Palindrome
Definition: “A palindrome is commonly thought of as a word (e.g., “deified”), phrase or
sentence (e.g., “Able was I ere I saw Elba”) that reads alike both backward and forward. The
word, derived from the Greek palindromia, literally means a running back again.” The ordering
of the lines in the first half of the poem is reversed in the second half (and/or the ordering of
words and even letters may be reversed in the two halves of the poem). (Braid and Shreve 130)
- Any number of stanzas of any length
- No set metre or syllable count required
- No Rhyme scheme required
- Repetition is the key
- Palindromes are flexible: you can alter the punctuation
- Unfortunately, they are limited in scope because you cannot really make them lyrical and you
have to focus on the repetition
- There are themes of tension, balance, resolution and juxtaposition. They are usually some
kind of narrative.
SATOR square
Examples in the textbook:
“Loop” by Fiona Tinwei Lam
“Mobius Strip” by Anne Simpson
“ATM” by Elizabeth Bachinsky
“if you can't eat you got to...” by e.e. cummings
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/289/
- This example is palindromic in many ways (phrases, syllables, lines per stanza etc).
Class Activity:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/bigmothaD/identify-the-palindromes
I managed to solve all but one, as I could not remember Fiona Lam’s middle name.
Reflection:
Daniel gave us this link to look at: http://www.palindromelist.net/ .
I feel that because of the popularity of sentences like these, people have a difficult time taking
this poetic form seriously. The fact that it’s nearly impossible to be clever, eloquent or
significantly lyrical when using a letter palindrome. The lesser-known variations with words and
sentences can, in fact, have more flow and I think if they were a bit more popular, the form
would be thought of more as poetry. An interesting alternate activity would have been to
change a poem of a different form into a palindrome, though I suspect that this would have
taken far too long for it to be viable within the time constraints. It would have been a very
valuable insight into the constraints of the form.
Ode
Definition: The Ode is a poem of praise.
- Long lyric poem
- Serious in subject and treatment
- Elevated in style
- Elaborate in its stanzaic structure
- Poem of celebration
- Pindaric Ode: a close imitation of the classic ode consisting of a strophe (two or more lines
repeated as a unit) followed by a metrically harmonious antistrophe, concluding with a
summary line (called an epode) in a different metre. These three parts corresponded to the
movement of the chorus to one side of the stage, then to the other, and their pause midstage to
deliver the epode (Brittanica, 2011).
- Horatian Ode: In contrast to the passion, visionary boldness, and formal language of typical
odes, they are calm, meditative, and colloquial as well as shorter. They are also usually
homostrophic (Abrams & Harpham, 2009). They are typically short lyric poems written in
stanzas of two or four lines. In contrast to Pindaric Odes, they are intimate and reflective; they
are often addressed to a friend and deal with friendship, love, and the practice of poetry
(Brittanica, 2011).
- Irregular Ode: Imitates the classic ode and matter but disregarded the recurrent stanzaic
pattern and instead allows each stanza to establish its own pattern of varying line lengths,
number of lines, and rhyme scheme. They are free to alter in accordance with shift and mood.
Irregular Odes are the most common style of English Ode (Abrams & Harpham, 2009).
Ode to my Hips:
- Celebrates hips; empowers women.
- It's an irregular ode in blank verse.
- There’s repetition, which creates rhythm.
Class activity:
- We were assigned http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/america/ and tasked to figure out which type
of ode it was and why.
- We decided it was irregular because it did not have a rhyme scheme or follow a set meter.
Alternate Activity:
Students would be advised to search their iTunes libraries and youtube for a recent song that meets the
definition for ode. They would then be tasked to decipher which kind of ode it was and whether setting
it to music enriched the poetic value (for example, if the bass line is really deep and makes the poem
sound more forceful).
Pantoum
Definition: A Malay verse form consisting of quatrains with an ‘abab’ rhyme scheme in which the
meaning of the first couplet usually makes only indirect allusion to that of the second couplet, and
(when occurring in a series) with the second and fourth lines of one quatrain repeated as the first and
third lines of the next. (OED)
- Originated in Malaysia in the 15th C. shorter and more lyric than current ones, with rhyming couplets.
- Pantoum says everything twice, but in a specific order: first line of one stanza is the second in the next,
third line of one stanza is the fourth line in the next.
- Why do we write pantoum?
- You change your punctuation, which means you can change your meaning.
- They’re incantations because of their interlocking and repetitious nature.
- This is the "evocation of a past time" because you're thinking about something.
- Pros: you don't have to worry about meter/number of syllables per line, and you only have to write
half as many lines.
- Cons: very strict: your lines have to make sense when you rework them.
Evening Harmony - Charles Baudelaire
Empty Chairs
Class Activity:
We were assigned a pantoum poem with some of the lines missing and instructed to write new ones to
complete the poem as per the structure. The lines with asterisks are the ones that were written by our
group.
