Category Archives: religion

Ocarina – Rhymed

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I have no idea who created this form. Thanks to Sara Gosa of Allpoetry.com for bringing it to my attention. I can only tell you that the example was published in the January 25, 1912 edition of New Age, written by A. Tulloch Cull.

Ocarina – Rhymed

  • A sestina discipline using 8 lines per verse and a 4 line enjoy for a 68 line poem
  • MUST be used to write a rhyming poem.
  • Its structure schematic is
    • 12345678
    • 86571243
    • 31426587
    • 75682134
    • 43218765
    • 57864312
    • 24137856
    • 68753421
  • With the envoy:
    • I corrected the occurrence of the words to create complete rhyme which the sample poem did not possess.
    • 31 / 28 / 74 / 65 Giving couplet internal rhyme and alternating end-rhyme
  • Rhyme scheme: Alternating envelope and alternate rhyme.
  • Rhyme pattern:
    • 1st abbacddc
    • 2nd cdcdabab
    • 3rd baabdccd
    • 4th dcdcbaba
    • 5th abbacddc
    • 6th cdcdabab
    • 7th baabdccd
    • 8th dcdcbaba
    • Envoy:
      • (b/a)
      • (b/c)
      • (d/a)
      • (d/c)

To Anna Pavlova (Ocarina)
(In her dance “Le Cygne ” Musique de Saint-Saëns.)

I.

There came to me a vision of sweet song
Borne faintly forward on melodious streams,
A white Chimaera such as stirs the dreams
Of men, who sleep in solitudes and long
To people the dead wastes with strange desire
And breathe between the lips of ancient Death
Stretched mummified in deserts that new breath
That should revive them with its living fire.

II.

White was the vision, white as fiercest fire
And paler far its face than pallid Death,
Begotten of that brood, the Swan’s desire
Raised from frail Leda with its hissing breath.
And as it came its superhuman song
Sang of all those, whom wide relentless streams
Divide from their beloved, towards whom they long,
But whom they ne’er may clasp except in dreams.

III.

They strain to one another in their dreams
But never hear their lovers’ silent song
Pass spectrelike with gliding feet along
The halls of Sleep to Lethe’s stealthy streams
Till conies Old Age, a fouler foe than Death,
To mar the house of their divine desire
And smother with white ashes their young fire
Stifling their bodies’ perfumes with his breath.

IV.

Who of us mortals with ephemeral breath
That saw the vision, did not straight desire
To pass from perfect happiness to death
A holocaust of joy within the fire beneath
That from your cloudlike eyelids streams.
Having for elegy your supreme song
I would have died your death and passed to dreams
On that white breast, for which I longed so long.

V.

Half goddess and half swan, you seemed to long
With yearning eyes for those immortal dreams
Of far Olympus, where Peneus streams
Through Tempe’s hallowed vale. Yet in the song
Of feet and face and form I saw the fire
Of love for men, whose evanescent breath
Lends charm to wayward pleasures, watched by Death,
Who casts a glamour on short-lived desire.

VI.

All mortal sufferings and vain desire
Wept from your eyes and shook your tortured breath.
Yea, goddess though you were, the immortal fire
That shone from your white shape grew dim as Death.
I questioned of your Sorrow-Did you long
For Youth’s brief summer passed in rhythmic dreams
By winding ways of water, where the song
Of many birds mixed with the murmuring streams?

VII.

But though no answer pierced the plash of streams
Your arms that wavered swan-like seemed to long
And beckon for some mystery, which song
Might not reveal lying hid beyond our dreams.
Was it eternal youth, that your last breath
Invoked with prayers so passionate, that fire
Rekindled in those eyes, whose last desire
Was unto life, till clanked the feet of Death?

VIII.

For as you felt the drear approach of Death,
Your limbs relaxed and from your eyes the fire
Fled fainting forth : You drew one sobbing breath
That shook your shuddering wings, and your desire
Quailed before Death : Your hair, where darkness dreams,
Where Moon and Stars hold festival along
With queenly Night, fell forward in dark streams
About your face, and silenced was your song.

ENVOY.

Anna, my dreams find voice within the song
That from the fire of your sweet footsteps streams.
Though dreams and breath and song may pass along
Death’s ways, yet my desire defieth Death.

Troisieme

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The following description is reposted with permission from Poetry Maqnum Opus, with thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on that fine resource.

