WD Poetic Form Challenge: Rime Couee Winner
Learn the winner and Top 10 list for the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the rime couee.
Here are the results of the Writer's Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the rime couee along with a Top 10 list. You can check out all the rime couee entries in the comments on this post.
Here is the winning rime couee:
"Scorned," by Margaret Fiske
Undine never kept to her grave
Of kelp and shell, of briny wave
I put her there you see
For wicked Undine had to go
Her naked knees bespoilt my beau
I brewed her almond tea
I watched her from the widow's walk
Each night she clambered shoal and rock
Hissing with pinguid glee
A bloated sac of oyster meat
Gone putrid in mid-summer heat
Eyelessly stalking me
One night I woke from dreams of doom
And found death creeping in my room
To snuff me where I lay
I grabbed a knife still slick with drum
And cleaved that strumpet into chum
Then fed her to the bay
But as I rowed to my home shore
There circled moonlit fins galore
Upon the roiling sea
With cloying scent of almondine
Each baited shark became Undine
Savagely mincing me
*****
Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
*****
Congratulations, Margaret! "Scorned" is a fun read filled with murder and revenge. Plus, it sent me to Wikipedia to learn more about undines and almondine. Fun times!
Here’s my Top 10 list:
- Scorned, by Margaret Fiske
- Iris, by RJ Clarken
- Release the Centaur, by Michael J. Crowley
- The Next Time, by Rhoda Utopia
- Writing At Seventy, Jane Shlensky
- Royal Improv, by Taylor Graham
- Small Fry, by Alice Stainer
- Halloween 2020, by Bruce Niedt
- Honey Creek, by Pamela L. King
- Overdue Goodbye, by Priscilla R.
Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote a rime couee!

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.