Pentibrach

It is so named because of the unique metric foot proposed by

its creator Glenn Meisenheimer, known on Allpoetry as gmcookie.

He proposed a five syllable metric foot with only the center syllable being accented.  Because of its resemblance to an amphibrach with

And unaccented syllable affixed to each end, I named this the pentibrach.   If scholars find a precedent we will of course bow to an established usage.

The poem is stanzaic, consisting of at least two quatrains.

It is syllabic: 10/9/10/7

It uses external rhyme, rhyming the last line of each stanza. (xxxa)

I realize there are alternative options to provide a metric schema, but I shall use the authors own presentation, and define here the metric feet to be used:

The pentibrach:             da da DUM da da

The secundus paeon:    da DUM da da

The iamb:                        da DUM

Each stanza is formed thus:

L1 & L3      two pentibrach feet

L2               a pentibrach followed by a secundus paeon

L4               a pentibrach followed by an iamb   

The author's original poem.

Kandahar

As the shadows fall and the daylight fades

And the owl flirts with the whippoorwill,

In that twilight time when the nightingale

Sings his love songs to the stars,

You will find me here in the umbral dark

As I wend through trees and monuments,

In the gloaming dusk when the sunlight fades

And when Jupiter joins Mars.

It is only then, from this cursed ground,

There is strength in my soliloquy,

As I raise my voice on the evening breeze

And I sing my ghost-thin bars.

It's an ancient tune yet a timely one

Of a sailor washed ashore near here

Who was buried deep in this Christian soil

Far away from Kandahar.

My Attempt at one:

Entranced     (Pentibrach)

As she stretched her arms to the morning's dim

and her curvature delighted me

 I assumed that I'm just a blessed guy

who was honored here by chance.

The is nothing that would predict that I

should be met on earth by goddesses

or be catered to by the likes of her. 

Don't awake me from this trance.

© Lawrencealot - February 15, 2014

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