Double Ballade

Double Ballade
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Repetitive Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description:
A ballade on steroids, this form has six octaves and may have a quatrain envoy. The double ballade uses only three rhymes throughout with each verse keeping the pattern: ababbcbC and the envoy being bcbC with C being a repeated refrain throughout.
This is also known as the Double Ballade with Eight-Line Stanza
Origin:
French
Schematic:
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
ababbcbC
bcbC
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
8
Line/Poem Length:
52
Copyright © 2001-2013 by Charles L. Weatherford. All rights reserved.
My Thanks to Charles for his wonderful resource at http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/
 
Example Poem
 
Another Chance
When dot coms came on board I didn’t speculate.
I could have if I’d but made the observation-
A brand new paradigm was here to celebrate.
I was caught up in my work-place aspirations,
too focused to consider new embarkations.
When Microsoft and Apple, started on their way
then Facebook I ignored early information.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
I’m older now, retired have time to meditate
and see the social net’s current domination
which gives pretense the timid must appreciate.
One son made bucks with SimCity’s fascination
by selling (on E-bay), his accumulation
of Simoleans – fake money one used to play
the game. He charged for their virtual desperation.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
The Internet’s too huge to really regulate
unless you admit dictator inclinations;
the power of shared knowledge bears an awesome weight.
In two thousand-nine was laid a new foundation
for currency not controlled by any nation.
for Nakamo, (out of nothing) I guess you’d say
Has denied nations rights to manipulation.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
The Bitcoin* disallows the nations to inflate
or change the money value by declaration.
Explaining how it’s done would really complicate
this verse, and worse (it’s a complex calculation.)
One earns coins by solving block-chain computations
and each stores each trade in their private dossiere.
I’ve joined the world-wide force after consultation.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
I’m glad I’ve got a savvy kid to emulate.
It likely a most worthwhile association
I helped him start so he could really educate
us both, and now I have had fine confirmation.
I’m mining now with unrestrained jubilation.
I’ve even overcome my wife’s abject dismay.
Put APICs* right to work; ignore fluctuations.
I wonder if there’s something’s going on today?
The fewer folks that are inclined to replicate
my acts, the better for my coin generation,
but I invite, right now you each to imitate
my actions.  Leave the sedated population.
The gift I offer friends is this conversation.
Get ready, for the future’s not too far away.
So trust me! Better still get more information.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
An Asian nation’s act caused devaluation
but global markets compensated and held sway.
Miners make money at most all valuations.
I wonder if there’s something going on today?
© Lawrencealot – January  18, 2014
*Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency introduced as open source software in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto.
*Application Specific Integrated Circuits
Visual Template
52 lines with envoy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Redondilla

NOTE:I have included the definition from two different sources here.  The first specifies the minimum number of quatrains, the 2nd does not.
The 2nd requires that the meter be TROCHAIC, the first is indifferent.
Well, boys and girls – indifferent wins.  I spent some time on 5 different sites and found NOT ONE trochaic poem in English, and several that did not have FOUR STANZAS.
This is simply a poem consisting of four quatrains in tetrameter, preferably iambic  or trochaic.  The rhyme scheme can be aabb, abab, or abcb.  (Although some sources will advise otherwise, syllable count is secondary to rhythmic flow).  Most descriptions do not mention meter.  I have found in the English language most use Iambic and any rhyme scheme, even mixing them.  (An insult, in my way of thinking.)
redondilla, a Spanish stanza form consisting of four trochaic lines,
usually of eight syllables each, with a rhyme scheme of abba.
Quatrains in this form with a rhyme scheme of abab,
sometimes also called redondillas, are more commonly known as serventesios.
Redondillas have been common in Castilian poetry since the 16th century.
The word is derived from the Spanish redondo, meaning “round.”
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/494744/redondilla
Example Poem
Tropical Storm (A Redondilla or a Serventesio )
Surging currents falling rain
cloudy grey and gasping sky.
Seabirds leaving, wonder why.
Season of the hurricane.
Board your windows stock your shelves
Candles, girlfriend, water, food,
Stranded people making feel good.
Living, loving, by ourselves.
“Mom and pop are coming too??”
“Having to evacuate!”
“Gosh and gee that’s really great.”
“Your folks too? Least we could do. ”
Moms crochet by candle light,
dads play cards and guzzle beer.
You and I with bed in here
writing poems day and night.
(c) Lawrencealot – July 24, 2012
Visual Template
Written in footless trochaic tetrameter.