The Troisieme is a verse form introduced by Viola Berg. The content is broken into 4 parts, an introduction in the 1st tercet, an expansion in the 2nd tercet, a parallel or contrast in the 3rd tercet and a summary or conclusion in the couplet.The structural elements of the Troisieme are:

  1. stanzaic, written in 3 tercets followed by a couplet.
  2. syllabic, 3-5-7 3-5-7 3-5-7 9-9  syllables each.   
  3. unrhymed.

    It’s Finally Here

    Holidays
    have turned the corner,
    the Christmas season begins.

    Ornaments
    boxed with care last year,
    unpacked and hung on the tree.

    Twinkling lights,
    and red bows adorn
    garland strung around the room.

    Candy canes and shaped sugar cookies
    fresh from the oven for you and me.
                                         ~~Judi Van Gorder

My Example

Form: Troisieme

Promised Ascension

Man alone will plot against his kind
because of words one man deemed were true.
They promote a life beyond this realm.

Dismiss all logic! Faith overcomes!
The next life counts promises much more.
Believe those words and your pain dissolves.

That others think those words are fiction
marks them somehow as threats deserving
Your enmity lest you come to doubt.

The plots and counter-plots marred reality
and placed our morality below the wolf.

© Lawrencealot – February 5, 2015

Raccontino

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Raccontino:
1. Even numbered lines have the same rhyming sound.
2. Couplets.
3. The end words of the odd numbered lines with the title tell a brief story.
4. The number of couplets is unlimited.
5. The odd numbered lines do not rhyme but tell a story.
6. The even numbered lines are mono-rhymed.
In this example the even numbered mono-rhymes are coast, toast, most, host, boast.
The odd numbered lines tell the story. This Fourth of July July Fourth bursts with independence. The story is in bold.

This Fourth of July

Some grandchildren are away this July,
Two are in New Jersey on the east coast.
We won’t see grandchildren on this Fourth
so to them I salute a happy toast.
As the fireworks display bursts
less abundant than most
I will remember the times with
the grandchildren at the parties we host.
This year we celebrate adolescent independence
and the love of the grandchildren we boast.

http://www.rainbowcommunications.org/velvet/forms/
My Thanks to Linda Varsell Smith for her contributions above.

Raccontino (Italian meaning narrator or story teller) is a poetic narrative written in any number of couplets linked by a single rhyme. Found at Writer’s Café. I’ve been unable to find a history or original example of this form. One source on line suggests this is an English form but no time frame is indicated nor other reasons given for this assumption. Because the name has Italian roots, is syllabic rather than metric (which is more typical of Italian poetry than English poetry) and carries a single rhyme (which is much easier in Italian than English), my assumption is that the frame itself also has Italian roots.

The Raccontino is:
• narrative, tells a story.
• written in any number of couplets.
• syllabic. The number of syllable is set by the first line. Whatever number of syllables occurs in the first line should continue throughout the poem.
• rhymed xa xa xa xa xa xa etc. x being unrhymed.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1162-raccontino/
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

Specifications restated
Raccontino is most likely of Italian origin.
It is:
A single stanza consisting of any even number of lines.
Rhymed: the rhyme pattern is xaxaxaxa…
Formulaic: The end words in the un-rhymed lines tell a brief story.
Isosyllabic: All lines having the same number of syllables, at the poet’s discretion.

Beacon of Hope

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Beacon of Hope 

Is a form created by Christina R Jussaume on 10/02/2009. It starts with a sestet, (Stanza of 6 lines) of 6 syllables each. Next is a triplet, (Stanza of three lines) of 12 syllables each. The next 12 lines are 8 syllables in length. The subject should be spiritual in nature and uplifting. I have used rhyme here, but I leave each Rhyme scheme up to each poet. It should be center aligned and it will appear to look like a lighthouse.

Pasted from <http://the.a.b.c.of.poetry.styles.patthepoet.com/index.html>
Many Thanks to Christina R Jussaume for her work on the Poetry Styles site.

My example

Tolerant Spirit (Beacon of Hope)

Since mankind’s self-aware
and unknown causes fear
and fear leads to despair
displacing human cheer
Man felt a need for prayer
(to gods) that much was clear.
Some Fifty-five odd hundred plus (and mostly men)
have formalized beliefs to which folks say amen –
all cults though some are called religions now and then.
Sincere beliefs from visions wrought
from trances (those perhaps induced
by substances not unlike pot)
led intellect to be seduced.
With promises, some fable based
good men as well as montebanks
let sheeple have their fears erased
by rites performed and giving thanks.
I’ve felt no need to be beware
just ‘cus all answers are not here.
Continuums are every where
or not – so I’ll enjoy this sphere.

