Evolution Of A Triolet Poem by Kim Barney

I recently learned a new poetry form (to me) : the triolet.

A triolet is an eight-line poem, written in either iambic
tetrameter or iambic pentameter. The first line repeats
as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line
repeats as the eighth line, so once you have written
the first two lines, your poem is five-eighths finished!

There are only two rhymes. The rhyme pattern is
ABaAabAB. (Capital letters indicate repeated lines.)

I decided that I would try to write a triolet. For me,
tetrameter seemed easier than pentameter, so I
need an eight-syllable first line, keeping it iambic:

Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat...

Okay, now what shall I do with the boat? Sail it
to some faraway place, of course.

Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
and sail away to Timbuktu.

Hmmm... Timbuktu is plenty far away, all right,
but isn't it landlocked? I don't think that I could
sail there. Well then,

Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
and sail away to sunny Spain.

That's better. I know that Spain has a seacoast,
and I do speak a bit of Spanish, whereas I
probably DON'T speak whatever language
they speak in Timbuktu.

Now my poem just needs three more lines
to be finished, since some lines repeat.

(1) Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
(2) and sail away to sunny Spain.
(3) ******** ******** ******** (a rhyme with boat)
(4) Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
(5) ******** ******** ******** (a rhyme with boat)
(6) ******* ****** ******** a rhyme with Spain)
(7) Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
(8) and sail away to sunny Spain.

Let's try getting that third line written:

(1) Some day, perhaps I'll buy a boat
(2) and sail away to sunny Spain.
(3) You bring a cow; I'll bring a goat.

Wait a minute. If I'm bringing YOU along,
something needs to be changed:

(1) Some day, perhaps we'll buy a boat

Now let's write line five:

1) Some day, perhaps we'll buy a boat
(2) and sail away to sunny Spain.
(3) You bring a cow; I'll bring a goat.
(4) Some day, perhaps we'll buy a boat.
(5) I wonder how we'll make it float?

Something's not right. Why should we have
any trouble making it float... unless we didn't
buy it, but built it ourselves?

(1) Some day, perhaps we'll build a boat
(2) and sail away to sunny Spain.
(3) You bring a cow; I'll bring a goat.
(4) Some day, perhaps we'll build a boat.
(5) I wonder how we'll make it float?

Now we just need line six and our poem
is finished. Line six needs to rhyme with Spain.

(1) Some day, perhaps we'll build a boat
(2) and sail away to sunny Spain.
(3) You bring a cow; I'll bring a goat.
(4) Some day, perhaps we'll build a boat.
(5) I wonder how we'll make it float?
(6) For those two beasts, we'll need some grain.
(7) Some day, perhaps we'll build a boat
(8) and sail away to sunny Spain.