Types of Poem Forms – French Chain Poems

The Middle Age French Trouvère poets from the Provence region of south eastern France along the Mediterranean (closest to Italy) were likely an interesting group of spoken word artists of extraordinary cleverness. Trouvère poets were poet-composer-artists performing in the different dialects of the French speaking peoples. Their chain poetry was their method used to convey news, entertain with music, and even evade and trick invading Crusader armies by disguising news of activities within chain poems as they traveled from one community to another.

Don't be mistaken these poets were not always poor performers traveling from community to community, which were actually the more traditionally known, "troubadours." Trouvère poets were supported by their aristocratic patrons and a few were of noble bearing themselves. (Note: A female troubadour performer was called a "trobairitz.")

I particularly like this outdated and oft-forgotten type of poem form due to its playfulness, structure, and the delight of being able to have great license with wordplay. It would be interesting to see it revive itself in popularity. Chain poems are classically similar to more well-known French fixed poetry forms (examples: triolets, roundeaus, and the villanelle).

Like with other fixed forms of poetry French chain poetry can be serious or nonsensical. My opinion is that this old fashioned chain of words can be a lot of fun for the poetically minded.

There are two types of French Chain poems:

• The first repeats the last word (or syllable) with the first word (or syllable) of the next line.
• The second repeats the last line of all stanzas with the first line of the next stanza.

Thus, any repetition of a rhyme, word, phrase, line, or group of lines ties it to the next section into an unbroken chain of words. Chain verse can advance to the ambitiousness of a whole chain of sonnets, and with the last line in each stanza repeated as the opening line of the next, or even the final word or rhyme-sound.

Sadly, few examples of such french chain poem spoken word artists survived to make it into print and common poetic knowledge, and then supposedly only were published and taught in the Victorian era here in the United States. One was an anonymous French chain poem, and the other more well-known chain poem was written by John Byrom, untitled, but certainly was a classic chain poem of Old World French inspiration.

French chain poetry is not to be confused with collaborative poetry, which was popularized in the 1940s in the United States. Collaborative poetry is written by numerous poets where each writes a line and sends it to the next poet to write the next line.

Just like in the form of chain verse found in Italian terza rima poems (consisting of interlocking three-line rhyme schemes), the general rhyme scheme for French Chain poems is:

• 1, 2, 1
• 2, 3, 2
• 3, 4, 3
• 4, 5, 4

Naturally, the poem does not have to end at the fourth stanza, you can make a French chain poem of any length following the same rhyme scheme formula. Nor are French chain poems rigidly reduced to being three line schemes, they could also be four line rhyme schemes, such as:

1, 2, 1, 2

2, 3, 2, 3

3, 4, 3, 4

4, 5, 4, 5

Here is an example of a four line rhyme scheme:

Chain slip the yarn over the hook

Don't forget about frogging out every mistake

Chain slip the rhyming words in a poetry book

Doesn't necessarily a poet make

Doesn't necessarily a poet make

Repeating rhyme schemes understood

Chain increase, skip, increase, double yo-yo take,

Repeating chain schemes are just as good

Repeating chain schemes are just as good

She who dies with the most yarn chains wins

As working in the round whether yarn or words should

While she who dies with the most chain poems forever grins

Jerilee Wei © 2011

Unlike the Middle Ages French poets, today spoken words artists often fall into a much more conscious performance of speaking (often musically) more in the form of rapping. It is very popular among the youth of today in urban cities. Still, other spoken word artists are taking a more poetic form that is evolving as it grows in popularity.