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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Romantic Stanza

Stanzaic:   Any number of quatrains.
Syllabic:    Multiple versions. I have seen 11/11/10/7, but documented here are:
                 the Wordsworth version: 11/11/11/7, and the 11/10/11/7 version.
Meter:     Dactylic, with the final foot being either catelectic or brachycatelectic
                (lacking either one or two syllables).  
Rhyme:    cross rhyme, end-rhyme abab.
Refrain:   The first 7 syllable of line one making up line 4.


Romantic stanza
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:
Alternating quatrains of basically dactylic meter where lines one and three have eleven syllables, line two has ten, and line four is the first seven syllables of line one.
Attributed to:
Maksim Bahdanovic, stanza so named by Bob Newman
Origin:
Belarus
Schematic:
Rhyme: (Ba)baB
Meter:
Xxx Xxx Xxx Xx
Xxx Xxx Xxx X
Xxx Xxx Xxx Xx
Xxx Xxx X
Starting Point:
With each quatrain, start with the first/last line, since that line establishes your rhymes.


Maksim Bahdanovič (1891-1917) was the greatest lyric poet in the Belarusian language, and one of his best-loved poems is entitled simply Romance. It begins, "Venus, new-risen above us appearing..." The verse form it uses is unusual and quite tricky. There is no standard name for it, so I have chosen to call it the romantic stanza. As an example, here is an alternative version of a well-known poem by Wordsworth: Daffodils



The form was named Romantic Stanza by Bob Newman

Example Poems

Out Genesis

Clustering, combining dust aggregates in time
Assembling Hydrogen particles as they must
be a bit weightier so they may start their climb.
Clustering, combining dust.

Billions of our years go by with no life at all.
Galaxies born, made of stars that explode and die.
Pressures of their dying create life's wherewithal.
Billions of our years go by.

Busting outward from that blast, heavy elements
driven here by cosmic winds let know life commence.
all living things spring from cataclysmic events
bursting outward from that blast.

   © Lawrencealot - January 26, 2013

 unpublished


Since the specifications contain so much variance, I did the above in formal Dactylic tetramter, and the following in the indicated 11/10/11/7 format.
Neither are exactly the pattern used by the creator's famous poem.



 Our Genesis   (Romantic Stanza - 11/10/11/7 Version)

Clustering, combining dust aggregating
assembling Hydrogen just as it must.
Assembling atoms, Helium's a-making,
Clustering, combining dust.

Billions of our years gone by with life absent.
Galaxies born, made from stars as they die.
Pressures of their dying create content .
Billions of our years gone by.

Busting outward from that blast, all elements
required for biologic life at last.
All living things sprung from stars' final events,
bursting outward from that blast. 


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