Bar Form

The Bar Form is a medieval, German stanzaic form. Lutheran chorals and minnesingers of the 12th thru 14th centuries used the form. The Star Spangled Banner is written in Bar form.

The Bar form is:
• stanzaic, any number of octaves made up of 2 couplets followed by a quatrain. The 2 halves of the octave are known as Aufgesang and the Abgesang “after song”. (the Abgesang can use portions of an Aufgesang phrase.)
• metered, at the discretion of the poet as long as the rhythm of the lines of the first couplet is repeated by the 2nd couplet, the following quatrain has a different rhythm in each line which is not repeated within the octave. It might be clearer described in music the first 2 couplets repeat a melody, the quatrain carries a different melody.
• rhymed, ababccdd

Star Spangled Banner by Frances Scott Keyes stanza 1

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1081
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

The “bar form” term is still used by songwriters today. The popular “Over
the Rainbow” is written in this form, as are all of the classic blues.

German and Austrian Poetic Forms:

Bar Form, Dinggedicht, Goliardic VerseKnittelvers, Minnesang, Nibelungen,Schuttelreim

 

My attempt

Nor Can I Now Whistle (Bar Form)

My cohorts often found me singing in the halls
or maybe whistling as I walked from place to place.
When taking showers notes were ringing off the walls
for happy music puts a smile upon my face.
A melody that you can sing together
Will get you through all kinds of stormy weather.
Old age has robbed my voice of any pleasant pitch
but if I keep it down nobody seems to bitch.

© Lawrencealot – November 13, 2014

Double Glose

Double Glose
Type: Structure, Repetitive Requirement, Other Requirement
Description: The double glose uses each line of the texte as a refrain, twice in the poem. One was done as a Stave where the line is both first and last of the glossing verse.
Origin: Spanish/Portuguese
Schematic: Varies

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/92.shtml>
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Since there are numerable differences in the interpretation of the proper formal requirement of the Glose, sub-forms have been invented which specifically mandate requirements which might or might not be chosen when writing a Glose.

The glose originated in Spain, where it is known as the glosa.

I am presenting here only one reference to the Glose itself, from a site which appears no longer active, (November 2014) but which presented the following fine overview.

WHAT IS A GLOSA POEM?
The Glosa was used by poets of the Spanish court and dates back to the late 14th and early 15th century. For some reason, it has not been particularly popular in English. A search of the Internet search will uncovered a meager number of brief references to the form. From the limited information it is learned that the traditional structure has two parts. The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse.
The second part is the glose or glosa proper. This is a “gloss on,” an expansion, interpretation or explanation of the texte. The formal rule describes the glosa as consisting of four ten-line stanzas, with the consecutive lines of the texte being used as the tenth line (called the glossing) of each stanza. Furthermore, lines six and nine must rhyme with the borrowed tenth. Internal features such as length of lines, meter and rhyme are at the discretion of the poet. Examples of this will be found in this chapbook collection.
As with most poetic forms, unless dictated by strict contest requirements, poets have taken the liberty to vary the format. In addition to the glosa’s traditional ten-line stanzas, one will find 4-, 5- and 8-liners. They will be found written in free verse, with meter, and with rhyme. In the shorter variations. You will find variations in which the first line of each stanza (taken from the original texte) repeated again as the last line – added as a refrain. When the first line is repeated as the refrain at the end of a poem the stanza form is referred to as an Envelope.
Another variation of a short glosa poem has to do with the location of the borrowed line. It can be the first line, the last line, or one inserted into the body of the stanza. Yet another variation is the use of the first four lines of a prose piece as the texte.
 
