Luc Bat
Quick answer: Luc bat is Vietnam's six-eight verse form, alternating 6 and 8 syllable lines with interlocking rhyme. Learn how luc bat works and why it endures.
Luc bat is the classic Vietnamese verse form, its name meaning simply six eight: couplets that alternate a six-syllable line with an eight-syllable line, chained together by an interlocking rhyme scheme that can run unbroken for thousands of lines. The final syllable of the six line rhymes with the sixth syllable of the following eight line; that eight line's final syllable then starts a new rhyme, picked up by the next six line, so the poem hands its music forward link by link.
The form is genuinely popular property. Lullabies, proverbs and folk songs use it, and so does the supreme masterpiece of Vietnamese literature. Its endless chain suits narrative the way terza rima served Dante, pulling the reader forward because every couplet leans into the next.
How It Works
Beyond the syllable counts and the interlocking rhyme, Vietnamese luc bat regulates tones, prescribing which syllables carry level or sharp tones so the couplets keep a consistent melody. English adaptations keep the six-eight alternation and the rhyme chain and let tone go.
An invented English chain to show the linkage: 'The river takes the light downstream; / the fishermen shake out their dream of nets. / What the long current gets, it keeps.' The rhyme arrives mid-line, softly, then a new sound takes over: that relay is the form's signature.
Where You Will See It
The Tale of Kieu, Nguyen Du's early nineteenth century narrative of a gifted woman who sells herself to save her family, runs to 3,254 lines of continuous luc bat and is the national poem of Vietnam, quoted in proverbs and consulted for fortunes. The form saturates oral tradition too, from ca dao folk lyrics to nursery rhyme, and modern Vietnamese poets return to it constantly. Diaspora writers have carried luc bat into English, where its mid-line rhyme sounds fresh against European stanza habits.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
Start with four couplets in English: six syllables, then eight, rhyming line one's end into the sixth syllable of line two, and so on down the chain. The mid-line rhyme takes practice, since English ears expect rhyme at line ends, but that displacement is the pleasure, a chime inside the current rather than a bell at the gate. The form rewards stories: try a family anecdote and let the chain carry it. Writory's judges score musicality under language, and a controlled luc bat chain is the kind of structural music they notice.
What poets can take from this
- Alternate strictly: six syllables, then eight, couplet after couplet.
- Land the first rhyme on syllable six of the eight line, not at its end.
- Change rhyme sounds every couplet, as the chain demands, to avoid drone.
- Use the form for narrative; its forward lean suits stories and songs.
- Read a translation of The Tale of Kieu to see the chain sustained at epic length.
Try it yourself
Tell a story your family repeats at gatherings in at least six luc bat couplets, six syllables then eight, with the rhyme chain intact. Let the last couplet return to the image that opened the poem.
Questions
What does luc bat mean?
Six eight, in Sino-Vietnamese, naming the alternating line lengths. The form pairs a six-syllable line with an eight-syllable line and chains the couplets together with interlocking rhyme.
How is luc bat different from a Western couplet form?
Western couplets usually rhyme at line ends and close each pair. Luc bat rhymes a line ending into the middle of the next line and never closes; each couplet opens the door to the following one, which is why it can run for thousands of lines.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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