Reverse+Poetry

Reverse poetry is a poem that can be read forwards one way and have a meaning, but also be read backwards and have another different meaning. A type of ‘reverse’ writing is called a palindrome. Palindrome comes from the Greek words "palin" (again or back) and "dramein" (to run). So if you read that backwards, it translates loosely into "to run back." The palindrome simply reads the same forwards and backwards, usually with a central focal point from where it begins to read backwards.

There are several ways to write palindrome poems:


 * 1. It can be read backwards, with the same words, such as the example below **

Love/Hate Relationship by Paula Brown

Love Mimics hate: Passionate always, forging forward .Unquiet rage screams Poetry. Tangled mercilessly; Emotion —mirrors— Emotion, Mercilessly tangled <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.Poetry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Screams rage, unquiet. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Forward forging, always passionate: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Hate mimics <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Love.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">2. Here is another way of writing a palindrome poem, more difficult-- it reads the same forwards and backwards by letter. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Mood's mode! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Pallas, I won! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">(Diaper pane, sold entire.) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Melt till ever sere, hide it. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Drown a more vile note <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">;(Tar of rennet.) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Ah, trowel, baton, eras ago <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.The reward? A "nisi." Two nag. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Otary tastes putrid, yam was green. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Odes up and on; stare we. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Rats nod. Nap used one-erg saw. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">(May dirt upset satyr?)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">A toga now; 'tis in a drawer, eh? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Togas are notable <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.(Worth a tenner for Ate`.) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Tone liver. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">O Man, word-tied I. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Here's revel! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Little merit, Ned? Lose, Nap? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Repaid now is all apedom's doom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">--by Hubert Phillips:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">3. Another version of a palindrome poem is a line palindrome, which reads forwards and backwards, by lines. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">As I was passing near the jail <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">I met a man, but hurried by. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">His face was ghastly, grimly pale. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">He had a gun. I wondered why <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">He had. A gun? I wondered... why, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">His face was *ghastly*! Grimly pale <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">,I met a man, but hurried by, <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">As I was passing near the jail.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">-- by J. A. Lindon

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">#Poetry*

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Check out this video for an excellent example of a reverse poem! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">media type="youtube" key="42E2fAWM6rA" height="349" width="425"