Poetry instruments
popple
Made from, and around, the public domain.
popple, v. Of water: to ripple, to tumble in small waves.
Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
How it goes
Begin with a text
Every instrument starts from words that belong to everyone: books, poems and letters in the public domain.
Work it
Cut it back, answer it, pass it on or shape it. Each instrument does one thing to a page, and does it well.
Keep it or share it
What you make is a link. No sign-in, no profile. Show it to whoever you like.
An instrument at work
ELIDE keeps a few words of an old poem and lets the rest go quiet. This is Tennyson’s brook, found again.
chatter, flow. Brimming river. Men may go, on for ever.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Brook” (1855). Public domain.
The instruments
- ELIDEBlackout poetry from the public domain.Open
- ekphrasisPoems written facing public-domain paintings.Soon
- workbenchA private writing desk with live constraint and metre checks.Soon
- relayLinked verse, passed on by link.Soon
- versionsMany makers' versions of one poem from another language.Soon
- almanacOne line a day into a shared seasonal poem.Soon
- soundalikeEnglish that sounds like a poem in another language.Soon
- shapeWords placed on a page as a shape poem.Soon
- branchForking lines where every path is a poem.Soon
Kept plain
Public domain first
Source texts are old enough to be free. Where a text is in doubt, it stays out.
No accounts
Nothing to sign up for. Open an instrument and begin.
Your words, by link
Words you write are shared by link only, until you choose otherwise.