Dansa

Dansa

The dansa is an Occitan verse form i.e. it's from the troubadour territory of southern France. All the verses except the first are the same: they rhyme aabb with the last line a repeated refrain. The first verse has five lines, and consists of the refrain followed by four lines similar to all the other verses. No particular metre is essential, but Skelton says six-syllable lines are common in Occitan verse, so that's what I used.

A Load of Rot

Mulching is the future!

Let those clippings lie there,

Proving how much you care.

For lawns needing nurture,

Mulching is the future.

Don’t clear up that cut grass!

Lie down; let the urge pass.

Be at one with nature -

Mulching is the future.

You need no-one’s pardon;

This is your own garden.

For your private pasture,

Mulching is the future.

Your leisure is well-earned.

Relax; don’t be concerned.

Look, see the big picture:

Mulching is the future.

What you leave will decay.

It will provide one day

Nutrients and moisture.

Mulching is the future.

Don’t get up; better far

To stay right where you are.

As with any creature,

Mulching is your future.

I saw a lawnmower on sale with the slogan "Mulching is the future". I found it a catchy slogan but a depressing thought. Still, there had to be a poem in it... It was just a question of finding a suitable verse form. I think the dansa was a fair choice.

I cheated slightly by altering one word in the final repetition of the refrain.  Poetic licence.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/dansa.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem-

Since Bob used a slogan, I did too.

Intrigue     (Dansa)

Does she? Or doesn't she?

If you but only knew.

Instead you have no clue.

So what is it to be?

Does she? Or doesn't she?

A guy, you can just ask,

it's such a simple task

It can't sound like a plea,

Does she? Or doesn't she?

Why should you really care

what color is her hair.

But when it comes to me,

Does she? Or doesn't she?

© Lawrencealot - April 12, 2014

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Deibide Baise Fri Toin

Deibide Baise Fri Toin

A similar name, but not much in common with the common-or-garden deibide, apart from being Irish. I don't know how to pronounce this one, or the literal meaning of its name, but here's what the verse form looks like:

Against Vegetation

Move! Without

doubt it helps to get about.

Except for triffids, a plant

can’t.

Poor daisies!

In peril as cow grazes,

prospects of survival not

hot.

Such fodder

can't flee even a plodder;

inferior to the least

beast.

No better,

the shiftless non-go-getter,

potato sat on a couch.

Ouch!

The syllable count is 3, 7, 7, 1 and it rhymes aabb. It is essential to the form that the a rhymes have two syllables, and the b rhymes have one syllable. There are a fair number of Irish forms - some of them with longer and more unpronounceable names - and most of them stipulate the type of rhyme as precisely as this.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/deibhidhe.htm>

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem

Wet Cats     (Deibide Baise Fri Toin)

Don't worry

although they're sometimes furry

it's okay to get a pet

wet.

Don't insist

on fresh fish they can't resist;

cats can convert once they've tried

fried.

I'm inclined

to think cats are not refined,

but just aloof. I don't know

though.

© Lawrencealot - April 11, 2014

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Deibhidhe

Deibhidhe

The deibhidhe is an Irish form. In English it is more often spelt deibide, but you still have to pronounce it jayvee. (The Irish language uses a lot of unlikely-looking clusters of consonants, and most of them seem to be either pronounced as "v" or not pronounced at all. Exercise: pronounce the name of the poet Medbh McGuckian.) 

Here's a deibhidhe about the time I spent working in the oil industry: 

No, Watercolour...

Of a subject dire I sing:

Reservoir Engineering

I could never understand -

A queer and quaggy quicksand!

I was sent away to learn

About it in climes northern,

But while at Herriot-Watt

My zeal did not run riot.

All the years I worked in oil,

My conscience was in turmoil.

I floundered through the fog

Like a bogged-down wan warthog.

My colleagues would make a fuss.

Those strata - were they porous?

It bothered me not a whit

How the drill bit grey granite.

The mysteries of the rock

Made me feel like a pillock.

Underground movements of gas

Alas, my mind can’t compass.

I don’t work there any more,

Redundancy my saviour.

Not a tragedy at all -

A small but welcome windfall!

