Hello everyone!  We have a guest host, Rosemary Nissen Wade, who will handle our next poetry form, Dizain.

Hello dVerse! Many thanks to Grace & dVerse team for the opportunity to share one of my favourite forms.

Though free verse is my usual preference and I turn to it naturally, I also love to play with form. These days the circumstances of my offline life mean I respond to poetry prompts much less often than I once did – but a form prompt will often get me. (Such as those offered here this year.)

Brief History

The dizain is a 10-line form which – like so many good ones – originated in France. It was popular there in the 15th and 16 Centuries, and has also been used by such famous English poets as John Keats and Philip Sidney.

Basic Structure

The basic rules for the dizain are that it…