Cyrch a Chwta

Cyrch a Chwta

Type:	Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:	(kirch a choota) An octave of seven-syllable lines rhymed aaaaaaba with cross-rhyme of b in the third, fourth, or fifth syllable of line 8.
Origin:	Welsh
Schematic:	Rhyme: aaaaaaba Meter: xxxxxxx xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxa xxxxxxb xxbxxxa or xxxbxxa or xxxxbxa
Rhythm/Stanza Length:	8

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/69.shtml>

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.

Example Poem

My Tree     (Cyrch a Chwta)

My dad went to war, but he

took time first to plant a tree

when I was a baby, wee.

Dad never came back to me,

he perished when I was three.

I learned of him at mom's knee

That tree gave shade, let me swing.

That's something dad knew would be.

© Lawrencealot - April 24, 2014

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Bref Double

Bref Double

Type:	Structure, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description:	A fourteen-line French form. Like many French forms, the rules are a bit complex. It is composed of three quatrains and a couplet, all isosyllabic. It has three rhymes: a, b, and c. It has five lines that are not part of the rhyme scheme. The c rhyme ends each quatrain. The a and b rhymes are found twice each somewhere within the three quatrains and once in the couplet.
Impressions:	Have fun; it's French.
Origin:	French
Schematic:	Some sample rhyme schemes would be: abxc abxc xxxc ab, xaxc xbxc xbac ba, xabc xaxc xbxc ab, etc.
Rhythm/Stanza Length:	4
Line/Poem Length:	14

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/25.shtml>

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his fine Poetrybase resource.

My example poem

A Merchant Mariner     (Bref Double)

A soliloquy mumbled while aboard a ship

addressed issues encountered by conscripted men:

the comforts found in surroundings I'd known, no thoughts

of danger real or imagined- not everyday.

With thoughts of carnality, adventure, hardship,

rewards of sharing bounty, succeeding and then

returning home after I've traveled, unraveled

the wonderful mystr'ies that might hold me in sway.

The captain, querulous, demands most constant yield

from every man. The old first  mate so hates the king

he wrings more than mere duty from men on his watch.

The nation we're helping will repay us some day.

I came home a hero. It was quite a long trip.

But now that those days are passed, I'd do it again.

© Lawrencealot - April 18, 2014

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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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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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Sonnetina Rispetto

Sonnetina Rispetto

The "Sonnetina Rispetto" is a new poetry form 

created by Dorian Petersen Potter 

on September 8,2009. 

This form has 14 lines with 8 syllables each. 

It can be written in 3 quatrain stanzas and a couplet or 

with an Octave(8) and a Sestet(6) lines. 

The rhyme scheme is as follows: A1,A2,B1,c,c,B2,A1,A2,d,d,B1,B2,A1,A2. 

The capitals A1,A2,B1 and B2...stands for the refrain lines in the poem.

Pasted from <http://the.a.b.c.of.poetry.styles.patthepoet.com/OtoS.html>

Specifications restated:

Stanzaic:  Either 4 quatrains and a couplet or a sestet and an octaveI

Isosyllabic:  Eight syllable per line

Repetitive: requires two refrain lines, each repeated twice.

Rhyme pattern: A1,A2,B1,c,c,B2,A1,A2,d,d,B1,B2,A1,A2.

My example poem

My Reservoir Is Now Pints Shy     (Sonnetia Rispetto)

A challenge once was put to me

to drink six beers and not to pee.

When young I won that careless bet

Six bottles I would quickly scarf,

then merely belch and never barf,

but how I did it I forget.

A challenge once was put to me

to drink six beers and not to pee.

My bladder then could wait and wait

and bow not to an old prostate.

When young I won that careless bet

but how I did it I forget.

A challenge once was put to me

to drink six beers and not to pee.

