Binary tree (poetry)

The Binary Tree is a poetic form that takes one line, and "dissects" it into two new lines, each containing an element of the first line. It will be followed by a second and third stanza, taking the previous two lines as the first line of these new stanzas, as in the structure below:

A | B

C | A (taking the first phrase and putting it at the end of the 2nd line)

B | D (taking the second phrase and putting it at the start of the 3rd line)

(The first stanza is the parent set, which takes the parent line, and spawning two new lines out of it. It is followed by two stanzas, each taking the second and third lines of this stanza and turn them to parent lines.)

A | C (inversion of the 2nd line of the 1st stanza)

E | A (same rules as the previous stanza's 2nd and 3rd lines)

C | F

B | D (same as the 3rd line of the 1st stanza)

G | B (same rules as the 1st stanza's 2nd and 3rd lines)

D | H

(It is closed by a coda, taking all the new phrases from the previous set and putting them together as a single stanza.)

E | F

G | H

Binary Tree Poems Site