Our pantoum:
While building castles in the sand
I paused a while and pondered.
*And held them in my hand
*Plucked from whence they wandered.
I paused a while and pondered
What these little creatures were.
*Plucked from whence they wandered
*I wasn’t really sure.
What there little creature were
Was not quite clear to me.
*I wasn’t really sure
*Why hadn’t I let them be?
Was not quite clear to me
I had caused their liberation
*Why hadn’t I let them be?
*I felt a new sensation:
I had caused their liberation
*And held them in my hand.
*I felt a new sensation
While building castles in the sand.
Reflection:
Is pantoum a fugue?
I think that pantoum and fugue are very similar, but that pantoum is not a subclass of fugue. Fugue
seems to me to be more of an emotional message, and with pantoum you can tell a story. That being
said, the discussion that we had in class raised some good points: both make use of frequent repetition,
which is the main characteristic of the genre. Perhaps instead of being mother and daughter, these
forms are sisters.
The first result on a Google of “pantoum” is the Wikipedia page, which says that it is very similar to a
villanelle. Further research mentions the two in the same breath as a sestina several times, which is
another form with a characteristic type of repetition.
Prosody of Rap
Definition: According to Oxford English dictionary, prosody can be defined as the patterns of rhythm and
sound used in poetry. Thus, it is defined as the patterns of stress and intonation in a language.
- Traditional and nonmetrical prosodic study. Meter: trochaic pentameter. Flow is important, as is vocal
presence, enunciation, breath control (taking in air without interrupting delivery). Rhyme is key.
- Subjects treated include social struggle, monetary boasts, sex; all are important themes.
- Issues concerning racial class: rap originated in the African-American community.
- They will often use ungrammatical contractions and curse words, which means that this will never be a
high poetic form.
- Flow, speed, content and rhyme are the four main factors to a rap.
Changes by Tupac:
- Repetition of "myself" > he is talking about what he thinks
- Forced rhyme right afterward (common in rapping: they take advantage of their accent)
- He’s trying to use humor to lighten the social burden.
Class Activity:
We were given the take home assignment of writing a couple of lines of rap over the instrumental of a
Chris Brown song. I went a little overboard and came up with the following:
Brony be Illin’
Dashing like I'm Rainbow, fly like Fluttershy
All dem Friendship haters still cannot understand why
I'm kickin it like Applejack - rocking magic e'ery day
Pinkie brings the party time so here is what I gotta say
Incoming from Doctor Whoof: shake a flank and drop the beat
Spike'll troll Celestia; DJ P0n-3 cannot compete
Trixie's here to stir things up; Derpy Hooves' is Ditzy Doo
Big Macintosh got so much swag and Luna's back for Season Two
Rarity's my mane girl; Twilight is the cutest filly
If you haven't joined the herd, don't you dare to dally, dilly
20% cooler; everypony know it's true:
They gonna love and tolerate the shit right outta you.
Reflection:
- I think that rap is a great way for those who don’t have especially musical voices to express themselves.
As I’m sure you can see, I don’t think that it has to be limited to serious issues such as violence or
money.
- The etymology of the word “rap” is debatable: various sources say that it might come from “Rhythm
And Pitch,” the homonym “rap” (as in to rap on someone’s door), or the word “repartee.” I think that
this ambiguity is an interesting factor, and when I get the chance to, I intend to ask my Historical
Linguistics professor if he has any insight into where this term came from.
Riddle
Definition: A question or statement intentionally phrased to require ingenuity in ascertaining its answer
or meaning, freq. used as a game or pastime; an enigma; a conundrum (OED)
- Puzzle-like poems where the reader must guess what is being described.
- Kenning: use two words and put in a hyphen to make something with another meaning.
- Humorous, amusing; across many cultures, attractive to all ages, helps develop mental skills.
- Sometimes they are hard to solve, though.
- They date back before writing started.
Class Activity:
- We had to come up with riddles about tomatoes.
- We invented three:
"Squashed in Spain and peppered by critics"
"My colors are festive of a wintery time / though I grow in the summer and I grow on a vine"
"Do you like me in a soup? Do you like me as a paste? / do you like me as a sauce? I'll be your favorite
taste"
Rondeau
Definition: “A medieval French verse form also used by some late 19th‐century poets in English. It
normally consists of 13 octosyllabic lines, grouped in stanzas of five, three, and five lines. The whole
poem uses only two rhymes, and the first word or phrase of the first line recurs twice as a refrain after
the second and third stanzas. The standard rhyme scheme (with the unrhymed refrain indicated as R) is
aabba aabR aabbaR. Variant forms of the rondeau include those using 10‐syllable lines and those having
only 12 lines, but in all cases the refrain and the restriction to two rhymes are retained.” (The Oxford
Dictionary of Literary Terms)
In Flanders Fields
- a and b are consistent throughout the poem. The recurring refrain occurs at the end of the second and
third stanzas.
