Welcome to day 19! Today's prompt is a type of poem and as it's Sunday, we're going to play with common measure, the rhythm of hymns and ballads. Common measure has four-line stanzas with a particular rhythm, like this:
• / • / • / • /
• / • / • /
• / • / • / • /
• / • / • /
where • means a light syllable and / means a heavy syllable. (Fancy terms! • / is an "iamb", so these lines are "iambic". "Tetra" means four of them, so "iambic tetrametre" is four iambs. "Tri" means three of them, so "iambic trimetre" is three iambs. So in fancy terms, lines 1 and 3 are iambic tetrametre; lines 2 and 4 are iambic trimetre.)
You probably know this metre already, from hymns like Amazing Grace:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the soundIf you know that one, or any other hymn that uses common measure, it’s often easiest to copy that (or even sing your poem) to get a feel for the rhythm. And as you can see from Amazing Grace, the stanzas rhyme abab, cdcd, efef, etc. ("Alternate rhyme" while we're getting fancy with terms.)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
For an idea of what to write about, I suggest you choose some folklore, a local tale, or a scrap of local history, and write the story in common measure. (That's a ballad: a story in common measure.) Here's an example based around the folklore of why blackberries are no good after Old Michaelmas. I've marked the heavy syllables in bold.
The devil’s breached the Erl-King’s wood:
he’s crept down leaf-lined lanes.
The soil’s older magic should
have kept him out: the grains
that floating gild October’s air,
the tangling elders’ leaves,
the teazel spines, the bramble snare,
the hemlock: all of these
invoke the spell that hawthorn walls
and willow roof transmute –
but when the ripened berries call,
he pisses on the fruit.
The Meddling with Poetry course explores a host of different poetry forms as well as the musicality of language, poetic imagery, and other aspects of the poetic. It's 8 weeks long, one evening a week, and absolute beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. You can read more details and book a place here.
