Tautogram: Poetic Forms
Learn how to write the tautogram, a poetic form based around using the same letter in a poem.
Let's keep these Poetic Form Fridays rolling with the tautogram!
Tautogram Poems
The tautogram is best explained by its Greek root words of "tauto" meaning "the same" and "gramma" meaning "letter." Basically, all words in the poem begin with the same letter.
So pick a letter--any letter--and get poeming!
Note: A variant form of this poem could employ a unique starting letter for each stanza.
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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 Tautogram:
Thoroughly Terse Tautogram, by Robert Lee Brewer
Twelve turkeys trekked through Turkey
to tell tales that tackled topsy-
turvy televangelists traipsing through
turnkey topics turned to tropics,
though ten teased topical tenets.
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.