© Lawrencealot – November 17, 2014

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Beacon of Hope

Goliardic Verse

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Goliardic Verse (Germanic verb to sing or entertain) was a popular verse of the Goliards, wandering scholars of the 12th and 13th century in rhymed and accented Latin. The form became linked with satire specifically, mockery of the Church.

Goliard Verse is:
• syllabic, 13 syllable lines, in hemistiches of 6 and 7 syllables. Sometimes L4 is only 12 syllables.
• stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
• mono-rhymed, lines end in feminine rhyme. Rhyme scheme aaaa bbbb.

Lament by Judi Van Gorder 

Mother Church serves the poor, it is one of her niches.
Now she’s been tested with threat to her riches 
by former altar boys, abused, turned into snitches, 
claiming clerics have strayed, unzipping their britches.

Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1077>
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

Unless Twice Perverted (Goliard Verse)

All cults and churches too, deserve a bit of mocking
(On fables they are based); that millions bite is shocking.
We’ve all heard tales of priests and choirboys they’ve been stalking.
I’ll bet there’ve been girls too, but they have not been talking.

© Lawrencealot – November 14, 2014

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Goliard Verse
 

First-and-Last-Rhyme

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First-and-Last-Rhyme

 This form was created by Mary Lou Healy, who writes on Allpoetry.com as MLou.  
It was patterned after her own poem Scented Medicine.

Scented Medicine … (A first-and-last rhyme)
  
Leaving a signature,
weaving so wondrous pure
a fragrance to fill this room…
a flagrance, such heavy bloom!
 
Showering air with scent,
flowering there, rose lent
glamor to plainest day,
clamoring, “Won’t you stay
a bit of a while?  You’ll find
a bit of a smile in mind.”
 
Stopping, I lost my frown.
Dropping sweet petals down,
rose begins to shatter;
knows that it won’t matter,
 
for her short life has gifted
more than my spirits lifted!

Pasted from http://allpoetry.com/poem/10017005-Scented-Medicine—…—-A-first-and-last-rhyme–by-Mlou

This poet required the help of the author to properly present the metric specifications for this form, because Mary Lou used ascephalous feet predominately, but not exclusively throughout.

The form is:
Stanzaic: consisting of 4 stanzas, a quatrain, a sestet, a quatrain, and a couplet.
Metric: All lines are trimeter. The first 12 lines consist of an iamb, an anapest, and a iamb. The final 4 lines are all iambic trimeter.
Rhymed: Head rhyme and End Rhyme exist in a couplet pattern throughout the poem.
Rhyme pattern is independent for head and end rhyme: aabbccddeeffgghh. The final 4 end-rhymes are feminine.

My example

I Need No Promises  (First-and-Last-Rhyme)

I pondered the cleric’s verse
and squandered my time, and worse;
I gave weight to other men
who raved and then said “Amen.”

If fables that stood for fact
enabled priests to extract
behavior and tithing to
a savior who’d then save you
those men wearing “truth’s” own cloak
again can promote a joke.

I’ll die as will all of us.
So why pray tell, make a fuss?

My soul finds “now” appealing.
My role requires no dealing.
No Hell you’ll find me fearing; 
it’s well this life’s endearing.

© Lawrencealot – November 2, 2014

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Note: I found it more convenient to present the poem
as quatrain, sestet, couplet,quatrain because of the continuity of meter.

First and Last Rhyme

Split Sestet

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Split Sestet
Type:  Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:  Similar to rime coulée, but with generally shorter lines, the Split Sestet is rhymed aabaab with the “a” lines iambic trimeter and the “b” lines anapestic monometer.
Origin:  American
Schematic:
Rhyme: aabaab
Meter:
xX xX xX
xX xX xX
xxX
xX xX xX
xX xX xX
xxX

Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/002/295.shtml
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

The Split Sestet appears to be the American version of a Rime Couée. This six line stanzaic form is “split” by anapestic monometer lines.

The Split Sestet is
• stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
• metric, L1,L2,L4,L5 are iambic trimeter and L3,L6 are anapestic monometer.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme aabaab ccdccd ect. 
The Last Leaf by Oliver Wendall Holmes 1895

I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o’er the ground
With his cane.

They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.

But now he walks the streets,
And he looks at all he meets
Sad and wan,
And he shakes his feeble head,
That it seems as if he said,
“They are gone!”

