Mad Cow
Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Other Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description: Written in twelve-syllable lines, the Mad Cow is a pastoral of seven quintains.
Attributed to: Sebastian “Duke” Delorange
Origin: American
Schematic:
In alexandrines with rhyme scheme: ababc cdede fgfgh hijij klklm mnono eieio
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 5
Line/Poem Length: 35
Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/001/175.shtml
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.
My example
Waiting for Us
The clouds: my blanket every night; the grass: my bed,
while I stand guard. I watch the sheep who are content
in mountain meadows, where they’re brought to be well fed.
I guide them all to fresher fields as each is spent,
and sometimes sing to them – to keep coyotes at bay.
I dream that soon I’ll sing to you and we will play.
The streams and breeze and I sing acappella high
above our village nestled quietly below,
and when my tune is done I pause and sometimes sigh
in counting all the weeks that yet I have to go.
The grasses sway not near as gracefully as you.
The mountain peaks, from this pastoral scene delights,
and yet, their majesty is matched by profile view
of you, when in that springtime dress that so excites.
The flowers here appear as happy volunteers:
They smile more brightly any time a storm cloud clears;
They climb the hills beyond the point the sheep have grazed,
as though to share their fragrance with the spruce and pine.
Your perfume comes to mind; again I am amazed
that, if all things go well next year, dear, you’ll be mine.
With berries every day, (or any time I wish)
and pine-nuts for my salads always near at hand,
I supplement my diet frequently with fish,
there’s plenty to enjoy; this land is really grand.
I found a lovely glen where I shall stake a claim:
a perfect place to live when I give you my name.
The game is plentiful; we’ll live well off the land
and build a farm without incurring any debt
and that will bring a peace that few can understand.
Just you and me, and Shep: a sentry and a pet.
I’ll build a cabin, small but built with plans to grow,
for there’ll be many children needing to be raised
and taught with time to rake and hoe or cook and sew.
This land presents an opportunity few get.
We had to wait, but wait we did, without regret.
.
© Lawrencealot – December 18, 2014
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