The trisect is a three part poetic form I’ve invented—from scratch, so it’s not based on any other poetic form—to help me explore the art of non-expository depiction. It does not attempt to sell an idea or explain a concept, be that concept a personal experience or the interpretation of any object. It does, however, thoroughly exercise and develop your powers of observation, sense of relational association between things, and use of depictive and metaphoric language.
The trisect should never explain itself to the reader or give itself away. The goal is to provide the reader with an experience of personal interpretation, a way of interpreting your words as much as possible from his or her own experience. Rather than forcing your own interpretation of a personal or objective experience on the reader, you create a series of visually (sensationally) depicted associations from your observations of it, with special focus on particular objects within it, from which your reader derives his or her own experience.
Although an especially perceptive reader may seem to see through your depicted associations to the original experience behind them, this will be rare. Still, some readers will automatically associate similar personal experiences from your trisect to the ones you had in mind when writing it. This does not mean that the poem was successful; it means only that there are some apparent similarities of one sort or another between you and that reader.
The success of a trisect with a given reader is measured more through the level of interest that reader takes in it, the degree of significance he or she ascribes to it, and how much or how powerful of an experience he or she derives from it. When you write a trisect, you are not writing to explain anything about an experience or objects related to it, but to depict only what is necessary to allow the reader to interpret and create his or her own experience from it. So the rules of the trisect form are designed specifically to maximize this potential.
Trisects are defined by both structural and semantic rules. The structural rules are simply intended to create an appropriate, adaptable frame for the trisect’s content. Those few poetic forms in English which are defined in part by a semantic element, like the Petrarchan sonnet, allow for these elements to be abandoned without this compromising the integrity of the form itself. As such these forms are defined purely by structural rules such as their rhyme and stanzaic schemes, any semantic rules associated with them left optional. This is not the case with the trisect. The trisect’s semantic rules are an essential component, without which the poem ceases to be a trisect at all as I’ve conceived it, but something else.
Structural rules
1) Trisects are always titled
2) The trisect is organized into three individual poems (segments)
3) Each segment is subtitled
4) There are four stanzas per segment
5) Stanzas are either tercets or quatrains
6) Lines are between two and seven feet long (dimeters to heptameters)
Semantic rules
1) No first person personal pronouns may be used anywhere in the poem
The first person personal pronouns I, me, my, mine, and myself may not be used anywhere in the poem. This includes the title and subtitles. The same goes for the inclusive personal pronouns we and ours.
If you have to use any of these personal pronouns to express something, then you probably will want to use another form or free verse to do so. Such pronouns are generally only used in expressing romantic ideals or personal feelings and opinions. The language and focus of a trisect is not romantic or self-expressive, but as much as possible depictive.
2) First segment depicts a simple item without naming it
As far as possible, depict the item of focus without naming it. This is by no means limited to mere visual descriptions. To truly depict something, the brain must stretch (sometimes painfully) to include other sorts of information about it. Such information can include the item’s textures, smells, environment, history, development, behavior, relation to other items and time, and much more. The observations you’ll use to depict the item will be colored by your own perception, experience, and understanding of it. This is where your self-expression comes into play, and this comes into play one way or the other in each of the trisect’s three segments.
To help clarify, read the first segments of each of the following poems in relation to what their items of focus are (in parentheses):
Guardian: allpoetry.com/Poem/1682666 – (canoe)
Three Ravens: allpoetry.com/Poem/1750638 – (figurine of a raven)
Architect: allpoetry.com/Poem/1774007 – (the individual LEGO brick)
3) Second segment depicts a more complex item without naming it
The item of focus in the second segment is only complex in relation to the item of focus in the first segment. So, the item depicted in the first segment can be in and of itself complex, but the item depicted in the second segment must be—or at least seem to be—more complex.
So, if you depict a flower petal in the first segment, then you could depict the flower itself in the second because the flower is more complex by comparison. If the first segment depicts the earth, then the second might depict the solar system or a galaxy because either would be more complex by comparison.
Again, to help clarify ways of depicting something without naming it, I recommend reading the second segment of each of these poems in relation to their items of focus (parenthesized):
Guardian: allpoetry.com/Poem/1682666 – (Yukon river—so by extension 'a river')
Three Ravens: allpoetry.com/Poem/1750638 – (a raven)
Architect: allpoetry.com/Poem/1774007 – (the LEGO construct)
4) Second segment references the item depicted by the first segment
This is of course done without naming it. The reference can be vague and peculiar to your own experience and understanding. Going back again to the four poems, I’ll illustrate key phrases from their second segments which reference the item depicted by the first:
Guardian: a fleck of lost humanity – (reference by location and relational metaphor)
Three Ravens: where … an icon lures – (reference by location and metaphor)
Architect: Imagination … – (reference by application and metaphor)
In parentheses I’ve isolated the reference types which are illustrated by the phrases, when taken within the context of the poem.
5) Third segment depicts an event or process without naming it
This is the crux of the trisect. Generally speaking, the items depicted in the first and second segments are in some way associated with or involved in the event or process depicted by the third segment. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, the event or process may not be named—directly denoted. If you are depicting a car accident for instance, you would not use words that would be involved in the direct denotation of the event, like the words "car", "automobile", "wreck", or "accident" from such denotive phrases as "automobile accident" and "car wreck". Instead, individual potentially telling elements and aspects of the event or process are depicted.
The event or process depicted may of course be compounded, for they will rarely stand alone anyway.
Returning again to the four poems I’ve been using as examples, ponder the third segment of each poem in relation to the event or process it depicts (again parenthesized):
Guardian: allpoetry.com/Poem/1682666 – (an experience on the Yukon river)
Three Ravens: allpoetry.com/Poem/1750638 – (a dream experience involving flight)
Architect: allpoetry.com/Poem/1774007 – (evolution of mind through explorative play)
6)
Third segment references the items depicted by the first and second segmentsThis is the same idea as that explained above under the fourth point. As I did there, I’ll indicate key phrases from the third segment of each example poem which reference back to the items depicted in the first and second segments of that poem.
References back to the first segment:
E merge nce: … shelter shattered open like a nest – (reference by usage and state)
Guardian: … the floating soul … – (reference by relational metaphor and usage)
Three Ravens: … in the shade of gaze … – (reference by action and behavior)
Architect: Individual colors snap – (reference by application and metaphor)
References back to the second segment:
E merge nce: black lightning … – (reference by metaphor)
Guardian: from out the wash … floating soul – (reference by spatial and relational attributes)
Three Ravens: .. a figurine – (reference by partial denotation)
Architect: impressionist expressions of the mind – (reference by metaphor)
This list is by no means complete. The third segment of some of these poems have multiple references to the items depicted by each of the previous segments. But, this will give you some idea.
7) Subtitles do not explicitly denote the foci of their segments
The subtitle captures some attribute or aspect of a segment’s focus through metaphor or some other type of reference, but does not identify it directly by name or denotation.
8) Title should avoid giving away the overall focus of the poem
Just as the subtitle should avoid giving away the focus of its segment, the title should avoid giving away the focus of the poem in a similar fashion.
The rules are easier to follow than you might think. The challenge is in following them well, to good effect. This can only be discovered via trial and error, as I have been doing with the form.
Although this article is very thourough, complete with illustrations from four trisect poems, I do plan to improve upon it as I figure out how to do so. If anything about this article is confusing to you, please leave a comment indicating where and why. If I can, I'll clarify those areas.
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Dee
