Yo pensé que no hallara consonante
y estoy a la mitad de otro cuarteto,
mas si me veo en el primer terceto,
no hay cosa en los cuartetos que me espante.

Por el primer terceto voy entrando,
y parece que entré con pie derecho
pues fin con este verso le voy dando.

Ya estoy en el segundo y aun sospecho
que voy los trece versos acabando:
contad si son catorce y está hecho.

I thought that I could never get this far,
and now I'm halfway into quatrain two;
but if at the first tercet I arrive,
I'll have no fear: there's nothing I can't do!

The tercets I have just begun to pen;
I know I must be headed the right way,
for with this line I finish number one.

Now I am in the second, and suspect
that I have written nearly thirteen lines:
count them, that makes fourteen, and look -- it's done.

                     (©Alix Ingber, 1995)

I thought that finding words would be a chore,
and here I've half another quatrain done!
If I achieve the first tercet, I've won;
those quatrains just don't scare me anymore.

The first tercet is just beginning here,
so far, so good, the bearing still seems right,
since I can see that this line's end is near.

And now I'm on the second, and suspect
That thirteen finished lines will expedite
The count to fourteen, and the end perfect.

            (©Aodhagán O'Broin, 1999)

I was not born beneath a rhyming planet,
Yet halfway through this poem I'm still here.
And if I catch myself a final couplet,
There's nothing in the quatrains I need fear.

The third verse, as it seems, I'm now beginning;
It's likely that I'll make it to the end
Of this game that I am so slowly winning,
This poem that I'm making for my friend.

My thirteenth line, I see, I'm almost ending;
Do you count fourteen? -- if not, well, 'tis past mending.

                     (©John Cowan, 2001)