Southeast Asian Poetic Forms

The  zoetrope  is an invented  poetic form  that originated in Singapore.  Contents 1   Structure 2   Variations 3   E xamples History The zoetrope was created by Singapore poet Yeow Kai Chai for the commission for   Fifty on 50 , the Ethos anthology of poems written by 50 poets to commemorate the 50 th   year of Singapore’s independence in 2009. The poem for the anthology was ‘From A to Z, A Zoetrope Spins in Commemoration of Your Independence’, and the idea was to create a whirlwind effect of change and movement, reflecting the dizzying pace of development in Singapore. Structure The form is an abecedarian format, a 26-line poem with each line comprising words containing a common letter. In other words, words in the first line contain “a”, words in the second line “b”, and so forth, till the 26 th  line which comprises words with “z” in them. The zoetrope, together with the twin cinema, is part of Yeo...

The twin cinema  is an invented  poetic form  that originated in Singapore.  Contents 1   Structure 2   Variations 3   E xamples History The first twin cinema was written by Yeow Kai Chai in the Jul 2010 issue of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, entitled "Begone dull care" . It was subtitled "twin cinema comprising bolts and nuts of unrelated scenes, some pilfered." Kai Chai has been mentioned as being inspired by John Ashbery's "Litany", a 65-page poem written in two columns, published in the 1979 collection "As You Know". The form was named after the 2005 album of the same name by the Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers. David Wong further explored this form in the titular poem of his debut collection, "For The End Comes Reaching". He added further definition and functionality to the form, defining it as being able to be read across or as two discrete columns.  The form caught on during Sing...

Asingbol: Form & History The asingbol was invented by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé in 2010, as a response to an interview with Trapeze Magazine . Using the twitter character count as an Oulipian constraint, the asingbol is composed of exactly 140 characters including spaces. Written as a single clause, all the words are not capitalised, with the sentence always end-stopping on a period to emphasise its statement of exposition and assertion. The asingbol attempts the near impossible – to be completely literal, at the points of its making and its subsequent reading, devoid of irony or metaphor as if to make disappear the hyperbole altogether. It is written like a dictionary entry espousing a single definition. It is also incapable of being read as symbolic. It celebrates the text as pure object. In The A List , Desmond stated that the asingbol “was conceived as an expedient form for an expedient nation” – it is essentially an “impossible” poem, befitting of the “improbab...

The udaiyaathathu is a classic Southeast Asian poetic form with influences from South Asia. It is also known as " the unbroken form ". It is a formal variant of a Tamil hymnal device known as ant ā ti, which means "end-beginning".  andaiplosis is achieved where the last word of each verse is the first word of the next   Contents 1 Structure 2 Variants 3 Examples Structure Structurally, the first word of every line in the udaiyaathathu is also the last word of the next line. This chain continues unbroken until the very last line of the udaiyaathathu, where the first word of the last line is the last word of the first line of the piece. This is similar to the ant ā ti, in which anadiplosis occurs where the last word of each verse is the first word of the next verse, and epanalepsis occurs where the last word of the last verse is the first word of the first - however, in the udaiyaathathu, the epanalepsis is reversed to occur across each couple...

The  empat perkataan  is a traditional Southeast Asian  poetic form  originating from the  Malaccan Empire  in the 15th century. It was popular among inhabitants of the  Riau Archipelago  and  Malay Peninsula . It is primarily associated with  Austronesian  languages such as  Malay ,  Tagalog ,  Sundanese  and  Javanese , but modern examples can also be found in English. The term is derived from the Malay words for 'four' and 'words'. Singaporean poets including  Alvin Pang  have been reviving the form for its elegance, versatility and association with  Language poetry . The earliest example of the modern empat perkataan is "Inventory", which can be found in Dr Lee Tzu Pheng's 1991 anthology, " The Brink of an Amen ".  [Wikipedia] Contents 1 Structure 2 Variants 3 Examples Structure [ edit ] The classic empat perkataan abides by the following rules and has no fixed ...

The  liwuli  is a  poetic form  derived from Asian (particularly Southeast Asian) literary and rhetorical traditions. The liwuli can be in any language, although it is most commonly composed in one or more of the major languages used in Malaysia and Singapore, where the form is most commonly practised. The singular and plural of the noun  liwuli  are the same. While some have referred to multiple poems as "liwulis", this is incorrect. This similarly occurs with  haiku , which is one of the predecessors of the liwuli form. Known users of the form include Singaporean poets  Alvin Pang  and Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde . Contents 1   Structure 2   Variations 3   E xamples Structure In its most basic form, a liwuli consists of three stanzas: 1. The first stanza contains exactly 31 syllables in the form of a prose poem. The first stanza is phrased as imperatives or instructions. 2. The second stanza cons...