© Lawrencealot - March 18, 2014

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The Anacreontic Ode

The Ode / Greek PoetryThe Anacreontic Ode is proof that an ode need not be long and lofty. The Greek poet Anacreon often wrote odes in praise of pleasure and drink, a Dithyramb or Skolion. Often the odes were made up of 7 syllable, rhymed couplets known as Anacreontic couplets. Some of Anacreon's poems were paraphrased by English poet Abraham Cowley in 1656 in which he attempted to emulate Greek meter. The main concern of several 17th century poets was that the poem avoid "piety" by "Christian" poets who would tame the spirit and make the form worthless. Although the Anacreontic Ode has been defined as a series of Anacreontic couplets, Richard Lovelace's The Grasshopper is thought to be a translation of an Ode by Anacreon, it does fit the subject matter but the translation is written in iambic pentameter quatrains with alternating rhyme.

 The Anacreontic couplet is named for the ancient Greek poet Anacreon who tended to write short lyrical poems celebrating love and wine, a genre known as Dithyramb. By 1700 English poet John Phillips defined the form to be written in 7 syllable rhyming couplets.

The Anacreontic couplet is:

• stanzaic, written in any number of couplets,
• preferably short. The Anacreontic Ode is often made up of a series of Anacreontic couplets.
• syllabic, 7 syllables for each line.
• rhymed. aa bb etc.
• composed to celebrate the joys of drinking and love making. Some Anacreontic verse tends toward the erotic or bawdy.
  

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2219#couplet>

My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO site.  It is a wonderful resource.

My try at this form:

Elbow Tango    (Anacreontic Ode)

Come and share with me a brew,

or better yet more than two.

Drink in smiles before you go

exercising your elbow.

We can sit on stool or bench,

drink and flirt with serving wench

with fine limbs and rounded ass-

her charms grow with every glass.

Likely, we'll go home alone

but fine memories we'll own.

© Lawrencealot - March 3, 2014

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Tanaga

Thanks to Judi Van Groder for the wonderful resource at PMO.

• The Tanaga is a Filipino stanzaic form that was originally written in Tagolog which to my ear is one of the more musical of languages. (Kumusta ka? Mabuti salam at) The form dates back to the 16th century and has an oral tradition. The poems are not titled. Each is emotionally charged and asks a question that begs an anwer. This form was found at Kaleidoscope.
  
  The Tanaga is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
• syllabic, 7-7-7-7 syllables per line.
• rhymed, originally aaaa bbbb cccc etc., modern Tanagas also use aabb ccdd etc or abba cddc etc or any combination rhyme can be used.
• composed with the liberal use of metaphor.
• untitled.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2191>

My Example Poem

    (Tanaga)

Casually boys contemplate,

Carefully they cogitate,

what will they appreciate

when they're searching for a mate?

Will she need to cook and sew?

I suspect the answer's no.

Will she need to use a wrench,

or speak Mandarin or French?

Need she work with quilting thread,

or perform with brush or pen?

I think I'll say no again-

if she pleases him in bed.

© Lawrencealot - March 3, 2014

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Note: For example only I used one of each rhyme pattern here.

Awit

The Awit is a Filipino poetry form explained below by Judi Van Gorder

On her wonderful PMO resource site:

• Awit literally means song. This stanzaic form seems very similar to the Tanaga. It is unique in that a stanza should be one complete, grammatically correct, sentence.
  
  The Awit is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
• a narrative, it tells a story.
• dodecasyllabic, 12 syllables per line, there is usually a pause after the 6th syllable.
• rhymed, each stanza mono-rhymed aaaa bbbb cccc etc.
• composed with each stanza representing a complete, grammatically correct, sentence.
• composed liberally using various figures of speech.
• written anonymously.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2191>

My example of a single stanza poem

The Climb     (Awit)

I started up the hills, intending on that day

to climb like deer to plateaus where the rocks gave way

to grasses lush and green, above where wild hawks play,

and ended up on top- above all human fray.

