Nocturna

By Lawrence Eberhart | February 25, 2015 - 2:52 am |June 15, 2020 All, love

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Since I found this form nowhere else, but repeated many times by different poets on The Poets Garret site, I am making assumptions based upon the poems found there.

Specifications Restated:

A 9 line poem based upon a nocturnal theme
Rhyme Scheme: abacbcdbd
Metered in iambic pentameter.

The following description is reposted with permission from The Poets Garret, with thanks to Terry Clitheroe.

Nocturna

The word was first used by Christians and was a form of night prayers Later appeared in the 18th century and was derived from the French nocturnal and was usually music inspired by the night and played at evening parties. During that time poetry was also recited.

The painter Whistler used that name in some of his paintings, they also had a night theme, which in turn inspired Chopin to write his well loved Nocturnes.

The Nocturna is basically a nine line poetry form based on the nocturne theme containing three, three line lessons recited during the night. The subject must be nocturnal and it consists of three couplets linked by the rhyme of the centre line;

a. b. a. c. b. c. d. b. d.

My Star ‘Till The Morn

She sang softly like a bird taking flight,
It was then that I fell in love with her.
I wanted to hear her all through the night
Though the radio now plays another song,
I imagined that her voice was pure sugar
Her presence now haunts me all winter long
I close my eyes, because a dream’s been born,
I know I will see her soon this summer
The woman who’s now my star til the morn.

Terry Clitheroe

My Example

Form: Nocturna

Toward Brighter Nights

Attending school and working in the day
I’m occupied, but that’s not true at night.
My lonely longing comes when you’re away.
The moon that gave your lovely face a glow
when on our swing we held each other tight
brings brightness to the frigid fields of snow.
For one more season we will be apart
then your return shall set my ev’nings right
and knowing that allows me to take heart.

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Cuarteto

By Lawrence Eberhart | November 23, 2014 - 5:14 pm |June 7, 2020 All, love

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The Cuarteto, Spanish for quartet, is an Argentine genre of music and also a stanzaic form which is simply a quatrain made up of rhymed hendecasyllabic lines.

The Cuarteto is:
• stanzaic, a poem made up of any number of quatrains.
• syllabic, hendecasyllabic (11 syllable) lines.
• rhymed, either abab or abba rhyme scheme.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1433
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Re-connected (Cuarteto)

I imagined hearing whispers from above
When my travels took me far away from you,
and from whence the whispers came I saw a view –
an image that must have been of you, my love.

Or perhaps the breeze had whispered through the tree
which had seemed to say, “Please hurry home my dear.”
I’ll accelerate the tasks that I have here
and return to one who means so much to me.
© Lawrencealot – November 23, 2014

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Minnesang

By Lawrence Eberhart | November 15, 2014 - 7:47 pm |June 6, 2020 All, love, Uncategorized

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The Minnesang (Middle High German – minne = love) is the German courtly love poem of the 12th to 14th century. The German equivalent to the Provencal troubadors, the minnesingers were the writers and performers of the Minnesang. The verse was cultivated by the nobility, and often built around the theme of a brave knight’s attempt to court a lady who doesn’t return his favor. This stanzaic form was influenced by the Canzone and other poetic works that these poet-performers picked up in their travels. The Minnesang was meant to be sung but the melodies were not well documented and mostly only lyrics are left.

The defining features of the Minnesang are:
• stanzaic, written in uniform stanzas although the number of lines in the stanza per poem is variable, sixains were popular.
• metric, often iambic tetrameter with the last line of each stanza a longer Germanic line, iambic heptameter or octameter.
• rhymed, variable rhyme schemes were used, ababcc was common another was abbcaa dxd x being unrhymed.

Here is the 1st 2 stanzas of a Minnesang written by Albrecht von Johansdorf and translated into English which I found at a website for Emory College.

[cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/2″]
Ich vant âne huote
die vil minneclîchen stân.
sâ dô sprach diu guote
“waz welt ir sô eine her gegân?”
“frouwe, ez ist alsô geschehen.”
“saget, war umbe sît ir her? des sult ir mir verjehen.”
“Mînen senden kumber
klage ich iu, vil liebe frouwe mîn.”
“wê, waz saget ir tumber?
ir mugt iuwer klage wol lâzen sîn.”
“frouwe, ichn mac ir niht enbern.”
“sô wil ich in tûsent jâren niemer iuch gewern.”
[/cryout-column]
[cryout-column width=”1/2″]
I found my lady all alone,
standing without a chaperone.
She said, so only I could hear,
“What do you think you’re doing here?”
“Dear Lady, I just happened by.”
“Don’t lie to me, and don’t hold back, but tell me why!”
“My pain and longing come from you;
complain is all I ever do.”
“Alas, you stupid man, you’d best
leave off complaining; let it rest.”
“Without you, Lady, I can’t live.”
“My favors in a thousand years I’ll never give.”
[/cryout-column]
[/cryout-multi]
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1900>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource

