The North Strangers is a poetic form concerning a journey, originating in The Inky Growths. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is a single couplet. Use of simile and vivid imagery is characteristic of the form. Each line has thirteen syllables. The second line of the couplet presents a different view of the subject of the first line. The first line is solemn and intended to make an assertion. The second line is a riddle and intended to undercut the previous assertion.