Pleiadic
Type: Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Other Requirement
Description: A seven-couplet poem, the pleiadic’s first stanza is repeated piece-meal in the other six stanzas. Specifically, S2L1s1-4, S3L1s5-8, S4L1s9-10, S5L2s1-4, S6L2s5-8, and S7L2s9-10. There is some slight leeway in interpretation, for instance “-er” might become “her.”
Attributed to:Vera Rich
Rhythm/Stanza Length: 2
Line/Poem Length: 14
Pasted from http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/005/535.shtml
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.
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Pleiadic
The pleiadic is a verse form devised by Vera Rich, so-called because of its seven stanzas. It looks like this:
Solitaire
My love is quite unlike a red red rose –
No thorns, a sweeter smell, a paler nose.
My love is quite immaculate; the sun
Shines from her every orifice, bar none.
I have been smitten, like a red-nosed clown
By custard pies; in sweetness, I may drown.
Each day I offer her a blood-red rose
Which she declines; each day my ardour grows.
The blooms she spurns would be the pride of Kew –
No thorns, a sweet perfume, a lush deep hue.
I can’t imagine what mistake I’ve made –
Perhaps a subtler smell, a paler shade?
I brandish blossoms everywhere she goes.
I wish I knew why she turns up her nose.
The highlighted parts of stanzas 2 to 7 together make up a repeat of the whole of the first stanza, with each part in turn appearing in the same position in the new stanza as it did in the first. Each line is in iambic pentameter, and the repeats cover respectively 4, 4, 2, 4, 4 and 2 syllables. That’s all there is to it…
Pasted from http://www.volecentral.co.uk/vf/pleiadic.htm
My thanks to Bob Newman for his wonderful resouce at Volecentral.
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Not mentioned in either source above is the
Rhyme pattern: aabbccaaddeeaa
My example poem
Guy’s Lies (Pleiadic)
Can you believe I’ve never told a lie?
It’s all because my mem’ry’s bad, that’s why.
Can you believe I’m happy and content
Although each month my money’s mostly spent?
Forgetting lies I’ve never told someone
would be a bitch and probably not fun.
“Does this make me look fat?” Don’t tell a lie?
Tell her “Your hair looks splendid, sweetie-pie.”
Some people fib to be nice; that’s a fact.
It’s all because they’re exercising tact.
And if I get an answer wrong one day,
you know it’s ‘cus my mem’ry’s bad, okay?
I have few friends I’m not a tactful guy.
My wife has left me; could it be that’s why?
© Lawrencealot – August 17, 2014
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