German and Austrian Poetic Forms:

Bar Form, Dinggedicht, Goliardic Verse, Knittelvers, Minnesang, Nibelungen,Schuttelreim

My example

Serve King and Heart (Minnesang)

I have a tale that I must tell
although I know it’s not unique,
about my love for Abigail
and for her sister Dominique.
I’ve known them both since we were youths;
Our families served the court and catered to the King’s own truths.

l left the castle to engage
in training duty would require;
returned at four-teen years of age.
a well regarded kingdom squire.
I saw both girls then frequently –
their teen-age beauty was extolled. I kissed them secretly.

Quickly beknighted by the King
my prowess so esteemed in games,
my physicality the thing
quite feared by men- admired by dames.
In tournaments I had to choose
whose favors to accept each game and I would never lose.

Oh how I longed for Abigail
but family motives barred our way.
Her father raised most holy hell
when favored on my lance one day.
The King by then had eyes on her
as paramour (how can the man be blamed? It would occur.

Some contact though with her was cleared
I didn’t even have to ask;
the King would use me for his beard
to escort Abby to the masque.
She warmed me when we twirled and bowed
She warned me though she shared my heat, no love could be allowed.

“Please wed my sister, Dominique,
she loves you as I do dear knight,
then for her safety you’d bespeak
when soon our King sends you to fight.”
I loved them both, I have to say
the politics of power in this case worked out okay.

© Lawrencealot – November 15, 2014

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Douzet

By Lawrence Eberhart | September 8, 2014 - 9:47 pm |June 6, 2020 All, love

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Pathways for the Poet by Viola Berg (1977) is a book for and by educators. Classic poetic forms as well as many invented forms which appear to have been invented as teaching tools or exercizes for use in workshops or classrooms are included. Some of these invented forms I have found in use in internet poetry communities, a testament to their staying power. On this page I include the metric invented forms found there in which appear to be exclusive to the community of educators from whom Ms. Berg drew her support. I have yet to find these in any other source. …. Whether classroom exercise or sharpening your skill as a writer, some of these forms can be fun to play with.

The Douzet is a verse form with a unique rhyme scheme in the last quatrain. An exercise in meter and rhyme found in Pathways but is attributed to an unknown which Berg found in Clement Wood’s Poet’s Craft Book 1936, a book I have yet to get my hands on.

The Douzet is:
a 12 line poem made up of 3 quatrains.
metered, iambic pentameter.
abba cddc abcd.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1199#dionol
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Tombstone Romance (Douzet)

I rode to Tombstone for to see a show.
It weren’t a cultural center, that I knew
but Josephine was there, and Fabian too.
Despite the outlaws, I just had to go.
For me it was a break from daily strife
and for the touring troupe, I’d have to guess
not being shot was proof of their success,
and Wyatt Earp there met his future wife.

He married Josephine you surely know,
a fated match as she was passing through.
For forty-seven years they shared their life
for neither one would settle now for less.

© Lawrencealot – September 8, 2014

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Caryotte

By Lawrence Eberhart | September 4, 2014 - 1:46 pm |June 8, 2020 All, feelings, love

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Pathways for the Poet by Viola Berg (1977) is a book for and by educators. Classic poetic forms as well as many invented forms which appear to have been invented as teaching tools or exercizes for use in workshops or classrooms are included. Some of these invented forms I have found in use in internet poetry communities, a testament to their staying power. On this page I include the metric invented forms found there in which appear to be exclusive to the community of educators from whom Ms. Berg drew her support. I have yet to find these in any other source. I have included the syllabic invented forms on a separate page. Whether classroom exercise or sharpening your skill as a writer, some of these forms can be fun to play with.

• Caryotte (French – carrot, a root vegetable) is also a verse form which is an exercise in meter and rhyme created byRobert Cary. The short, 2 foot lines with head and tail rhyme seem best suited for a List Poem of sorts.

The Caryotte is:
○ a 12 line poem, made up of 6 couplets.
○ metric, dactylic dimeter with the 2nd foot catalexus (dropping an unstressed syllable.)
Suu / Su
○ composed with head and tail rhyme in each couplet. Rhyme scheme a-b a-b c-d c-d e-f e-f g-h g-h i-j i-j k-l k-l. Below, bold=stressed syllable…

axx xb
axx xb
cxx xd
cxx xd
exx xf
exx xf
gxx xh
gxx xh
ixx xj
ixx xj
kxx xl
kxx xl

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1199#dionol
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Bonding (Caryotte)

I’m thinking maybe
time with my baby
sighing at nighttime
buying the right time
ought to enable
hot and yet stable
feelings and dealings
really appealing.
Good time beginnings
Should find us winning
here in the night, dear
clear of all fright, dear.

