Poetic Form: The Rimas Dissolutas

Rimas dissolutas poetry was developed in France as an alternative to the more intrusive rhyming that classic poetry had embraced. Rather than rhyming within stanzas, this form utilizes outside rhymes, with lines in each stanza corresponding to the same line number in other stanzas. In addition, especially in longer pieces, half-rhymes or slant rhymes lessen the impact even further by rhyming only final consonants or similar sounds.

Rimas dissolutas can be any length of any number of lines and stanzas, with the caveat that each stanza have the same number of lines. First lines rhyme only with other first lines, second lines with other second lines, etc. Thus a Rimas dissolutas based on five-line stanzas has a rhyming pattern as follows:

a - b - c - d - e ... a - b - c - d - e ... a - b - c - d - e ... a - b - c - d - e ...

Remember that in a rhyming pattern, lines ending in a sound designated by "a" only rhyme with other "a" lines, "b" lines only with other "b" lines, and so on.

Traditionally, this form is considered a syllabic one, meaning that each line would usually share the same number of syllables. This aspect, though, has seemingly fallen out of favor with contemporary poets. Another variation repeats the end words in the first pair of stanzas in subsequent pairs.

Example:

The Crossing

As each car rattled, one by one,
my day dream done and patience tried,
graffiti-filled, the rusted gates
continued with no end in sight.

My boredom forced, illusion spun
the train cars in a merry ride
around my head, its packing crates
were blurred by passing cracks of light.

The clacking, like a Gatling gun,
drowned out the crossing bell beside
the intersection's warning grates
and "R R" sign of black and white.

A calm returned, my waiting done,
the last few cars remained in stride,
now free to roll past interstates
and others watching, left to right.