A pruning poem is a poem that uses rhymes that are prunings of each other.
Each rhyme word is one letter shorter than the rhyme word before. Otherwise, they are the same word. While it is possible to write a pruning poem in couplets or longer, it is most effective when the reader sees the pruning on the page. Thus, George Herbert, who conducted many formal experiments in verse, writes Paradise as a pruning poem.
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- What open force, or hidden charm
- Can blast my fruit, or bring me harm
- While the inclosure is thine arms?
Pruning could be accomplished by cutting terminal as well as initial letters, but initial position pruning is the more common and noticeable.
Famous quotes containing the word poem:
“It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)