Tag Archives: decastitch

• Decrina is a longer version of the Sestina attributed to Bob Neuman but I couldn’t find it at his website Poetry By Way. I did find it at Poetry Basehowever. Having written a Sestina, I can’t imagine why anyone would even consider attempting a longer version of the form.The Decrina is:
  • stanzaic, ten 10 line stanzas with a 5 line envoy, a total of 105 lines.
  • metered, lines of equal length, like the Sestina, iambic pentameter or iambic tetrameter.
  • repeated end words in a specific pattern. (Numbers represent words)
    0123456789
    1357902468
    3704815926
    7419630852
    4938271605
    9876543210
    8642097531
    6295184073
    2580369147
    5061728394I can only assume the envoy is like the Sestina with even #ed words midline and odd #ed words as end words. 0-9,8-7,6-5,4-3,2-1

She was to wed Arthur and become queen
when he ascended the throne but all
was modified, first by the acts of God
Then by the machinations of the crown.
Henry the seventh wanted at one time
to wed her to enhance his royalty
That would never help the Spanish people
or King; there’d be no role for his daughter,
in kingdom’s design; he never wavered
for Ferdinand expected much from her.
She was Princess of  Wales and loved by all
before young Arthur died.  She had no crown
and now was no part of the royalty.
A treaty next pledged Ferdinand’s daughter,
to Arthur’s brother, Henry who liked her
and who when his father died made her queen
immediately, now assured by God
and Pope, that Catherine was at that time
still virgin. Still embraced by the people
who in their respect had never wavered.
When Henry the eighth put upon the crown
he relished the insights of the daughter,
of the King of Spain, her input as queen
conjoined the countries int’rests for a time
but the queens love for Henry n’er wavered.
Their first years, a romantic time for all,
and they elevated the royalty
to a source of pride.  Henry trusted her
advice counsel and shared her love of God.
The kings court improved things for the people.
The queens first child was a still-born daughter,
a year later she birthed a son, this time
alive but he died soon after.  In all,
she bore six children- all of them but her
fifth, Mary, died to the grief of people
now hoping for an heir.  To keep the crown
safe was deemed the prime duty of the queen.
The king’s interest in his wife wavered,
and in search of continued royalty
he bedded many not consulting God.
Despite that, he shared power for a time
and while Henry fought in France it was her
direct leadership that won for the crown
more important campaigns; the troops wavered
not one bit with her and her faith in God.
It was three years later that her daughter,
Mary was born and lived; she focused all
That she did thereafter to give people
That her daughter might someday be queen.
She fought to preserve Mary’s royalty
When Henry’s mistress, Bessie Blont had her
son, he was deemed a prince. he King wavered
then in his devotion to his daughter.
The queen had always wanted the people
to have the schooling there for royalty
and strengthened women’s options over time
and educated Mary for the crown.
She always placed her faith in her one God.
So while she lived she worked and gave her all
that her own daughter, Mary might be queen.
Wanting Anne Boleyn, he never wavered
after demanding a divorce. People
hated, and taunted Anne at any time
she would appear in public so  both God
and man seemed to be aligned with the queen.
Thus the King denounced his faith to wed her
and changed the religious world his daughter,
would face with rage in her own royalty.
Now God, and man must answer to the crown.
Catherine loved King Henry through it all.
With royal supremacy the law, people
had to abandon now their Catholic God
and accept the Church of England but her
majesty refused. Stripped of royalty
And power by the announced divorce, all
hope seemed gone, yet she sill never wavered.
She refused inciting war at that time
though there was talk of war to save the queen.
She was not allowed to see her daughter.
Visitors required assent by the crown.
In lesser castles she still beseeched God
and behaved with apparent royalty.
Her support of Mary never wavered
though some were killed for thinking as the queen,
that Mary ought to someday wear the crown.
The winds of change ignore simple people
but history’s cyclone paid heed to her.
I’m not a fan of religion at all;
in tolerance the harvest all the time,
to wit: Bloody Mary, the queen, her daughter.
Despite the royalty of Henry’s time
revoking her claim to possess the crown
she never wavered for that sake of God
and for her daughter, Mary, through it all
the English people always deemed her queen.
© Lawrencealot – December 30, 2013