Origin:
- Originally a musical form from the 11th to 13th C.
- Eventually developed a poetic form from the music.
- Songs about courtly love and chivalry (Jean Renart's Rouman de la Rose).
- There are not a lot of written works still around other than this.
- Moving from homophony to polyphony.
- One person singing to two or more people singing the same chant line at different points (sometimes
at counterchant).
- Music was becoming too complex for everyone to master both the poetry and the music, so they were
divorced from one another near the end of the 14th C.
- The Rondeau that we know today was different from the Rondon, which was the musical form.
- This was very popular in the 15th C after the ballad in the 14th C.
- Charles, duke of Orleans wrote rondeau in prison, and made it popular.
- Traditional form is quintet, quatrain, sestet.
- 8-10 syllables in each line except for the refrain, which is outside rhyme scheme and just the first
phrase in the first line.
We Wear the Mask
- Standard rhyme form, except for that it ends with an exclamation point
- About racism, amplifies the sentiment of frustration, which is why the poet uses the exclamation point
to draw everything to conclusion (it's the accumulation of frustration)
Thomas Wyatt: there are some exceptions
- A lot of rondeau are in French, so it is hard to find them in English
- There are a lot of books on a musical form
- Some of these poems have been modified into sonnet and popularized that way
Class Activity:
We were assigned a Rondeau and instructed to identify the rhyme scheme and refrain, as well as
something peculiar about this poem.
Cornford, Frances Darwin RONDEAU ON WINES IN WARTIME
- abba abRr abbaaR
- Refrain is two lines at the end of the second and a whole line at the end of the third and fits the rhyme
scheme
- It is not quintet, quartet, sestet
- All the syllables are 10: the refrain isn't shorter
- There are light and whimsical rondeaux, and funny, witty ones, but for the most part they are in old
French
Reflection:
Upon learning of the rondel, I was able to make the connection between this poem, the Rondeau on
Wines in Wartime, and that form (this rondeau is actually a rondel).
Rondel
Definition: A type of short poem of medieval French origin, related to the rondeau and the triolet and
consisting typically of thirteen lines set in three stanzas with two rhymes
Defintion of the term, not the poetic form: A circular object or shape
- ABba, abAB, abbaA(B) < capitalized letters are the refrain
- The meter is variable, but it is typically 8 syllables
- The power comes from the refrain
- It’s a fairly short poem, but there are a lot of repeated lines
- Themes of love and life; evolved from the triolet
Rondel by Charles D'Orleans
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rondel/
- There’s a strict rhyme scheme and a refrain rule, but there is a little bit of flexibility
The old grey piper spurs his song
Along the ridge I used to walk
- In the actual poem, he brings further emphasis to the refrain by keeping it iambic and the rest trochaic
Rondeau Redoubled
- Another variant of the rondeau.
- Unclear where it was split from the rondeau. Not a very well-known form
- Most known rondeau redoubled are fairly well-known
- Shares a lot with the glosa
- Five quatrain and one quintet
- A lot like the regular rondeau
- Hemistitch = half repetition of the first line
- Each stanza ends by repeating the corresponding line in the previous stanza
- ABAB BABA rhyme scheme throughout the poem
- Rhyme scheme built by the first stanza
- No prescribed meter in the modern form, though it may be octets or iambic pentameter
- Everyone just names their poems "rondeau redouble"
- It kind of seems like people are bragging that they wrote their poem in this little known, difficult form
- If the meter is broken in the first stanza, then it comes back because there will be repetition
- It’s basically a longer rondeau
- is it even more circular than the rondeau?
- This is almost an obsessive quality
- There are psychological themes
Class Activity
We were given a poem with certain lines cut out and instructed to put them back where we
thought they belonged. The colored lines were the cut-outs, and this is what we came up with:
Rondeau Redoublé (and Scarcely Worth the Trouble, at That) – by Dorothy Parker
The same to me are sombre days and gay.
Though joyous dawns the rosy morn, and bright,
Because my dearest love is gone away
Within my heart is melancholy night.
My heart beats low in loneliness, despite
That riotous Summer holds the earth in sway.
In cerements my spirit is bedight;
The same to me are sombre days and gay.
Though breezes in the rippling grasses play,
And waves dash high and far in glorious might,
I thrill no longer to the sparkling day,
Though joyous dawns the rosy morn, and bright.
Ungraceful seems to me the swallow's flight;
As well might Heaven's blue be sullen gray;
My soul discerns no beauty in their sight
Because my dearest love is gone away.
Let roses fling afar their crimson spray,
And virgin daisies splash the fields with white,
Let bloom the poppy hotly as it may,
Within my heart is melancholy night.
And this, oh love, my pitiable plight
Whenever from my circling arms you stray;
This little world of mine has lost its light...
I hope to God, my dear that you can say
The same to me.