Tag Archives: aabccb

Dream Song

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The Dream Song at first glance could probably be considered a style or genre of poetry because of the prominent “dream theme”. But with more careful examination, the Dream Song is a framed verse form with a specific stanzaic prescription. It was created by American poet, John Berryman’s (1914-1972) book of 77 Dream Songs . He continued to write Dream Songs after the book was published and there are over 400 of his Dream Songs in circulation. The poems seem to me to be recordings of Berryman’s dreams in verse. They are often disjointed and bizarre although the frame of the poems remains consistent. There is a reoccurring character Henry who as a black faced minstrel is called Mr. Bones. The poems include “wrenched syntax, scrambled diction, extraordinary leaps of language and tone, and wild mixture of high lyricism and low comedy” . Poem Hunter.com.

The Dream Song is:
• a verse form, the poem is written in 3 sixains, 18 lines.
• metric, Accentual, usually L1,L2,L4,& L5 5 stresses and L3 & L6 have 3 stresses. As long as 4 lines are longer and L3 & L6 are shorter, the rhythm is jerky much like the content.
• rhymed, rhyme patterns vary from stanza to stanza however there are normally 3 rhymes per stanza. abcabc abccba, aabccb, abbacc are a few of the patterns. abcbac is the pattern of the stanza below.

Dream Song #112 by John Berryman 

My framework is broken, I am coming to an end,
God send it soon. When I had most to say
my tongue clung to the roof
I mean of my mouth. It is my Lady’s birthday
which must be honored, and has been. God send
it soon.

I now must speak to my disciples, west
and east. I say to you, Do not delay
I say, expectation is vain.
I say again, It is my Lady’s birthday
which must be honoured. Bring her to the test
at once.

I say again, It is my Lady’s birthday
which must be honoured, for her high black hair
but not for that alone:
for every word she utters everywhere
shows her good soul, as true as a healed bone,—
being part of what I meant to say.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=623
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My Example

Re-curring Dream (Dream Song)

Alone, depressed, confused, but well, I dream.
I’m working at a place I’ve never seen.
Achievement comes with ease.
I’m asked to make a lunch run for the team
Two blocks away exists a small canteen
“Get crackers, coffee, cheese!”

The walk there’s pleasant, takes no time at all.
The staff all greet me smiling, with good cheer
and hand me tasty eats.
I leave and find I’m in a massive mall
it’s blocks across and doors are nowhere near,
and none return to streets.

I ask for help, and people point the way;
they’re wrong! I ask again and people stare…
Of course they do, I’m nude.
I criss and cross the sprawling mall all day
I’m nearly nuts but suffer no despair –
I’ve all the friggin’ food.

© Lawrencealot – December 7, 2014

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Dream Song

Cywydd llosgyrnog

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Cywydd llosgyrnog, ców-idd llos-gr-notheg, 12th codified ancient Welsh Meter, a Cywydd, is composed in sixains. It is speculated that the Welsh poets learned this meter from a common medieval Latin hymn form.

The Cywydd llosgyrnog is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
• syllabic, the sixain is made up of 8-8-7-8-8-7 syllable lines.
• rhymed, L1 and L2 end-rhyme is echoed somewhere in the middle of L3 (3rd, 4th, or 5th syllables). L4 and L5 end-rhyme is echoed somewhere in the middle of L6. L3 and L6 end rhyme.

x x x x x x x A
x x x x x x x A
x x A x x x B (A could shift position slightly)
x x x x x x x C
x x x x x x x C
x x C x x x B (C could shift position slightly)
Y mae goroff a garaf
O gof aelaw aga a folaf
O choeliaf gael i chalon’
Am na welais i myn Elien
O Lanurful ilyn Aerfen
wawr mor wen o’r morynion
— Dafydd ap Demwnd[/i]
Friend or Foe by Judi Van Gorder

Knight of the Round Table, King’ s friend,
the fabled handsome one, men commend,
lived to defend, valor seen,
Sir Lancelot earned his reward.
Though prowess unmatched with the sword,
betrayed his Lord, loved his queen. 

