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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Rhyme Royal


Rhyme Royal:
The rhyme royal stanza consists of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. 
The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza can be constructed 
either as a tercet and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) or 
a quatrain and a tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c). 
This allows for a good deal of variety, especially when the form is used for 
longer narrative poems and along with the couplet, 
it was the standard narrative metre in the late Middle Ages. 

Example Poem

Tempus Ambigua

Time is a concept quite beyond my ken.
String theory baffles brilliant folks and me.
I'll not wax philosophic then again 
Perhaps I did already, shame on me.
Time keeps everything in order you see.
For flies who's life-cycle completes in one day,
Men and boys would be distinct I would say.

We can tell a larva and the  grown fly
are one and the same. Flies would see two types 
of animals that grouped but would not know why.
Our sense of time is different awake 
or when we sleep, and by task goodness sake.
Don't tell a guy that seconds are the same
while shoveling manure or kissing a dame.

© Lawrencealot - April 14, 2012


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