Inside the chaos breached the no-stress Carefully planned now messed up out of sight The king is coming and nothing is right
Category: 8-Line Forms
Destiny’s Demons
The old demons descended like a black cloud Surrounding my heart deep inside their darkest shroud...
Stalling Heart
Recall the melody they played on strings those sultry strings that echo tangos fall...
Chueh-chu Notes
The Chueh-chu is noted in Robin Skelton’s ‘The Shapes of Our Singing’ as a Chines form with chueh-chu roughly translating to ‘sonnet cut short’. Skelton suggests three rhyme schemes and the use Wu-yen-shih meter (5-syllable phrases/lines). The rhyme schemes are as follows: aaba cadaabcb dbedaaba aaca Example Full Moon by Robin Skelton Full moon: a … Continue reading Chueh-chu Notes
Shadows of Percy Bysshe
Sadness explodes with my breathing and the tears flow with lonely words. The images of love are leaving like the flight of the birds. Is anything in life so naive as this life lost in lover’s lore? The heart broken with no reprieve, yet still I love you more...
Boaters and School Ties
I meet the youth of old school ways and weep an aging tear. The city lights and rushing days in white and amber gear, The whitewash walls meet Itchen shore as cargo waits its ship, in dreams of teens for love and more my journal's ink lets slip....
Spenserian Stanza Notes
The Spenserian Stanza is a stanza form invented by the English poet Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Fairie Queene. Each stanza consist if eight lines of iambic pentameter or decasyllabic lines followed by one line in iambic hexameter or twelve syllables.The rhyme scheme is as follows ababbcbcc dedeefeff ghghhihii and so on Example … Continue reading Spenserian Stanza Notes
Sicilian Octave Notes
Another Italian form popular with sonneteers is the Sicilian Octave. Originally it would have had no set meter, although iambic pentameter is currently popular. The octave has the following rhyme scheme: abababab Example Nightingale by Ryter Roethicle I am a nightingale and a singer of the truthThis flower is my symbol and my love.Each night … Continue reading Sicilian Octave Notes
Roseate Due
Old-fashioned beauty kissed by morning dew, In summer-rain her dreams reflect the sun, And poets ponder magic she can do...
It’s Grim Out There
Ill-mannered weather insulting the skin Echoes of rudeness the forecaster’s smile A beautiful day for taking it in...
Tarocchini
In ancient ways of magic I can see The guiding light I need to find my way The future mine to take...
White Sails
Form: Italian Octave 2 The masts chatter casually on the breezeFrom where there have been to where they will goThe trials and tribulations that flowAnd how the ever-changing tides at easeAs the weather-worn hands tack to the windTo follow the stars to a distant landThe white sails on the course he had plannedAns time shines … Continue reading White Sails
Black Shires
Form: Italian Octave At noon, the neap tide and the hourAnd black shires were leading the wayPerhaps like any other dayThe hay wain crossed over the StourWith his paint he caught the pow’rIn strokes of oil on canvas layA thousand words speak artists sayAnd time stood still held in that hour The Hay Wain by … Continue reading Black Shires
Octave Notes
An Octave is any eight-line poetry form of which there are a wide variety. Most of these forms are discussed in various poetic form notes but octaves with couplets, blank verse, free verse, and the more unusual rhyming patterns such as interior rhyme, beginning of line rhyme are largely ignored. So this is for those … Continue reading Octave Notes
Huitain Notes
A very old French verse form the Huitain consists of one eight-line stanza composed of ten-syllable lines. The verse is written over three rhymes and the two popular rhyme schemes are as follows:ababbcbcandabbaacac Example Be thou like a rose by Ryter Roethicle Be thou like a Rose my belovedLet not thy thorns keep me away.When … Continue reading Huitain Notes
Chills and Thrills
And colours change as seasons turn With rusty copper hills Delicate birch and solid oak...
Going Underground
Heads down, mind the gap, boarding trains Before the jerky beat While standing bodies sway in time...
And Ravens Fly
Old buildings have secrets so some would say Whispering between the walls Old souls watching o’er the living tonight...
Majestic Gaze
Poised, an Arcadian goddess Adorned in luxury and style Beauty bursting from her bodice...
Common Octave Notes
A variation to Common Measure is the Common Octave, a stanza form consisting of eight lines with alternating meter. Lines 1,3, 5, and 7 are iambic tetrameter or octosyllabic and lines 2, 4, 6, and 8 are iambic trimeter or six syllables. Lines 2, 4, 6 and 8 also rhyme. This gives the following rhyme … Continue reading Common Octave Notes
Pagan Drums
When I hear the Pagan drumbeat calling all my tribal brothers. Cannot sit and listen softly have to join in with the others. Native pulses stamping circles, footsteps trace the tribal dances....
Jezzie G 