Poetry Stuff, questions and other things poetry

[lelumarie]

We have favorite this or that--
but we don't have a place just to chat about poetry or ask questions pertaining to it.


Do that here.

[lelumarie]

I found this term today. Has anyone tried it before? I would like to--I like trying different classic poetry structures but in a modern way... like a sestina (it was pretty hard!) Anyway...

rondeau (RON-do) noun
A poem of 13 lines with two rhymes and the opening words used as a refrain in two places.

[Jujube]

So that would be in abab format, or what? Whatever the case, it sounds challenging. I once wrote a twelve-verse poem where every stanza ended with the word 'sea'. How many (relavant) things rhyme with sea?

Is this post even relevant?

Meh, I don't know. I need some sleep. Goodnight!

[lelumarie]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondeau_(poetry)


A link! I have solved the mystery!

(I am just going to start going to the wiki first!) )

[lelumarie]

I discovered the other day a sestina by Ezra Pound... (I didn't know he did that style of poetry)...
It was pretty neat.

I had to write one once and it turned out pretty well for as difficult as it was... but it didn't have the interconnections that so many others seem to be able to do...

At least it was fun?
I am considering trying again for kicks... but sometimes the thought of structure deters me--I am mostly a free-form type of girl.


Has anyone else tried a sestina?
If so, did you find it easy?
If easy, did the poem stink?


Just curious.

[hariv]

...i had to look sestina up...

it looks terribly neat, except that my brain is slushy...

i haven't tried it, but i think i'd like to, once i find out exactly how to do it. lol.

[lelumarie]

It is almost mathmatical, b/c you have to plan out the pattern at the end of the lines...

Maybe it will help to see it? idk I am going to post this as a reply, but also as me talking to myself about it. hehe
Notes: In the one below, Pound chose to leave out 2 words in the end stanza, and switch 2 lines in the pattern for stanza 4... (He also opened it w/ a quote)

Sestina: Altaforte
by Ezra Pound

LOQUITUR: En Bertans de Born. Dante Alighieri put this man in hell
for that he was a stirrer up of strife. Eccovi! Judge ye! Have I dug
him up again? The scene is at his castle, Altaforte. "Papiols" is his
jongleur.
"The Leopard," the device of Richard (Coeur de Lion).

I

Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.

II

In hot summer I have great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightning from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.

III

Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breat opposing!
Better one hour's stour than a year's peace
With fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!
Bah! there's no wine like the blood's crimson!

IV

And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.
And I watch his spears through the dark clash
And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music
When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His long might 'gainst all darkness opposing.

V

The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth's won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.

VI

Papiols, Papiols, to the music!
There's no sound like to swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our charges 'gainst "The Leopard's" rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry "Peace!"

VII

And let the music of the swords make them crimson!
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
Hell blot black for always the thought "Peace!"

Pound's stanza/line scheme:
123456
615243
364125
536214*
451362
246531

Real pattern:
123456
615243
364125
532614
451362
246531

Quick summary: Each stanza repeats the end words in the order 615243 (after the inital stanza.) Tercet (the last 3 line stanza) varies.

[hariv]

mmm, i'm intrigued. i will try it this week, & see how bad it makes my brain hurt. lol!

[hariv]

i'm trying out the sestina thing. it is hard, but hypnotic in a way. so far, i've worked out 3 of the 6 sextets. i'm using it as a quasi-procrastination tool during november.

anyone else give it a go?

[lelumarie]

I am gathering an actual subject and choosing my words before I do one...

This is just because the last time I tried one, it was easy, but not that meaningful/kinda silly...

[hariv]

*clears throat* here goes... (i think the final tercet was the hardest part. does it really have to still follow the pattern of 6,1; 5,2; 4,3?)

your eyes, they are the source
your lips that call in silence
your face, a thousand birds fall to earth
never more to fly beyond the blue
without the motivation of your perfect lines
that haunt my mind, my waking thoughts

and even sleeping, my thoughts
reflect you, my need, your source
the answer to my fall, the saving lines
keeping me from the everlasting silence
of death. rocking me into the blue
a mother's embrace warm as the earth

and strong, a tree rooted in the earth
and wise, ever guarding your thoughts
behind those screens of bluest blue
your eyes, i would merge our sources
our selves, yours and mine to silence
that precludes our tangled lines

if you consider my lines
as something favorable, a bit of fragrant earth
yours to work in silence
would you share your thoughts
with me, and let me delve into the source
beneath this coverlet of blue?

the wind that sang and blew
across the power lines
and caught the spark from the fiery source
below, the fire born of earth
also drove my thoughts
to you and kept me deep in silence

before your silence
that you keep with me, and i am blue
with not breathing lest even that disturb the thoughts
that you guard within the lines
of your heart, your quietude which is like the earth
that deepest most mysterious source

you, my source, your silence
erodes my flesh, the earth beneath your clear blue
sky, etches lines in my heart and corrodes my thoughts.

[miss_elisha]

Oh, hariv, well done.

[erinanne]

oh, wow.

That was excellent. Thank you for sharing it with us.

[hariv]

*blushes* thanks y'all!

[fabi60]

I guess this isn't really a question, but I was just going to say something about me needing to have this drilled into my head:

Poems do not have to rhyme or have any meter.

When I was little, I would write poems all the time, and I had a friend who was a few years older than me, and even though my mom told me that poems don't have to rhyme, my friend had it in her head that they did, and on my poems, she made me add at least two lines that rhymed with each other. And somehow it got into my head, and I can't get it out! I have to remember that poems are for expressing feeling, not rhyming or having any meter. Though it's fine if they do.