Reblogged from Vivinfrance's Blog:

I’ve been thinking about the different kinds of rhyme.  A poem I wrote recently in French was criticised by a French friend, a retired professor of phonetics, because I used

                       attend à tour de rôle
                       l’appel comme porte-parole
as  a full rhyme, when the pronunciation is slightly different by reason of the  circumflex accent.  He said it wasn’t even a proper eye-rhyme.   These French academics can be …

From Viv(in France): a mini-primer on Rhyme

Reblogged from naming constellations:

One of the cool things about carefully constructed formal poetry is that it does things with sound that hit on almost a subconscious level. We’re all usually acutely aware of rhyme, alliteration, meter if it’s done strictly, and repeating lines. But there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface, which even the poet might not be aware of; they may be selecting words that just “sound right” without even realizing that it’s because a particular combination of sound and rhythm can cause effects in the …

I’m reblogging this, from Joseph Harker’s Naming Constellations.
This is the second Reverie exercise, and holds a lot.

Still unwinding from the weekend.  I’m not much of a blogger, and less of an essayist, but I’ll give it a lick and a promise.  Because I had such a fine time, in spite of the fact that my almost pathalogical shyness manifested as jabber with no connection to my brain.  It’s a toss up between that and mumbling monosyllables.

Anyway, the occasion was  retreat at Scarritt-Bennett.  Specifically the Pen to Paper Generative Poetry Retreat. My birthday present from Jim, and my first conference as a participant.  Audited a writers’ conference in 1979, where Madeleine L’Engle graciously read my jumble of typed/handwritten, Scotch taped, and jumbled pages even though I wasn’t registered.  Now that’s a class act.

No less the folks who led our group this weekend.  I’ll scrounge around and find some bio on them sometime or other, but  Christina Stoddard and T.J. Jarrett were  sharp, insightful, and fun.  We also had Jeff Hardin, who teaches at Columbia State for a master class and an evening reading.  Joyce Sohl, the  indescribable, kept us on track.  She is Laywoman in Residence, and will deal out the college history if you ask, and not if you don’t.   She’s the presence behind the monthly poetry readings at the Center’s Front Porch, and an author in her own right.

I’m going to be a while working through the weekend.  Also, working off the meals:  They do not skimp on their ingredients.  Excellent food.  Beautiful little campus. Crab Orchard stone in the sunrise is gold and rose.

Got a few shots, though most of mine tend to be odd details, rather than the big picture.

PAIRS FREESTYLE: unrhymed

One-man anapest, desk assisted mount

Standing solo iambic back-kick

Pantoum:
a quatrain form based on serial repetition with its basis
the Malay verse form "pantum". The original was short,
and sung or recited. The modern form in English may
go on ALMOST infinitely. Like the serpent with its tail
in its mouth, though, the Pantoum should come back
to its beginning for the finish.

There may or may not be rhyme, which will (or not) follow the abab scheme.
Line length and meter are not part of the equation. But, an unstrained consistent line seems to work best (remember the origins are oral)
Repeated lines may have variations, but. Every line needs to bear repeating, and (the tricky part) in a different context.

The second line of each quatrain (B1) leads off the following foursome. The fourth (D1)
repeats as #3. Two new lines (a new rhyme pair) take the second quatrain’s #2 and #4 slots, and get their repetition in the first and third lines of the following set. It is very square dancish.

This is written on the fly, don’t judge it harshly, but it’s easier to show than to explain:

the first quatrain
the second line
let me be plain
you’ll be just fine

the second line
second time around
you’ll be just fine
it will astound

(and so forth……. )

the second time around
when you pick a flower
it will astound …………
with it’s homey power

(then……when you decide you’ve finished, the last quatrain picks up the two unrepeated lines from the beginning, so everybody has a second go-round)

when you pick a flower
let me be plain ………….
about the homey power
and the first quatrain

(usually, the two swap order, and the first line ends the poem)

The effect can be dolorous, or very playful. I keep seeing references that suggest the pattern of repetition makes the form ideal for nostalgia. Maybe so, but I see repetition from consuming beer and in cabbage, and don’t feel more nostalgic from either one. (maybe the beer, just a bit)

Better examples than mine are:

Carolyn Kizer’s “Parent’s Pantoum,”

“Pantoum of the Great Depression” by Donald Justice

and whoever wrote the Wiki article included someone I “know”, a fellow RWP refugee
Rachel Barenblat. Her poem is ‘Command

An Interlinear Translation of Giving

Clever gave his mentor purple:  flowers and wine-soaked pod
Be gratified, old man.  That’s what Clever is saying.
Hear the testimonial to Clever’s good purple sense:
From a hundred years of receiving lesser presents,
He says it is uniquely purple.

Some men are fans of their own immortality
Librarians, who file their clippings scientifically
But the old man is not clever
He is Pan and chaos

Clever wants to see order in chaos
Clever wants the days of life and death held separate.
Pan doesn’t like to tinker with disorder
he is a childlike god
He is a monkey-curious god
Pan holds wine to the light and the light concentrates
around an old man and a purple gift.