© Lawrencealot - March 3, 2014

Rustavelian Quatrain or Shairi

Shairi, or Rustavelian Quatrain

Shota Rustaveli wroteThe Knight in the Panther's Skin, Georgia's national epic, towards the end of the twelfth century. It tells of a young prince helping to find a friend's beloved, who has been captured by devils. Rustaveli used a particularly difficult form for it, known by the Georgian word shairi. 

The recommended rules for English-language shairi are: 4-line stanzas, with all four lines rhyming with one another. The lines are unusually long, having 15 or 16 syllables, and all the rhymes are of either two or three syllables.  

Note for purists

In Georgia, each line of a shairi has exactly 16 syllables, and they recognise two varieties of the form. In a magali (high) shairi stanza the syllables divide 4/4//4/4 (in each of the four lines), whereas in a dabali (low) shairi they divide 5/3//5/3. InThe Knight in the Panther's Skin (or Vepkhis Tqaosani, if you prefer), Rustaveli alternated magali and dabali stanzas for the entire length of the poem - no fewer than 1576 stanzas. 

© Bob Newman 2004, 2005. All rights reserved.

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

 Example Poem

 Redirected Feelings     (Rustavelian Quatrain)

She faced each day with deep desires- that seemed to her distressing.

Her husband's morally correct, and counts his wife a blessing 

and's careful to avoid an act that might call for confessing, 

and sadly that means he won't watch his pretty wife undressing. 

His attitude left her in doubt that her looks were appealing. 

So secretly she bought some clothes- the kind that are revealing, 

then once each week would flash to men the charms she'd been concealing. 

To watch men stare at cleavage bare, aroused in her warm feelings. 

She soon could not deny the rush- the moist and warm sensation- 

so weekly outings multiplied; then there was escalation. 

Her exhibition soon became a road to fun flirtation,

a road she knew was but a path, a path to her damnation. 

She told herself, "This path is wrong! I'll stop, what I'm inviting. 

I'll find a hobby stay at home although that's less exciting." 

She switched her gears, and it appears, more people she's delighting, 

She's famous now, and satisfied with her erotic writing.

©Lawrencealot - February 28, 2014

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Double Seven

This interesting form was created by Lisa La Grange of Allpoetry.

It is stanzaic, consisting of any number of quatrains.

Each quatrain will have its own abab rhyme pattern,

Where the a-rhymes will always be feminine.

It is isosyllabic, each line being seven syllable.

It is metric, each line having two metric feet, the first foot being four syllables, and the second foot being three syllables.

The a-rhyme lines consist of a secundus paeon + an amphibrach: da DUM da da / da DUM da

The b-rhyme lines consist of a tertius paeon + an anapest

 da da DUM da / da da DUM

So the meter of a stanza is thus:

da DUM da da da DUM da

da da DUM da, da da DUM

da DUM da da da DUM da

da da DUM da da da DUM

Example Poem

Just-Married(Double Seven)

I wonder if the bridegroom

has accepted yet the fact

that access to the bathroom

will be science, inexact.

I she wants to go shopping

and he's planned a poker game,

I think that he'll be copping

friends a plea they'll know is lame.

But he may find his laundry

looks much better than before

and find there is no quandary

for it's him she does adore.

© Lawrencealot - February 24, 2014

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Where the red letters indicate lines with feminine rhyme.

Rimas Dissolutas

This was originally a French form

 The form is isosyllabic  (all lines have the same number of syllables)

There is no metric requirement

There is no line length requirement

There is no stanza length requirement

There is no rhyming permitted within a stanza

Each stanza must be like each other stanza

(same number of syllables, meter if any ,line length)

Line n in each stanza must rhyme with the same line in each other stanza. (External Rhyme)  

Other sources:**************************************************

The Rimas Dissolutas is a French troubadouric verse (12th-13th centuries) in which unrhymed stanzas rhyme line by line with all of the other stanzas. This was a departure from the strict rhyme schemes of the day. The rhyme is there but it is more subtle.

