Copla de Arte Mayor

Copla de Arte  Mayor
The copla de arte mayor is a Spanish verse form. It’s an 8-line stanza rhyming abbaacca. Each line is of 12 syllables, with a specific metre. The stresses are on syllables 2, 5, 8 and 11 i.e. it is in amphibrachic tetrameter.

Don’t feed the troll!

Incontinent, ugly, destructive and smelly,
The troll is a loathsome and pitiful creature.
It lacks any pleasant or positive feature.
There’s hate in its heart and there’s bile in its belly.
You never should feed it – no, not on your Nelly!
It isn’t a candidate for conservation;
The world would improve with its elimination.
Let’s boot out the troll – go on, give it some welly!

I recently encountered a particularly unpleasant troll that took its pleasure from being abusive about other people’s poems. I feel better now, thank you.
Later: We have discovered that the troll was also a serial plagiarist.

Pasted from <http://volecentral.co.uk/vf/cdam.htm>
My thanks to Bob Newman for his years of work on the wonderful Volecentral resource.

My example poem

Mary Boren, Meter Maid (Copla de Arte Mayor)

When workshops of Mary’s were duly presented
attendees enhanced their own methods of writing.
Her critiques were kind, not demeaning or biting.
The participants found their skill sets augmented,
and friendships of poets therein were cemented.
No other impacted me more so than Mary
Her scansion of meter is extraord’nary.
Encounters with Mary will leave one contented.

© Lawrencealot – August 5, 2014

Visual Template
( a poem of 8 lines)

Copla de Atre Mayor