Ch'I Yen Shih

Ch'i-Yen-Shih metre

This is, believe it or not, a Chinese verse form. Whether it's worth doing in English is debatable. Stanzas have four lines of seven syllables each, with lines 2 and 4 rhyming. Each line has a caesura, or break, after the fourth syllable; I have laid the example out to emphasise this. That's all there is to it, really, except that, to make it sound a little more Chinese, only words of one syllable should be used. 

Fenland

Long straight black road

far from home.

The moon hangs snagged

in the trees.

Foot down, I speed

through the night.

Rain falls in sheets,

starts to freeze.

The cats eyes pulse

like Morse code.

Far sparks speed close,

blaze then fade.

For hours on end

there’s no change:

Road, light, rain, wind,

screen and blade.

I’m tired and cold,

on my own.

How much of this

can I take?

I grit my teeth,

try to guess

How long I’ll last

till I brake.

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

Thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful Volecentral resource site

Ancient Verse is probably the same verse form as Ch'I Yen Shih from the Lu Shi code verse. Ancient Verse is found desribed in John Drury's poe-try-dic-tion-ar-y and is similar to Ch'I Yen Shi, with slight variation. As described by Drury, caesura was not specified and more latitude was given in the character count. This is probably an example of how form evolves or is corrupted by translation. For now I will treat this verse form as separate.

(Drury uses "syllable count") Technically in Chinese prosody, character count and syllable count are one in the same since Chinese characters are one word and Chinese words are usually one syllable. However in English translation, a character could represent a 2 or 3 syllable English word. I use "character" in most of my metric descriptions of Chinese verse and often count words rather than syllables when attempting to write poems using Chinese verse forms in English. However, since Drury's book describes the meter for this form as syllabic, I follow his lead.

Ancient Verse is:

• stanzaic, written in quatrains.
• syllabic, 5 to 7 syllable lines.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme either xaxa xaxa etc or xaxa xbxb etc.
• no fixed tone pattern.
• always composed with parallels and balance.
  
  pyramid by Judi Van Gorder
  
  fresh dug dirt makes space and waits
  rich earth forms a pyramid
  to welcome polished pine box
  with white roses on the lid

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/633-ancient-verse/>

Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for her wonderful PMO resource site.

My example poem

Surveillance       (Ch'I Yen Shih)

My house has eyes in the dark

Big dogs see but first they smell.

I don't switch them - off or on

still they serve as my door bell.

© Lawrencealot - April 9, 2014

Visual Template

Short Measure

Meter: Iambic trimeter, EXCEPT line three which is iambic tetrameter

Rhymed: xaxa xbxb ...

Short Measure or Short Meter, is:

• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains. When written in octaves doubling the short measure quatrains, the verse form is called Double Short Measure.
• metered, most often L1, L2, L4 iambic trimeter, L3 is iambic tetrameter.
• rhymed, Rhyme scheme xaxa xbxb etc x being unrhymed.
• called Poulter's Measure when consolidated into 2 lines.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=660> 

My thanks to Judi Gorder for creating the wonderful resource above.

Example Poem

Audition      (Short Measure)

The teacher greeted her,

the girl with hair in bun.

She wrote his lectures in a book,

as though his words were fun.

At work she did her job,

and filled the bosses cup.

Her brightness and congenial help

seemed never to let up.

In church she sat with legs

so primly crossed, and hands

reclining folded in her lap,

decorum church demands.

With me she is alive

and dresses to entice.

She shows some cleavage and some thigh,

the both of which are nice.

I'm looking seriously.

and want not just a tart.

her looks had hooked and reeled me in,

her mind got her the part.

   © Lawrencealot - January  6, 2013

Visual Template

Ballad

 A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends.

They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.

Example Poem

Part of a composite poem called
Loves Lost


When cancer took my mom away
I wished it had been me.
Yet Johnnie's pain was just the same,
that anyone could see.

I took the emo route and thought
I'd maybe end my life.
Then Johnny took up guiding reins
no longer held by wife.

He brought me back from self-abuse
and stopped me being wild.
He gave me strength and sound advice
a mother gives her child.