Pasted from <http://www.poetry-nut.com/glosa_poetry.htm>

Restated specification for the Double Glose
The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse. It is presented as an epigram beneath the title of your own poem
The following Glose or Glosa proper is
Stanzaic: consisting of as many stanzas, as there are lines in your texte,
each having a line length of the poets choosing
Metered: With a consistent meter of the poet’s choosing
Rhymed or not with a pattern of the poet’s choosing
Formulaic: Each line of the texte shall be both the first and list lines of succeeding stanzas.
Related forms listed here: Glose, Double Glose, Top Glose

Example Poem
Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue
In phrases unwritten and measures unsung,
As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea,
Is the song that my spirit is singing to me.
-from Song of the Spirit
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue,
my thoughts dance and flutter on gossamer wings.
Elusively trapped in the webs I have spun
feelings that from my soul’s core have been wrung
in poems conceived when my heart soars and sings.
Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue.

In phrases unwritten and measures unsung,
I long to give birth to them, set them all free.
The source I must find from which they have sprung,
then gathers the jewels I will find there among,
hat I might expound them in my poetry.
In phrases unwritten and measures unsung.

As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea,
where voices of whales transverse distance and time,
all coming together in sweet harmony,
a harvest of gold born of my own psyche
are verses all written in metrical rhyme.
As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea.

Is the song that my spirit is singing to me
forever to be an elusive refrain
that haunts me and taunts me with sweet melody
while mem’ry deserts me,  ignores every plea?
I cannot quite grasp or its beauty retain:
Is the song that my spirit is singing to me.

© Patricia Curtis, 2011

Pasted from <https://poetscollective.org/blog/2014/11/song-of-the-spirit/>

Visual template for this Double Glose
This poet chose sestet stanzas in catalectic amphibrach tetrameter,
With each stanza’s rhyme scheme being AbaabA.

Double Glose

Canzone

I am simply including the inventor’s description here, but note, in my template, I have replaced the capital letters with numbers to indicate the chosen words.
I feel this is more conventional or soon should be.
Canzone
The canzone is an Italian form with strong similarities to the sestina. There are no rhymes; instead there are five keywords that determine the structure of the poem. Every line of the poem – and there are 65 lines altogether – ends with one of the keywords, which must appear in a prescribed order.
Here’s one I made earlier:
Bananas
As will be plain to people of good taste,
The least sense of the five is that of smell,
An adjunct merely to ones sense of taste.
Bananas, say, you know best by their taste.
The skin’s not that distinctive to the touch,
But no-one ever could mistake the taste!
That subtly tangy creamy fruity taste!
Now stick one in your ear. What do you hear?
Be honest – there is nothing there to hear.
The whole point of bananas is their taste.
And look at them – there’s not a lot to see.
A yellow boomerang – that’s all you see.
Although perhaps there is more you can see.
On second thoughts, perhaps sight rivals taste.
From looking at its colour, you can see
Whether it’s ripe enough to eat, and see
If it is over-ripe and rank. Though smell
Can tell you that as well, that I can see.
The shape is something else that you can see.
You could of course detect the shape by touch,
But that’s an overrated sense, is touch.
My policy’s believing what I see –
A pretty common one, from what I hear.
Though I don’t credit everything I hear.
You’re bats if you choose fruit by what you hear.
There’s no excuse for that that I can see.
But with a radio you need to hear.
That is the whole point after all, to hear.
With radios there is no role for taste;
It’s all about the programmes you can hear.
It’s true that maybe now and then you’ll hear
A programme on bananas and their smell;
Technology can’t help you smell the smell;
The smell must be evoked by what you hear.
There’s one potentially confusing touch
Called scratch-’n’-sniff – smell comes from what you touch!
Which proves, perhaps, the primacy of touch,
Though here it’s just augmenting what you hear.
In silent moments you can still use touch.
Bananas have some lovely bits to touch –
There’s more that you can feel than you can see.
The curve; which end is which; all told by touch.
To peel one you must use your sense of touch.
You have to peel the thing before you taste…
But there’s more to it than what you can taste.
If wiggled slightly, with a gentle touch,
It will trisect – releasing waves of smell.
The fifth sense, and the least, the sense of smell.
Still, few things are evocative as smell.
Though mankiness you can detect by touch,
It’s better for that to rely on smell.
You needn’t wash your hands if you just smell.
You ought to smell bananas first, d’you hear?
If they are good it’s quite a different smell,
A really very pleasant sort of smell,
And that’s why you should smell your fruit, you see.
It sometimes tells you things that you can’t see.
Bananas with the true banana smell
Are fruit that it is safe for you to taste.
That’s what it’s all about, of course – the taste.
Sometimes a poem leaves an aftertaste,
Some slight suspicion of a musty smell,
The nagging fear the poet’s lost his touch,
Acquired a wooden ear with with which to hear…
Such faults the bard himself can never see.
“Mankiness” may be a Britishism. “Manky” means “rotten, bad, nasty”. It comes from either Scots, or English dialect, or Polari (homosexual slang), depending on which dictionary you believe.
Anyway, as you see, there are five stanzas of twelve lines each, followed by a five-line envoi (which I am tempted to call a tornada, as for the sestina). The pattern of the keywords goes like this:
    stanza 1: ABAACAADDAEE
    stanza 2: EAEEBEECCEDD
    stanza 3: DEDDADDBBDCC
    stanza 4: CDCCECCAACBB
    stanza 5: BCBBDBBEEBAA
    envoi:      ABCDE
No particular line length or metre is prescribed.
Variations
Other structures are possible, apparently, but I have never seen any of them. The one used here is supposed to be the most common (in so far as any kind of canzone could be described as common).
Prescription
Anyone addicted to writing sestinas should be encouraged to write canzones instead, as a kind of aversion therapy. The canzone goes on too long to be enjoyable for either writer or reader, in my opinion.
A big thanks to Bob Newman for the fine Volecentral resource.
 
