Landay: Poetic Forms
Learn how to write the landay, a variable length form based off a couplet, including guidelines for the poetic form and an example poem.
Let's keep the poetic forms rolling this week with the landay, which is a form that may have existed for thousands of years--though I just discovered it recently.
Landay Poems
The landay is a variable length form based off a couplet, which means the poem could be as concise as two lines or run on for several pages. The form most likely originated with nomads in the area of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (read an article on Afghan landays here).
Here are the basic rules of the landay:
- Poem comprised of self-contained couplets--as few as one couplet will do
- 9 syllables in the first line; 13 syllables in the second line
- Landays tend to reveal harsh truths using wit
- Themes include love, grief, homeland, war, and separation
Note: There is not a specific rhyme pattern for this form, though lines tend to end on the sounds of "na" and "ma" in the original Pashto. However, this is difficult to replicate in English. Keep in mind that landays are often sung.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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Here’s my attempt at a Landay Poem:
departures, by Robert Lee Brewer
the cities light up beneath our plane
on the left as the sun retreats from us on the right
the moon appears in rivers below
& then disappears like our fragile first encounters
we both flinched at our first touch but then
crashed back together as if that's what held us aloft
i'm not sure why some cities still burn
while others dissolve quietly into the darkness
i'm not sure why we need departures
to remind us of the excitement of arrivals
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
