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incandescensHad excellent if tiring day in London. Bought books. (Doh.)
Had one of those serendipitous moments. Picked up a book about the Devil in cinema from Notting Hill Gate exchange, and found it had several references and a short bio of Hans Heinz Ewers, who wrote the story Alraune (as well as being involved in numerous movies), in which I have an interest re something I want to write when I can get it right. So that was convenient.
(Cover image of Alraune -- http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/tartarus/e12.htm.)
Now here's an interesting poetic form -- the ghazal. Have stumbled on it quite by accident. Elegant.
A ghazal is as follows:
Form:
1. Five to twelve couplets.
2. Absolutely no enjambment between adjacent couplets.
3. Both lines of the first couplet must end with a rhyme and then a refrain:
----------------------- RHYME_A + REFRAIN
------------------------RHYME_A + REFRAIN
The rhyming word must immediately precede the refrain in both lines.
4. Each succeeding couplet ends with same rhyme and refrain in the second line:
-------------------------------------------
------------------------RHYME_A + REFRAIN
Thus, the rhyme scheme is AA, BA, CA, DA, EA, etc. The rhyming word must immediately precede the refrain.
5. Each line must be of the same length and metrical pattern (this is always the case in Urdu and Farsi). The specific meter and pattern depends on the language in which the poem is written.
6. The last couplet usually is a signature couplet, where the poet includes his or her pen name. It can be written in the first, second or third person.
Aesthetic:
1. The opening couplet should establish the mood and tone for the poem.
2. The mood of the ghazal in Urdu and Persion is "melancholy and amorous". "What defines the ghazal is constant longing".
3. Each couplet should be self-sufficient unit, quotable and "jewel-like". Qualities that may be present: epigrammatic terseness, lyricism, wit. Different couplets need not express a unity or continuity of thought.
4. The second line of the couplet usually amplifies the thought in the first, or provides a twist or surprise.
(from
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1161.html)
---
Ghazal of the Lagoon
Morning, on the promenade, there's a break in the light
rain here in the serene republic. I take in the light.
Every walker gets lucky at this gaming table,
where the gondoliers, like croupiers, rake in the light.
Through the glare of a restaurants window, I see
fish glinting, like spear points that shake in the light.
I could sit on the edge and get wet forever,
all to consider a speed boat's wake in the light.
Furnaces burn. We sweat until we shine, fired up
by the wavy vases glassblowers make in the light.
Row me out, friars, in your _sandolo_ on the waves
that glitter like ducats, for God's sake, in the light.
-- John Drury
Had one of those serendipitous moments. Picked up a book about the Devil in cinema from Notting Hill Gate exchange, and found it had several references and a short bio of Hans Heinz Ewers, who wrote the story Alraune (as well as being involved in numerous movies), in which I have an interest re something I want to write when I can get it right. So that was convenient.
(Cover image of Alraune -- http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/tartarus/e12.htm.)
Now here's an interesting poetic form -- the ghazal. Have stumbled on it quite by accident. Elegant.
A ghazal is as follows:
Form:
1. Five to twelve couplets.
2. Absolutely no enjambment between adjacent couplets.
3. Both lines of the first couplet must end with a rhyme and then a refrain:
----------------------- RHYME_A + REFRAIN
------------------------RHYME_A + REFRAIN
The rhyming word must immediately precede the refrain in both lines.
4. Each succeeding couplet ends with same rhyme and refrain in the second line:
-------------------------------------------
------------------------RHYME_A + REFRAIN
Thus, the rhyme scheme is AA, BA, CA, DA, EA, etc. The rhyming word must immediately precede the refrain.
5. Each line must be of the same length and metrical pattern (this is always the case in Urdu and Farsi). The specific meter and pattern depends on the language in which the poem is written.
6. The last couplet usually is a signature couplet, where the poet includes his or her pen name. It can be written in the first, second or third person.
Aesthetic:
1. The opening couplet should establish the mood and tone for the poem.
2. The mood of the ghazal in Urdu and Persion is "melancholy and amorous". "What defines the ghazal is constant longing".
3. Each couplet should be self-sufficient unit, quotable and "jewel-like". Qualities that may be present: epigrammatic terseness, lyricism, wit. Different couplets need not express a unity or continuity of thought.
4. The second line of the couplet usually amplifies the thought in the first, or provides a twist or surprise.
(from
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1161.html)
---
Ghazal of the Lagoon
Morning, on the promenade, there's a break in the light
rain here in the serene republic. I take in the light.
Every walker gets lucky at this gaming table,
where the gondoliers, like croupiers, rake in the light.
Through the glare of a restaurants window, I see
fish glinting, like spear points that shake in the light.
I could sit on the edge and get wet forever,
all to consider a speed boat's wake in the light.
Furnaces burn. We sweat until we shine, fired up
by the wavy vases glassblowers make in the light.
Row me out, friars, in your _sandolo_ on the waves
that glitter like ducats, for God's sake, in the light.
-- John Drury
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 01:30 am (UTC)I will wake every morning, inductive, from one to n;
I have slept every evening, inductive, from none to n.
If it's held in my spirit then never the sun shall end;
And the sunlight'll race every morning from sun to n.
As I grow I'll add nodes to the graph of the things I love;
I will build my vocation, inductive, from fun to n.
I will shy from the premise that proves that all hopes must end;
One horde's not enough to trace Attila the Hun to n.
I'm told by induction of the steps two and three to n.
So I've set forth this morning intending to run to n.
Copyright (C) Rebecca Borgstrom, 2004
no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-31 02:18 pm (UTC)^_^ Poetry high!
Date: 2005-01-01 03:59 pm (UTC)