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=976
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

The Evil of Dorian Johnson

The Evil of Dorian Johnson (Cywydd llosgyrnog)

Had he not lied, I have no doubt
the race-baiters would have found clout
based upon the past grievous acts –
not current facts, but an excuse.
Men’s Billy-clubs and dogs turned loose
and past abuse against blacks.

Liar became provocateur
with consequences real and sure.
“Hands-up” became a news-reel theme
that fit the scheme of liberal guilt
to ratchet hatred to the hilt
and tilt acts to the extreme.

Their community has been wrecked
and clearly left without respect.
Some children have no Christmas hopes
all caused by mopes* of thuggish bent
for whom this cultural descent
to crime meant – a city gropes.

One perp whose lie became a blaze,
that caused a city to be razed.
If there is justice anywhere
he ought to wear perpetual shame 
and be singled out by his name;
he’s to blame for much despair.

© Lawrencealot – November 26, 2014

Author Notes:
Dorian Johnson (accomplice in the convenience store robbery and witness
against Officer Wilson) Not only does he contradict himself in his own
statements in the same session, but makes unsustainable and impossible
claims about the event that are impossible to have happened.

*Mope(From Urban dictionary)
A person of any race or culture that is: presenting themselves as uneducated
(either by mannerisms or the clothing they are wearing). Plural = Mopes
Mopes usually are up to no good and may have an extensive criminal
record and a limited vocabulary.

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Cywydd llosgyrnog

Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

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The Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza was a popular stanzaic form in 12th-14th century England. Variations also can be found in France in the form of the Rime Couée and Scotland in the Burns Stanza. Tail Rhymed Stanza simply refers to a stanza from 6 or 12 lines long with 1 or 2 short lines that carry the same rhyme.

The Tail Rhymed Stanza is:
• stanzaic, most often written in any number of sixains but the stanzas could be 12 lines each.
• metered, often accentual with longer lines or 4 stresses and one or two lines of only 2 stresses. The lines are also found written in trochaic or iambic tetrameter with one or two lines dimeter. The shorter lines are most commonly in L3,L6,L9 & L12 but can be found in different arrangements as in the Burns Stanza
• rhymed, the most common schemes are aabaab or aabccb with L2 & L6 being the shorter lines. In a 12 line stanza common schemes are aabccbddbeeb or aabaabaabaab with L3,L6,L9 & L12 being the shorter lines.

Rural Architecture by William Wordsworth 1801

THERE’S George Fisher, Charles Fleming, and Reginald Shore,
Three rosy-cheeked school-boys, the highest not more
Than the height of a counsellor’s bag;
To the top of GREAT HOW did it please them to climb:
And there they built up, without mortar or lime,
A Man on the peak of the crag.
They built him of stones gathered up as they lay:
They built him and christened him all in one day,
An urchin both vigorous and hale;
And so without scruple they called him Ralph Jones.
Now Ralph is renowned for the length of his bones;
The Magog of Legberthwaite dale.
Just half a week after, the wind sallied forth,
And, in anger or merriment, out of the north,
Coming on with a terrible pother,
From the peak of the crag blew the giant away.
And what did these school-boys?–The very next day
They went and they built up another.
–Some little I’ve seen of blind boisterous works
By Christian disturbers more savage than Turks,
Spirits busy to do and undo:
At remembrance whereof my blood sometimes will flag;
Then, light-hearted Boys, to the top of the crag!
And I’ll build up giant with you.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2081
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

Global Warming in Buffalo (Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza)

Right now there is no traffic flow –
because of snow.
In Buffalo it’s piled up deep
where winter’s put on quite a show
and automobiles cannot go
where hills are steep.

Can global warming take this hit?
It does not fit!
But neither did the facts they changed
to which their emails did admit
which made some folks become a bit
more deranged.
© Lawrencealot – November 20, 2014

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Caudate or Tail Rhymed Stanza

Sextilla

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Sextilla
Type:  Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Stanzaic
Description:  Six-line stanzas of eight-syllable lines rhymed either aabccb or ababcc.
Origin:  Spanish
Schematic:  Rhyme: aabccb or ababcc
Meter: xxxxxxxx
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 6

Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/002/252.shtml

My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

________

The Sextilla or sextuplet is originally a Galacian-Portuguese stanzaic form of the 14th century and can be found among the Cantigas with several rhyme variations. However the form as it has developed has now been limited to one of two rhyme schemes. The most famous sextillas are by Spanish poet Jorge Manrique Verses by the Death of His Father in 80 stanzas. 

