Tag Archives: assonance

Cantar

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The Cantar in verse is an octosyllabic quatrain that assonates and is usually limited to one strophe. The form dates back to 15th century Spain. Cantar is the Spanish verb “to sing” and in Spanish literature is loosely used as a noun for the “words for a song”.

The Cantar is:
• a 4 line strophe written as a stand alone poem or combined with other forms such as the Seguidilla or Flamenca.
• syllabic, all lines written in 8 syllables.
• rhymed, L2 and L4 rhyme with assonance, sometimes true rhyme but generally not. L1 and L3 are unrhymed however the end syllable should be stressed.

Cantar by Judi Van Gorder

The windward breeze sings high tenor
while rolling waves play bottom bass
along the ragged shore. The song
of the ocean follows my day.

• The Cantiga is a predecessor of the Cantar. The Galician-Portuguese poetic genre was written between the 12th and 14th centuries. Rhythm and musicality were central while the words were limited. The themes were focused on the individual, a woman singing to her lover, a man to his lady, and the best known cantigas were about the miracles of the Virgin Mary. The frame of the Cantiga is at the poet’s discretion although 8 syllable lines are common.
• Cantiga de Amigo is a subgenre of the Cantiga, it is the female voice speaking of a lover. The voice could be the woman, her mother, her sister, or her friend, the subject is always the male lover. They are written in simple strophic forms, with repetition, variation, and parallelism, and most often include a refrain They are the largest body of female-voiced love lyrics of medieval times.
• The Seranilla (Spanish – little mountain song) is a short lined strophic sub genre of 14th century Galician-Portuguese cantigas. It is often a light hearted poem built around the meeting of a gentleman and a pretty country girl. It is often written in 5 syllable lines without prescribed number of lines or rhyme, both at the discretion of the poet. When written in octasyllabic lines it is called a Serrano.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1018
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My Example


Fear of Heights (Cantar)

Upon this precipice I sit
because I’m quite afraid to stand.
I’ll crawl away or maybe slink
for I’m an acrophobic man.

© Lawrencealot – November 19, 2014

Photo credit: Visual Photos.com

Visual template

Cantar

Byr a Thoddaid

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Byr a Thoddaid (beer ah TOE-thy’d), one of the 24 traditional Welsh

stanza forms, consists of four lines of syllable count 10/6/8/8

(or 8/8/10/6), rimed on last syllable except for the 10-syllable line,

 which has the main rime on the 7th, 8th, or 9th syllable with the

remainder set off by dash and either rimed within the 6-syllable

line or with its sequence of consonant-sounds repeated at the

start of the 6-syllable line, as above.

 

This poem has the Cynghanedd (consonance, harmony of sound)

required of Welsh bards, as detailed here:

 

http://allpoetry.com/column/7546199-Welsh_Poetry_-_Part_I_Cynghanedd_-by-Welshbard

 

 

Specifically, all but the last line of the first stanza

and the penultimate line of the second have Cynghanedd lusg

(trailing consonance), in which the accented penultimate syllable

 of the end-word is rimed earlier in the line

(the part of each 10-syllable line after the dash being excluded);

S1L4 and S2L3, then, both have Cynghanedd groes (cross-consonance),

 in which the second part of the line repeats the sequence of

consonant sounds in the first (end of last syllable of either

sequence can be ignored, as can n, while w and y the Welsh treat as vowels).

 

 

This form makes use of the gair cyrch in which the main rhyme appears somewhere near the end of a longer line and the end word is a secondary rhyme. The secondary rhyme is then echoed by alliteration or assonance in the first half of the next line.

  • stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains made up of 2 couplets,

  • syllabic, either L1-L2 8 syllables, L3 10 syllables L4 6 syllables, or the couplets are reversed L1 10 syllables, L2 6 syllables, L3-L4 8 syllables.

  • rhymed, either aaba with the main rhyme A occurring somewhere near the end of L3 and the secondary rhyme b echoed by alliteration or assonance in the first half of L4 or the couplets are reversed baaa.

 

 Potential
I know that my life’s potent– gauged not small–
gives notice of quotient
believed not achieved to extent
that make it thus, this man’s intent .
Say I, one day still invent– mankind’s balm–
Might call on all unspent
forces of mine formerly misspent
then would I feel good and content?

©  Lawrencealot – June 29,2012

Authors’s Notes

This poem has the Cynghanedd (consonance, harmony of sound)

required of Welsh bards, as detailed here:

Specifically, all but the last line of the first stanza
and the penultimate line of the second have Cynghanedd lusg
(trailing consonance), in which the accented penultimate syllable
 of the end-word is rimed earlier in the line
(the part of each 10-syllable line after the dash being excluded);
S1L4 and S2L3, then, both have Cynghanedd groes (cross-consonance),
 in which the second part of the line repeats the sequence of
consonant sounds in the first (end of last syllable of either
sequence can be ignored, as can n, while w and y the Welsh treat as vowels).
Please note the correction suggested in the comments below and navigate there
for a fuller treatment of this form.

This correction by Gary Kent Spain, aka, Venicebard on Allpoetry.

You might want to alter the Cynghanedd part of your AN here (lifted from one of my poems, which is okay except it is inaccurate with respect to your poem) to reflect the slightly looser form of Cynghanedd Groes (and echoing of the gair cyrch) you have aimed for in this poem.  The following link gives for C. Groes the stipulation that all that is necessary is repetition of the initial consonants of words, which is close to what you’ve tried to do here:

 

Related Welch form at HERE.

 

Visual Template of sorts
Byr a Thoddaid

Séadna (shay'-na)

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Séadna is:
    1. written in any number of quatrains.
    2. syllabic 8-7-8-7.
    3. written with L1 and L3, 2 syllable end words; L2 and L4, 1 syllable end words.
    4. rhymed. L2 and L4 end rhyme, L3 rhymes with the stressed word preceding the final word of L4. There are two aicill-rhymes in the second couplet.
    5. composed with alliteration in each line, the final word of L4 alliterating with the preceding stressed word. The final syllable of L1 alliterates with the first stressed word of L2.x x x x x x (x a)
      x a x x x x b
      x x x b x x (x c)
      x b x c x x b

Many thanks to John Clitheroe for his work on the PoetsGarret site.

Séadna (shay’-na):
A quatrain stanza of alternating octosyllabic lines with disyllabic endings and heptasyllabic lines with monosyllabic endings. Lines two and four rhyme, line three rhymes with the stressed word preceding the final word of line four. There are two cross-rhymes in the second couplet. There is alliteration in each line, the final word of line four alliterating with the preceding stressed word. The final syllable of line one alliterates with the first stressed word of line two.
B x x x x x (x a)
x x x x x x b
x x x x c x (x c)
x b x c x x B
Caring for the watercolor
I find you looking at me there
Blush to white palor, dim valor,
Thus, where its blue core had found care.
Kathy Anderson
Example poem
Fight on Poet
Fight on against fear of failure;
cure your weary will and fright.
Pursue dreams; ignore cause killing
themes, write– winning thrilling fight.
(c) Lawrencealot – July 4, 2012
Visual Aid
  
This is my 2nd attempt to write specs for this form.  It is without a doubt the most demanding poetry form I have encountered.  Since it is not possible to make a template that is much more than the equivalent of house plans on a napkin, handed to an architect…I have included the check list I referred to repeatedly while writing this one verse poem.
Besides being overly challenged for a long while; I chose a one verse poem so I could demo the Line 4 2nd word rhyme, and the first-last unity.
Enjoy…this form will help fight off dementia.