Tetractys

The tetractys (singular and plural) is a 5-line syllabic form created by Ray Stebbing following the numerical sequence of the same name: 1, 2, 3, 4. The lines have 1/2/3/4/10 syllables, for a total of 20; the first line should use a meaningful word, not just “a”, “an”, “the” etc. One of many attempts to create a natively English-language equivalent to the haiku.

It's been hard for me to find the creator's explanation of the form in full. He had a website, once, probably, but there's no links. All I can find are sparse quotes. However, I think tetractys are meant to have titles.

Notes

I see the tetractys as being kind of a counterpoint to the Crapsey cinquain: a slow, tense start, then a moment of release followed by a rush to the end. Before I wrote any I was kinda worried this form put arithmetic before poesy, but it works out fine.

So far I've tended to take a loose approach to stresses in the shorter four lines, then switch to iambic or trochaic for the last, long line.

I also tend to do cut-up titles, re-arranging words from the poem into something often irrelevant. I don't always do this, and I didn't start doing it for any particular reason.

Poems

1. 2026-03-19
   Through a Gauze—Debacle of Thoughts

   Blood
   And gauze--
   Orphan thoughts
   Retreating through
   A cavernous debacle of a mind.

2. 2026-01-07
   The Snowdrift Hunting for the Storm

   Moss
   For paws
   And snowdrift
   For cloak and mask—
   The storm pads round the rooftops hunting mice.

   ---

   I happened on the phrase “a paw of moss” and used it to write this and a haiku from the same day.

3. 2025-10-29
   Our Old and Dead Night-Night Song

   Dead
   And gone,
   Our last song,
   And night by night
   Old streetlight constellations burn away.

4. 2025-10-17
   Feel Up the Tangled Wicker Man

   All
   Tangled
   Up in flames
   That feel like fame,
   The wicker man makes tchotchkes of his pain.

5. 2025-10-02
   They Didn't Have Skylines Before the Skies

   Skies
   Cut loose
   From skylines
   Bleed the rainbow
   Between the legs they didn't have before.

6. 2025-09-18
   Black-Windowed Concrete Beast

   Dry
   Berries,
   Left behind
   By bug and beast
   Who travel light through low black-windowed streets
   And on into the unremembered deeps
   Where sweetness dies
   And concrete
   Headstones
   Sleep.

7. 2025-08-17
   Black Bones Feed White

   Bones
   Return
   To the earth—
   Black nourished fields—
   In distant colonies who slave to feed
   Our gleaming whitewashed supermarket aisles
   Among whose fruits
   Labourers'
   Spirits
   Loom.

8. 2025-06-04
   Safe Pain Through The Attic Windows

   Pain
   Echoes
   Through the safe
   Old neighbourhood—
   The attic windows give a mirthless wink.

9. 2025-05-30
   Empire's Gun, Hero's Fun

   Empire's eager headless poppies, heroes
   In foreign lands
   Run and gun—
   Wartime
   Fun.

10. 2025-05-25
    The People's Fossil Estimates Bhopal

    Leech
    Money
    Estimates
    The People's needs:
    Bhopal Cola holy fossil futures.

11. 2025-04-30
    Frantic Machine

    Take
    Apart
    A machine,
    Frantic machine,
    While telling it how much you love it so.

    ---

    Inspired by a lyric game I wrote a while back.