My example
 
Impatient Pleas     (Cazone)
 
Come lie with me you pretty, pretty thing,
and let us stop our toying with our words. 
Your flirting with me started off this thing 
and now my mind’s rejecting any thing 
but ideas of you- no other thoughts 
seem even to amount to anything 
because to lie with you’s the only thing 
that promises to make my soul my own. 
My mind minds not directions of my own 
for I most work and tell it that the thing 
I want with you can’t be the first and last 
thoughts each hour should I want my job to last. 
 
You’re such a curvy and becoming thing; 
you beauty leaves me lacking proper words. 
You are a woman for man’s betrothing 
for character shines through without sleuthing. 
although a lesser man may hold out thoughts 
that you would be the optimum plaything, 
once stripped of outer and underclothing. 
It is my plan to take you as my own 
while cognizant you’re not a thing to own. 
Instruct what I must do- I’ll do that thing. 
You’re smitten now, and I want that to last 
I’m not your first but wish to be your last. 
 
How can such ardor ever hope to last- 
It seems almost a supernatural thing? 
When we first kissed I thought “Oh,God! at last” 
I’ve lived, so now fulfilled, can breathe my last. 
Let Lethe leave behind those unsaid words 
for now I wish this mortal life to last 
for even should I find my soul will last 
I want to cherish you in more than thoughts. 
You must be bundled up with loving thoughts 
accumulated and well built to last 
so when the physical’s not ours to own 
your memories will conjoin with my own. 
 
This is the year that we should make our own 
I’ll build a future we’re assured will last. 
I’ll give you confidence that you will own 
all pieces of that heart I called my own. 
And parsing out my heart’s no little thing 
because it’s always only been my own 
and you may have it- while it’s still my own. 
You’ll not have to rely upon my words 
for acttions will be louder than mere words 
and bringing joy to you provides my own. 
So frequently I find you in my thoughts 
and frequently they’re very sexy thoughts. 
 
When we’re apart you’re with me in my thoughts 
and nature makes all scenery my own. 
The whispers leaves exchange are surely thoughts 
about your luscious form and babbling thoughts 
voiced by the chuckling stream recalls the last 
time it lapped where my illicit thoughts 
will wander although more productive thoughts 
would fit the scheme.  There’s no more sensual thing 
than promised passion- not a single thing 
comes close.  the anticipatory thoughts 
may eclipse the act and mock any words 
which may be writ, for they are only words. 
 