He told me my virginity
was not for common guys;
it was a one-time gift to give
to true love as a prize.

"To honor your mom, succeed now
and in your coming life."
He cared for me relentlessly
while having now no wife.

My love for Jonny, grew with me,
(for I'd begun to bloom.)
I fantasized about my  "dad"
when lonely in my room.

He was a "hunk" my girl-friends thought.
I'd always shared that view.
Two hundred pounds of sculptured male
and standing six-foot-two.

My want was such I had to touch
his beauty every day.
I'd accidently show down blouse
and make my cute butt sway.

And when I'd sit upon his lap
before "goodnights" were said,
I'd feel him grow and I would know,
what he would do in bed.

Then one warm summer day instead
of sitting I just rode
his leg.  It was spontaneous
and caused me to explode.

His want was clear, but one lone tear
I saw roll down his face.
He thought accepting offered gift
would be his life's disgrace.

We talked and hugged and he held
me closely while he said,
"My sweetheart Ann, when you're eight-teen
I think that we should wed.

© Lawrencealot - November 10, 2012

Rionnaird tri-nard (RUN-ard tree-nard)

Rionnaird tri-nard (RUN-ard tree-nard), traditional Irish quatrain 

form with 6-syllable lines ending in 2-syllable words, 

L2 and L4 riming and L3 in consonance thereto (meaning in this case, 

I gather, vowel-agreement rather than consonant-agreement, 

having at one time meant the same thing as assonance), 

alliteration in every line (ideally between the end-word and the 

preceding stressed word), two cross-rimes in the 2nd couplet,

and the 1st stressed word of L2 alliterating with the last syllable of L1.

 Being Irish, it requires the dunedh, to end where it began 

(first word, phrase, or line repeated in closing). 

Example Poem

Promise

Inviting just by sight,

almost tinsel trapping,

stilletoed toes tripping,

in her sheer hose wrapping.

She's surely sensuous;

Suggests sex is waiting,

waits while will is wilting.

Still fates are Inviting.

(c) Lawrencealot - May 17, 2012

Visual Template

I see here now that I have failed, if indeed every line

is to end in two-syllable words.  Ah well, close.

Séadna

Séadna is:
1. written in any number of quatrains.
2. syllabic 8-7-8-7.
3. written with L1 and L3, 2 syllable end words; L2 and L4, 1 syllable end words.
4. rhymed. L2 and L4 end rhyme, L3 rhymes with the stressed word preceding the final word of L4. There are two aicill-rhymes in the second couplet.
5. composed with alliteration in each line, the final word of L4 alliterating with the preceding stressed word. The final syllable of L1 alliterates with the first stressed word of L2.
   
   x x x x x x (x a)
   x a x x x x b
   x x x b x x (x c)
   x b x c x x b


Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1168>




Séadna (shay'-na):
A quatrain stanza of alternating octosyllabic lines with disyllabic endings and heptasyllabic lines with monosyllabic endings. Lines two and four rhyme, line three rhymes with the stressed word preceding the final word of line four. There are two cross-rhymes in the second couplet. There is alliteration in each line, the final word of line four alliterating with the preceding stressed word. The final syllable of line one alliterates with the first stressed word of line two.


B x x x x x (x a)
x x x x x x b
x x x x c x (x c)
x b x c x x B


Caring for the watercolor
I find you looking at me there
Blush to white palor, dim valor,
Thus, where its blue core had found care.


Kathy Anderson




Pasted from <http://www.thepoetsgarret.com/celtic1.html#sea>


Example poem


Fight on Poet


Fight on against fear of failure;
cure your weary will and fright.
Pursue dreams; ignore cause killing
themes, write-- winning thrilling fight.


(c) Lawrencealot - July 4, 2012


Visual Aid





  
This is my 2nd attempt to write specs for this form.  It is without a doubt the most demanding poetry form I have encountered.  Since it is not possible to make a template that is much more than the equivalent of house plans on a napkin, handed to an architect...I have included the check list I referred to repeatedly while writing this one verse poem.
Besides being overly challenged for a long while; I chose a one verse poem so I could demo the Line 4 2nd word rhyme, and the first-last unity.
Enjoy...this form will help fight off dementia.