Malayan Fireburst

Malayan Fireburst

This is a sonnet form invented and named by Jose Rizal M. Reyes of the Philippines.

Unlike the Sonnets I have documented before which require feminine rhyme, this is the first, that requires “wrenched” rhyme, rhyming a feminine rhyme with a masculine rhyme. 

It is stanzaic, consisting of three quatrains and a couplet
It is written in iambic pentameter.
The rhyme scheme is: aaba bbcb ccdc dd, where the 3rd line in each quatrain must be feminine rhyme. (In each case you will be rhyming with masculine rhyme in the following couplet. This is know as wrenched rhyme.)

Note: except for the feminine rhyme requirement this is identical to the Maylayan Wave Sonnet, found HERE. 

Regarding wrenched rhyme, I quote from a man much more researched and learned than I:
_____

Rhyming a stressed syllable with an unstressed one – e.g. thing and having – is a dubious practice but was once considered respectable. John Donne used to do it. It is sometimes known as ligReht rhyme, or hermaphrodite rhyme, or (despite its lack of virtue) virtual rhyme. (I have also heard this called apocopated rhyme, but apocopated rhyme is really something else). For a long time I was baffled by a number of pages on the web that refer to virtual rhyme as “wrenched rhyme”, for I was convinced that that phrase ought to refer to something quite different. It turns out that Peter Dale (a distinguished poet and translator) has produced a categorisation of rhymes, among which he includes wrenched stress rhyme (which is my “virtual rhyme”) and wrenched sense rhyme (which is my wrenched rhyme). The two different meanings of the word “wrenched” may well pre-date Mr Dale.

Pasted from http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/rhyme.htm#wrenched sense rhyme

My thanks to Bob Newman for his years of work on the wonderful Volecentral resource.

My example

Remedial Action (Maylayan Fireburst)

Removed from urban crush his cabin sits
above where finally the sagebrush quits.
His land abuts a park that’s mostly forest.
A stealthy person’s action gives him fits.

His firewood disappears, and he has guessed
his neighbor’s taking it without request,
and Bob’s a guy who’d surely grant permission
but thievery’s the thing that’s got him stressed.

He has no proof, just knows the deed is done,
and even speaking out would be no fun;
So how’d Bob act to get the misdeeds ended?
He fixed a piece of firewood – only one.

A blasting cap was what he did embed.
The thefts all quit, and nothing more was said.

© Lawrencealot – April 10, 2014

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