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10 by 10 by 10 Structure

This is a poetic framework I created while working on an assignment requiring a historical or scientific poem for an adolescent audience. I chose to write about the Bill of Rights; so I decided that the number 10 should be rhythmically and structurally important to the poem. Because there seemed to be plenty of content to work with, I decided to make the poem 10 stanzas. After concluding more order was needed, I gave each stanza 10 lines with 10 syllables per line, although I did not assign any particular meter.

There was an 18-hour deadline window to turn around this poem, so I used the last two stanzas to drive home a message about rights and responsibilities — appropriate for the audience, if not a refinement of the work. In the near future, I plan to work more with this 10 by 10 by 10 poetic structure.  I predict that the structure will be most useful for poems that are narrative in nature, although I plan to make modifications, just to see what emerges. (For example, writing a 10 line poem with 10 syllables per line in 10 minutes — or 10 hours, depending on the level of quality required of the output.)

So far, I haven’t found any other examples of 10 by 10 by 10 structure. Then again, I haven’t looked very hard. When I have some time. I will; and if I find other works with this structure, I will include links here.  In the meantime, if you love to play with words like I do, give 10 x 10 x 10 Structure a whirl! Please describe what variation you used and feel free to post what you wrote below.  I’d love to read your poetry.