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Canopus

By Lawrence Eberhart | September 4, 2014 - 2:20 am |June 8, 2020 All, love, Metric

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• Canopus is an invented verse form which stresses a “continuous flow of thought”. This is attributed to author Clement Wood of The Complete Rhyming Dictionary and Poet’s Craft Book 1936.

Canopus is also the 2nd brightest star in Earth‘s sky, though not visible to anyone living above latitude 37 degrees north of the northern hemisphere.

The Canopus is:
○ a heptastich, a poem in 7 lines.
○ metric, written in iambic pentameter.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme ababcbc.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1199#dionol>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Pending Love (Canapus)

My love for you was quietly ensconced
in silent hidden realms where love resides
and flourishes when touched by thought just once.
We never met where such a love abides,
but my imagination holds a view
that time will cure that fault for us; besides,
to love is next to being loved by you.

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Triversen

By Lawrence Eberhart | August 27, 2014 - 11:52 pm |June 8, 2020 All, love, nature

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The Triversen, (triple verse sentence), is a sentence broken into three lines. It has also been referred to as a “verset”, a surge of language in one breath.

The Triversen was originated by William Carlos Williams as a “native American” poetic form of the 20th century. According to Lewis Turco in his Book of Forms, it is “one of the most innovative things done to modern free-verse.” It introduced the “variable foot” to free verse. As best as I can understand, the “variable foot” is a phrase or portion of a sentence contained within a line.

The Triversen is:
• accentual. The rhythm of normal speech, employing 1 to 4 strong stresses per line.
• stanzaic, written in any number of tercets. Each tercet is a sentence broken into 3 uneven lines, each an independant clause.
• grammatical. The sentence is broken by line phrasing or lineating or sense units. There should be 3 units. L1 is a statement of fact or observation, L2 and L3 should set the tone, imply a condition or associated idea, or carry a metaphor for the original statement.
• unrhymed.
• alliterated. Alliteration accentuates stress.

Eventide by Judi Van Gorder 8-20-05

Sunset silence is interrupted
by a cursory
“rib-it”.

Diminishing
sun slides
behind the horizon.

Twilight arrives
with a hic-up
and a wink.

On Gay Wallpaper by William Carlos Williams

The green-blue ground
is ruled with silver lines
to say the sun is shining.

And on this moral sea
of grass or dreams like flowers
or baskets of desires

Heaven knows what they are
between cerulean shapes”
laid regularly round.

Mat roses and tridentate
leaves of gold
threes, threes, and threes.

Three roses and three stems
the basket floating
standing in the horns of blue.

Repeated to the ceiling
to the windows
where the day

Blow in
the scalloped curtains to
the sound of rain

Copied from: http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=618
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Water Lilies (Triversen)

Water lilies on pond’s surface
lie in wait
just as though expecting us.

Posed on pads in proud profusion
as they might for Claude Monet;
only now, awaiting us.

Water lilies seem eternal
you and I
have just begun.

© Lawrencealot – August 27, 2014

The Anna

By Lawrence Eberhart | August 23, 2014 - 3:18 am |June 8, 2020 All, love

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I found a few invented forms which appear to be exclusive to The Study and Writing of Poetry; American Women Poets Discuss Their Craft, 1983. The book is a collection of essays from 50 American women poets, each essay provides insights into a multitude of topics from poetic genres, stanzaic forms, to writing techniques. This book provided some addition insights and background information on several stanzaic forms that I thought I had researched fully. I liked this book, it pays attention to the details.
• The Anna was invented in honor of Arkansas, poet and news columnist, Anna Nash Yarbrough by James R. Gray of California. This creator suggests the theme for this metric verse be love.

The Anna is:
○ a heptastich, a poem in 7 lines.
○ metric, iambic pattern, L1 dimeter, L2 trimeter, L3 tetrameter, L4 pentameter, L5 tetrameter, L6 trimeter and L7 dimeter.
○ unrhymed.

Vows by Judi Van Gorder

Within
a moment
filled with orchids
and sweet Savignon
we pledged our lives
forever
to love.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2008#anna

My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource. Alas in this case, she did not get the measure correct.

My example

Miles to Go Before We Slept (The Anna)

I traveled miles
because you tempted me
by voice and thought and written word.
My travels proved to be well worth the while
I fetched you home, and home
you made for me.

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