There was a TV advert for an airline some years ago which featured the following exchange between two passengers on a flight to Aberdeen. Large outgoing American: "D'you work in oil?" Weedy-looking bespectacled Brit: "No, watercolour." Hence the title. Herriot-Watt University is situated near Edinburgh and offers week-long courses on such arcane subjects as Reservoir Engineering, cleverly sugaring the pill by making them coincide with the Edinburgh Festival. 

As for the form, each stanza has 4 lines of 7 syllables each, rhyming aabb, and both of these rhymes are deibide rhymes i.e. in the first line of each rhyming pair, the rhyming syllable is stressed, and in the second it is unstressed.

The form also demands an aicill rhyme between lines 3 and 4 i.e. the word at the end of line 3 rhymes with a word somewhere in the middle of line 4 (as whit/bit, gas/alas above). 

Finally, there must be alliteration between the last word of each stanza and the preceding stressed word (as quaggy quicksand, welcome windfall above).

This amounts to a lot of constraints for the fourth line to satisfy in the space of only 7 syllables. I found this form a tough one, except when writing the last stanza. Perhaps I was getting into the swing of it by then.

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site.

My example poem

Night Nymph     (Deibhidhe)

I was mesmerized, entranced

when she stood in the entrance.

Just one glance at her'd confur

instantly a pure pleasure

The nymph caused my heart to sing

and set my nerves to dancing

I viewed her in near undress

and dreamed she'd be my mistress.

But it was not meant to be,

this maiden oh so pretty.

for she was gone with the sun

a nighttime visit vision.

© Lawrencealot - April 10, 2014

art by Herbert James Draper [d. 1920]

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Redondilla

NOTE:I have included the definition from two different sources here.  The first specifies the minimum number of quatrains, the 2nd does not.

The 2nd requires that the meter be TROCHAIC, the first is indifferent.

Well, boys and girls - indifferent wins.  I spent some time on 5 different sites and found NOT ONE trochaic poem in English, and several that did not have FOUR STANZAS.

This is simply a poem consisting of four quatrains in tetrameter, preferably iambic  or trochaic.  The rhyme scheme can be aabb, abab, or abcb.  (Although some sources will advise otherwise, syllable count is secondary to rhythmic flow.)

redondilla, a Spanish stanza form consisting of four trochaic lines, 

usually of eight syllables each, with a rhyme scheme of abba. 

Quatrains in this form with a rhyme scheme of abab, 

sometimes also called redondillas, are more commonly known as serventesios. 

Redondillas have been common in Castilian poetry since the 16th century. 

The word is derived from the Spanish redondo, meaning “round.”

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494744/redondilla

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Chatushka

A Russian Quatrain form. The name derives from the Russian meaning \''to speak fast\''. Covering subject that range across the whole human experience and written in a manner that is usually satirical, ironic or humourous this is the Russian equivalent to theLimerick.

Form Type:           Metrical

Origins:                 Russian

Creator:                Unknown

Number of Lines:  4

Rhyme Scheme:  a,b,a,b or a,b,c,b or a,a,b,b

Meter:                   Trochaic Tetrameter

Rules

1. The form is composed of a single quatrain, though often they are placed together with others in a string, in either case each quatrain is a complete self contained unit.

2. The most common rhyme scheme is a,b,a,b though a,b,c,b is also fairly common. The a,a,b,b rhyme scheme is fairly rare.

3. The form is written using trochaic tetrameter. Though it is common to use catalectic final feet in a line giving a strongly stressed ending.

4. Content wise Chastushkas cover all subjects, though the style is usually satirical, ironic or humourous, tending towards lewd,

5. Traditionally they are recited to music, if they are in a string then there is a musical interlude between them to give the audience time to laugh.

6. Often they are composed on the spur of the moment and used in contests, such Chastushka are highly prized.

Pasted from <http://bensonofjohn.co.uk/poetry/formssearch.php?searchbox=Chastushka> 

Get Back Chicken

Chicken, get back; don’t peck me

For the cleaver in my hand

Just think, could be, soon chopping thee.

Dinner captured, cleaned and panned.

© February 16, 2012

Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen

Written for Poetry Soup Member Contest: Chastushka Form-Russian Poetry 

Example Poems

Three Chastushkas

Mabel's clothing at their feet

under chairs and kitchen table.

Freddy focused not on neat,

Freddy merely wanted Mabel.

Scribbled thoughts upon a napkin

Serve as plans of grand intention.

Dreams without an active effort

freeze in idle cold suspension.