The Sextilla is:
• stanzaic, written in any number of sixains.
• syllabic, most often 8 syllables per line, but sometimes less. (remember in Spanish prosody the syllable count really depends on where the last accented syllable falls, so a 7 syllable or a 9 syllable line can both be counted as 8 syllables.)
• rhymed, either aabccb or ababcc (When rhymed in the later scheme it is sometimes called a sestina. This should not to be confused with the more popular, French Sestina in which end words are repeated in lexical order).

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1996-the-sextilla/
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.
My example

The Sun’s Set (Sextilla)

He stands there looking like he knows
the secret of how our sun glows.
A myth has been well propagated
that power – nuclear’s the source
(it fit the theory once of course),
but now new theories are debated.

Electromagnetism’s strong
and gravity alone is wrong.
The Birkland currents tell us how
but men are far from knowing why,
their power source, when will they die.?
Forecasting future’s out for now.

Since everything’s uncertain kid,
Let’s live today, be gald we did.
I’ll swing with you, you swing with me;
we’ll take a cruise beneath that sun
devoting time to having fun
The here and now is fine for me.

© Lawrencealot – August 20, 2014

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Sextilla

Swinburne's Sestet

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The form is patterned after Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Ilicet”

It is stanzaic, consisting of any number of sestets.
It is metered, written in iambic tetrameter.
It is rhymed: aabccb, with all but the b-rhymes being feminine.

My example poem
Retribution – Part 1 (Swinburne Sestet)
The desert stretched before the brothers
with air that clings and nearly smothers
and things that live here go to ground.
Now only driven desperation
could make them risk the dehydration
that others crossing here had found.
The renegades had raped and slaughtered
both Henry’s wife and teen-aged daughter
while Tom and he had been away.
The men had now a fearful mission
and they would kill with no contrition
but first they had to live today.
Their water gone, their strength was failing.
Despite the sun, Tom’s face was paling
The waterhole was miles ahead.
Now… just ahead- they were arriving
the waterhole that meant surviving,
without the water they’d be dead.
The spring was poisoned by the outlaws
their evil, dammit, was without flaws.
In it were bloated putrid sheep.
The sun was hot and acted willing
to help them with their slow distilling
enough to drink then more to keep.
The next two days they traveled nightly
and persevered ’til sun shone brightly.
They set their horses free to roam
in foothills. To continue healthy
their only movements must be stealthy.
or death would call these mountains home.
Each bandit kept his horse and cattle-
delighted with their ill-gained chattel
and forced therefore to stick to trails.
The brothers both had served as trackers
and army scouts, and were not slackers,;
they were in fact as hard as nails.
One had a crossbow, one a rifle
both carried knives to wreak reprisal.
Now vengeance was their only aim.
The renegades had thrived on terror,
but their last raid had been an error
now retribution surely came.
© Lawrencealot – July 21, 2014
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The Dixon

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The Dixon measures the differences between masculine and feminine rhyme. Patterned after the poem The Feathers of the Willow by English poet, Richard Watson Dixon (1833-1900)
The Dixon is:
○ stanzaic, written in any number of sixains made up of 2 tercets.
○ metered, iambic* trimeter
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme aab ccb. The b rhymes are strong, masculine, the rhyme on a stressed end syllable. The a and c rhymes are feminine or falling rhymes, the rhyme is in the stressed syllable of an end word ending in an unstressed syllable.
The Feathers of the Willow by Richard Watson Dixon
THE feathers of the willow
Are half of them grown yellow
———- Above the swelling stream;
And ragged are the bushes,
And rusty now the rushes,
———- And wild the clouded gleam.
The thistle now is older,
His stalk begins to moulder,
———-His head is white as snow;
The branches all are barer,
The linnet’s song is rarer,
———-The robin pipeth now.
Pasted from <http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668>
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO resource.
*Added by Lawrencealot
My Example poem.
Unsmudged (The Dixon
Unsmudged
I could not keep from fainting
aa you produced a painting
beneath my fairest skin.
You never have recanted
the claim that it’s enchanted.
A rune that’s blocking sin.
You said no one should see it
It’s awesome, but so be it
It’s there for only you.
Whichever face you’re seeing
it represents my being
and will be always true.
© Lawrencealot – June 19, 2014