The Rimas Dissolutas is:

• stanzaic, written in any # of uniform length stanzas, all quatrains or all tercets or all sixains etc.
• in keeping with most old French forms the verse is syllabic. One site suggests it is isosyllabic meaning all lines have the same number syllables, number of syllables at the discretion of the poet.
• unrhymed lines within the stanza.
• rhymed lines between stanzas.
• sometimes written with an envoi which would be half the number of lines of the stanzas using the rhyme of the later lines of the stanzas.
  
  If the poem was written in sixains the rhyme would look like this:
  

Stanza 1 x x x x x a x x x x x b x x x x x c x x x x x d x x x x x e

Add'l Stanzas x x x x x a x x x x x b x x x x x c x x x x x d x x x x x e

Envoi... x x x x x c  x x x x x d

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=687>

Thanks to Ms.  Van Gorder for the find PMO resorce.

Rimas Dissolutas (Troubadouric song)

I was delighted to discover recently that this was recognised - in some quarters, anyway - as a standard form, and had a name. In rimas dissolutas, the stanzas are all similar, and all use the same rhymes. The first lines all rhyme with each other, the second lines all rhyme with each other, and so on. These are all external rhymes; there are no rhymes between lines in the same stanza. 

The blessed Malcovati calls this form the troubadouric song, giving it as the only member of a category of open forms he calls coblas unissonantis (a Provençal term which he assures us is in common use). It is normal, he tells us, for there to be an envoi, shorter than the other stanzas but rhyming with the latter part of them.

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

Thanks to Bob Newman for the Wonderful Resource Site.

Example Poem

Groceries    (Rimas  Dissolutas)

We touch and kiss and hold and hug,

and work to earn our daily bread.

Our foodstuff's ready in the store -

our meat our milk our wines our cake.

A small bird looking for a bug

about to be a meal instead

we breed to fatten, kill, and more

are we more proper than the snake?

© Lawrencealot - February 7, 2014

Picture credit: google images, rights belong to photographer.

Her is a visual template that just happened to choose

Iambic tetrameter quatrains.

Pathya vat

The Pathya Vat is a Cambodian verse form, consisting of four lines of four syllables each, where lines two and three rhyme. When a poem consists more than one stanza, the last line of the previous stanza rhymes with the second and third lines of the following one.

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

Example Poem

She Shops     (Pathya vat)

On shopping day

you disappear

and it's unclear

to me, just how.

"You go alone,

I can't stop now",

and anyhow

my team's behind.

I know your ways

so I declined

and you are kind

to let me stay.

Go find treasures,

(it takes all day-

I'll gladly pay)

just not to play.

© Lawrencealot - Februrary 5, 2014

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This is show in iambi dimeter

Double Refrain Kyrielle

Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Isosyllabic, Stanzaic
Description:
This is a kyrielle with two rhyming refrains in the second and fourth lines of each stanza. It has has octosyllabic lines.
Attributed to: “The Dread Poet Roberts”
Origin: French
Schematic:
aB1aB2 cB1cB2 dB1dB2 eB1eB2 fB1fB2, etc.
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 4

Copyright © 2001-2013 by Charles L. Weatherford. All rights reserved.
Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/96.shtml

My Thanks to Charles for his fine poetrybase resouce.


Example Poem

Hanging Around     (Double Refrain Kyrielle)

I'm getting used to hanging 'round;

I seem to have out-lived my friends

Some friends were shot and some were drowned

I'm hanging on until the end.

In youth we lived a rapid pace-

I seem to have out-lived my friends

Some died in war but with God's grace

I'm hanging on until the end.

Some friends led not such honest lives.

I seem to have out-lived my friends

They did not find themselves good wives.

I'm hanging on until the end.

Some thought that acquisitions won-

I seem to have out-lived my friends

they are all through but I'm not done.

I'm hanging on until the end.

© Lawrencealot - January 26, 2014

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