Anxious Arabs show misgiving

watching western people living.

letting females speak their voices

countermanding masters choices. 

© Lawrencealot -  January 23, 2013

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Actually not one of each, I omitted abab!

Clerihew

A clerihew is a whimsical, four-line biographical poem invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, at age 16.

A clerihew has the following properties:

• It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it pokes fun at mostly famous people
• It has four lines of irregular length and metre (for comic effect)
• The rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme, including the use of phrases in Latin, French and other non-English Languages[2]
• The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the subject's name.

Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous individuals and reposition them in an absurd, anachronistic or commonplace setting, often giving them an over-simplified and slightly garbled description (similar to the schoolboy style of 1066 and All That)

The unbalanced and unpolished poetic meter and line length parody the limerick, and the clerihew in form also parodies the eulogy.

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerihew>

Note:  I have found that many what have been presented as Clerihew  have not been

rigorous about the first line name-rhyming.  Indeed I have not.  I have also tended

to use a fixed meter.  They can be fun, but we must remind ourselves they are not

formally Clerihew and should be labeled accordingly when attempting a rigorous interpretation.

Example Poems

Bruce  (Clerihew)

Bruce Willis continues alive, 

Now showing Die Hard number five. 

I'm a Bruce Willis junky, sure. 

He is my Schwarzenegger cure. 

Arnie    (Clerihew)

If Schwarzenegger tries once more 

his movie ceiling's near the floor. 

A machine using Arnie's voice 

looks to be a desparate choice. 

© Lawrencealot - October 21, 2012

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Note:  there can be no definitive template for this form for meter and

line length are irregular.  This is merely one example.

Intermirroral

This is a form invented by Mark Andrew J Terry
These are the requirements of this form:
Rhyme Pattern: aabb 
Meter: None specified.
Couplet One:
Every word in the first line should rhyme with the corresponding word in line 2
Except for one word; those words must have contrary meanings, but same syllable count.

It can be expanded as far as you wish.
These are the requirements for a Sestet:
Rhyme Pattern: aabbcc

Meter: None specified.
Couplet One and Two:
Every word in the first line should rhyme with the corresponding word in line 2
Except for one word; those words must have contrary meanings, but same syllable count
Couplet Three:
Ends with mirrored rhyme, but also has internal rhyme


Example Poem

Party Time

Alluring tart proffering wile.
Demurring lass deferring guile.

Bewitching twit assures relief.
Enriching wit insures belief.

No way to stay the party game.
I'll try to buy the hearty dame.

© Lawrencealot - May 27, 2012

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Redondilla

NOTE:I have included the definition from two different sources here.  The first specifies the minimum number of quatrains, the 2nd does not.

The 2nd requires that the meter be TROCHAIC, the first is indifferent.

Well, boys and girls - indifferent wins.  I spent some time on 5 different sites and found NOT ONE trochaic poem in English, and several that did not have FOUR STANZAS.

This is simply a poem consisting of four quatrains in tetrameter, preferably iambic  or trochaic.  The rhyme scheme can be aabb, abab, or abcb.  (Although some sources will advise otherwise, syllable count is secondary to rhythmic flow.) Most descriptions do not mention meter.  I have found in the English language most use Iambic and any rhyme scheme, even mixing them.  (An insult, in my way of thinking.)

redondilla, a Spanish stanza form consisting of four trochaic lines, 

usually of eight syllables each, with a rhyme scheme of abba. 

Quatrains in this form with a rhyme scheme of abab, 

sometimes also called redondillas, are more commonly known as serventesios. 

Redondillas have been common in Castilian poetry since the 16th century. 

The word is derived from the Spanish redondo, meaning “round.”

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494744/redondilla

Example Poem

Tropical Storm (A Redondilla or a Serventesio )

Surging currents falling rain 

cloudy grey and gasping sky. 

Seabirds leaving, wonder why. 

Season of the hurricane. 

Board your windows stock your shelves 

Candles, girlfriend, water, food, 

Stranded people making feel good. 

Living, loving, by ourselves. 

"Mom and pop are coming too??"

"Having to evacuate!" 

"Gosh and gee that's really great."

"Your folks too? Least we could do. "

Moms crochet by candle light, 

dads play cards and guzzle beer. 

You and I with bed in here 

writing poems day and night. 

  (c) Lawrencealot - July 24, 2012

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