Picture credit:  Google pics, rights belong to photographer.
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The Dixon

Logolilt

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  • The Logolilt is an invented verse form that features diminishing line length. It was created by Flozari Rockwood.The Logolilt is:
    • stanzaic written in any number of sixains made up of 2 tercets each.
    • syllabic, 8/4/2/8/4/2 8/4/2/8/4/2.
    • rhymed, rhyme scheme aabccb ddeffe. (aabccbddeffe)
My Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful resource at PMO
My Example
I Taught My Grandkid, Too (Logolilt)
I frequently find I must dunk
a yummy chunk
into
my hot chocolate or coffee-
that’s just like me.
Do You?
© Lawrencealot – April 1, 2014
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Logolilt

Rime Couée

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Rime Couée is a tail-rhymed verse form of 12th century Provencal troubadours. Though it originated in France, it is thought to be the predecessor of the more popular Scot form, the Burns Stanza. 
The Rime Couée is:
  • stanzaic, written in any number of sixains made up of two tercets.
  • accentual, folk meter of normal speech. L1,L2, L4, L5 are longer lines of a similar length, L3 and L6 are shorter lines of the same length.
  • rhymed, rhyme scheme aabccb, ddeffe etc.
Thanks to Judi Van Gorder for the wonderful PMO resource.
My example Poem
St. Joseph Lighthouse – Lake Michigan        (Rime Couée)
St Joseph Lighthouse
When Old Man Winter struts his stuff
to show that he is good enough
he paints in white.
Unlike the art-work done by Spring
where colors touch most everything
pastel or bright.
His canvass can be anything
a bridge a tree, an old coil spring
that’s left outside.
St. Joseph lighthouse shown above
received full measure of his love.
I’m satisfied.
©Lawrencealot – February 8, 2014
Photo Credit:  Facebook  – unknown, Rights belong to photographer
 
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Anaduo

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This is an invented form created by Lisa La Grange of Allpoetry.com.
It is Stanzaic, composed of any number of sestets
It is Syllalbic 11/11/8/11/11/8
Meter: All lines are acephalous* anapestic
              The long lines are anapestic tetrameter
              The short lines are anapestic trimeter
Rhyme Scheme:  aabccb
*Acephalous = headless, lacking its first syllable
Example Poem:
Chased by a Cloud     (Anaduo)
Below the horizon, beneath where I stand
the streets of a city lie quilting the land.
It’s there that I work and I live.
I set out today, with no purposeful aim
My nose led my feet; up the mountain I came
for nature has beauty to give.
Just barely, below me the sounds I can hear
of traffic and people who don’t know I’m here.
I view what’s so rarely allowed.
I’ve climbed here before and I’ve stayed overnight
but never been treated to quite such a sight.
I’m proud to be chased by a cloud.
© Lawrencealot – January 30, 2014
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Tri-Duet

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This form was created by Willam J. Reed IV, writing on Allpoetry as BluesMan.The author provided no other specifications than that the poem must consist of six or more tercets, but in his sample poem the first two lines were shorter than the third.
Rhyme pattern aab ccb dde ffe ggh iif
For my template I have use tri-meter and tetrameter, generally iambic.
THIS IS NOT A NEW rhyme pattern but merely a treatment of either the Alouette, or the form we call the Bush Ballad Meter. Both of which use the same rhyme pattern and line length differentiation, but in sestets as opposed to tercets.
Example Poem
Reverting (Tri-Duet)
My days are fulfilling
and though I am willing
to venture to new avenues,
if they should prove boring
and not worth exploring
my effort you must then excuse.
Not wanting to slight you-
with hopes to delight you,
I’ll manifest meter I think.
This form sings with a beat
that I find rather neat
so I’ll try to not make this stink.
When each day I awake
I say “Oh heaven’s sake!
I’ve found a new form to be learned”.
If writing in meter
results in defeat or
I fail in my try- still I yearned.
© Lawrencealot – January 14, 2014
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