The mossy marbles rest
On the lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear
Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.

My grandmamma has said–
Poor old lady, she is dead
Long ago–
That he had a Roman nose,
And his cheek was like a rose
In the snow;

But now his nose is thin,
And it rests upon his chin
Like a staff,
And a crook is in his back,
And a melancholy crack
In his laugh.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat,
And the breeches, and all that,
Are so queer!

And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2063
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Cultural Dogma (Split Sestet)

The Mormons came to call
on bikes in early fall
with their books.
And though I didn’t care
for dogma I liked their
wholesome looks.

At first I thought I’d taunt
to see if I could daunt
their belief.
Their fables were absurd
and yet their written word
spread no grief.

They had no plans to kill
non-members, if you will,
as some do.
They took as an insult
their status as a cult –
which I knew.

I’d seen much social good
In Mormon neighborhoods
in my life.
No harm to me’d been done
although I’d taken one
for my wife.

The missionaries left
not they nor I bereft
on that day.
The Muslims they exceed
in written word and deed,
any way.

© Lawrencealot – October 10, 2014

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Split Sestet

Wavelet

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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 Wavelet is an invented verse form alternating couplets and tercets and introduced by Marie L. Blanche Adams.

The Wavelet is:
○ poem in 12 lines made up of 3 couplets alternating with 2 tercets.
○ metric, the couplets are catalectic iambic trimeter and the tercets are iambic tetrameter,
○ rhymed, aabcbddeceff. The couplets are feminine rhymed dropping the stressed syllable at the end of the line.

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

Religion Soothes (Wavelet)
 
I trust religion
less than a smidgen.
In all I’ve seen it’s pick and choose
among a list of proscribed acts
accompanied with many “do’s.”
Some charismatic
and enigmatic
inspiring guy set forth his book,
ambiguous and short on facts,
but people bit; the concept took.
The sheep are tranquil,
and even thankful.
 
© Lawrencealot – September30,2014

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Wavelet

Quintette

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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 Quintette is an invented verse form with an unusually placed refrain. It was created by Fay Lewis Noble.

The Quintette is:
○ a poem in 15 lines made up of 3 quintains.
○ metric, stanza 1 & 3 are iambic pentameter, stanza 2 all lines are iambic, L1,L5 are dimeter and L3 is pentameter and L2,L4 are tetrameter.
○ L1 of the 1st stanza is repeated as L3 of the 2nd stanza and L5 of the 3rd stanza.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme Ababb acAca dadaA.

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.

The Quintette is:
A 15 line poem written in iambic meter
Stanzas 1 and 3 are iambic petameter,
Stanza 2 is dimeter, tetrameter, and pentameter
Rhymed, with refrains: Ababb acAca dadaA.

My example

No Promises to Break (Quintette)

I have no need for dogma in my life.
What is apparent makes me satisfied.
I scoff at those who need an after-life.
Religion’s dogma I cannot abide;
and science too buys dogma, and has lied.

I treasure life
and feel my spirit’s doing well;
I have no need for dogma in my life.
I need no promises to quell
some inner strife.

There’s many things I see, not understood,
and obstacles encountered sometimes rife.
Yet mostly things I see seem pretty good,
and frequently made better by my wife.
I have no need for dogma in my life.

© Lawrencealot – September 20, 2014

Contest entry using Title: Broken Promises
By Author: Clarence Shava

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Quintette

Boutonniere

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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.

• The Boutonniere seems to be an exercise in writing in catalectic trochaic meter. In other words, the stress comes first in each metric foot, but the last foot of the line, drops the last unstressed syllable. Trochaic tetrameter would be Su / Su/ Su/ Su. Catalectic trochaic tetrameter would be Su/Su/Su/S. Created by Ann Byrnes Smith.

The Boutonniere is:
○ written in 13 lines.
○ metered, catalectic trochaic tetrameter. Su/Su/Su/S.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme A¹A² bbcccbddd A¹A².
○ refrained, L1 is repeated as L12 and L2 is repeated as L13.

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

Dream Instead (Boutonniere)

One’s beliefs it really seems,
have less weight than do their dreams.
Focus on your dreams each day,
Divvy up your work and play.
Muslims, Christians, Buddhists too
Hold quite different points of view;
all of them cannot be true.
all but we are wrong they say.
Dogma serves to cloud the mind
setting forth a path assigned.
Thinkers dream when they’re inclined.
One s beliefs it really seems,
have less weight than do their dreams.

© Lawrencealot – September 1, 2014

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