have you ask! Haha! ✌️😁

Alyssa

6 months ago

Can you please explain to me how this example follows the structure given? I’m having a hard time finding all 3 A’s and the B’s and C’s that are meant to rhyme… And google isn’t much help on this revorto poem structure keeps trying to say “reverse” poem…. Which clearly is not what I’m trying to find examples of. I do understand the structure it’s just the example given is giving my brain an ache.

Rubbish

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