Just know that when you penned the pretty words 
of a sweet kingdom stirred, that my own thoughts 
already were in tune with just those words; 
there’ll be no pining there in other words 
for my impatience equal to your own 
confronts and overcomes delays, and words 
are not required to hasten me, though words 
from you are like a siren first and last 
that cannot be ignored.  I know you’ll last 
as long as I; I’m burning beyond words 
so hesitation will not be a thing 
permitted as you are my everything. 
 
Be anxious for that “touch of soft skin” thing. 
Do not expect a waste of time with words. 
A sensual script will emanate from thoughts 
when my urgency meets your very own 
Each time, I’ll feel like saying, “here at last”.
  

 

Visual Template
 
 

Swap Ottava


Created by Discoveria of Allpoetry.com.

The form has an Ottava Rima framework in which the sections of the first line are swapped to become the last line of the stanza.
 
A Double Swap Ottava
requires that technique to be applied to two of the early lines, normally Line 1 and 2, to become the closing couplet of the octet.
 
 
Minimum length 8 Lines, no maximum
Meter: Iambic pentameter
Rhyme: ababaabcc
 
Visual Template

Example Poem:


Synchonicty   (Swap Ottava)
 
A random meet- a gift of God’s great plan.
She stepped into the bus I seldom take. 
I looked at her is how it all began. 
I found her cute, I was not on the make. 
My glance became a stare as a glance can. 
Our eyes met, then moved on for manner’s sake. 
She looked again ,and smiled; the smile was sweet.
A gift of God’s great plan– a random meet.
 
It is likely by chance: meeting a mate. 
This woman’s smile was brief, beguiling,  true. 
Not just her lips, but her eyes were more bait. 
I’d hoped that my face invited her too. 
My shyness abated… let me test fate. 
There may be no chance if I now eschew 
risking rejection.  I’ll ask her to dance. 
Meeting a mate: it is likely by chance.
 
One out of three: seems like the odds are fine 
This lady gave me her number and said, 
“I think I’d like that, but first let us dine”. 
A note for ladies… you take charge instead. 
Meet where you can leave if  things misalign. 
‘Cause likely, like me, guys want you in bed.
Results run the gamut, but try, be free. 
Seems like the odds are fine: one out of three. 
 


(c) Lawrencealot – April, 2012


Example of Double Swap Ottava



Social Schism  (Double Swap Ottava)

Some do less, some do more to help the whole. 

all members knew the score when tribes were small. 
Great hunters, all the members would extoll. 
Their prowess was a benefit for all. 
The tribes were healthy when each played their role, 
Our tribe will fail if no one heeds that call. 
When tribes were small all members knew the score. 
To help the whole,  some do less, some do more. 

© Lawrencealot – January 2, 2013 

Visual Template

 

Tempo Composto

Tempo Composto means “time’s up” in Latin.
A form invented by L. Allen Bacon, aka Allen a Dale of Allpoetry.
The first three stanzas of a “tempo composto” are made up of
1) A Spondee (DA-DA)
2) two lines of Dactyl (DA-da-da)
3) 12 syllables free verse.
The fourth stanza differs in that the final line is only
4 syllables of free verse.
The rhyme pattern is
a-a-x-x
b-b-x-x
c-c-x-x
d-d-x-x
Looks good centered, but that is not a requirement.
Example Poem

Ride in the Country
Roadside
countryside
Lemonade
For sale sign draws me in to find they have just corn.
Quite hot!
Day is shot.
I have got
no lemonade. Drive on looking for the next stand.
Need gas,
Still I pass
twenty-one
stations looking for fruit stand, then run out of gas.
Walk back!
Station sez,
Out of gas,
Got lemonade.
(c) Lawrencealot – May 30, 2012
Visual Template