Teach-in Glosa

If you've got any poetic juices left I'll attempt to teach you the Glosa

Poetic composition very popular in romantic countries between the 14th and 17th centuries, it is comprised of two parts: an introductory short stanza authored by another poet (called the mote, or motto); and the glosa itself, a stanza or series of stanzas that expand on the theme presented by the mote. The first line of the mote must be incorporated into the first stanza of the glosa, the second line of the mote must be incorporated into the second stanza of the glosa, and so on.

A sleep I shall have (a)
A rest I shall have (b)
Yet death will be but a pause (c)
For the peace of my years (d)
In the long green grass (e)
Will be yours and yours and yours. (f)
Leo Marks

This is part of the 'code poem' for Violette Szabo who was shot in the back of the head in a concentration camp in 1945, holding the hands of two other Special Operations Executive agents. Filmed as Carve her name with Pride.

I'll go not to this dark alone
nor hide beneath the stone
a sleep I shall have (a)
sisters kneel but we are never prone.

Hands that now are clasping mine
so will our hearts combine
a rest I shall have (b)
my labours done behind the enemy line.

What matters where my body lay
released from torture on this day
yet death will be but a pause (c)
my soul shall rise above the fray.

I see my home in my minds eye
life has been just a passing sigh
for the peace of my years (d)
not lost even in this last goodbye.

To look to the sky as in a dream
beauty of earth below would seem
in the long green grass (e)
reflected my final passing gleam.

Left behind on these foreign shores
a heart so true my spirit soars
given to you a freedom paid
will be yours and yours and yours. (f)

ooh, i remember trying one of these before. i enjoyed it, so am saving a space for sunday, if not tomorrow night. it can be easier with a four-line mote, so i'll prolly stick with that.

butters said:

ooh, i remember trying one of these before. i enjoyed it, so am saving a space for sunday, if not tomorrow night. it can be easier with a four-line mote, so i'll prolly stick with that.

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My nano clam poem is a glosa. A glosa that made me crossa my eyes.

What's the rhyming scheme? Also, is there a certain number lines in the mote required?

Neonurotic said:

What's the rhyming scheme? Also, is there a certain number lines in the mote required?

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Here's Tzara's post about the glosa from his thread of forms.

Angeline said:

Here's Tzara's post about the glosa from his thread of forms.

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Meaning, no rhyme scheme or required number of the mote, just as long as the each line of the mote is used for each stanza. In sequence that Annie said in her OP.

Neonurotic said:

Meaning, no rhyme scheme or required number of the mote, just as long as the each line of the mote is used for each stanza. In sequence that Annie said in her OP.

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That's how I understand it. And in sequence so it's like a poem repeated within your poem. Most resources say the mote should be four lines, but I've seen them with fewer or more than four. Of course the longer the mote, the more stanzas you have to write.

Neonurotic said:

Meaning, no rhyme scheme or required number of the mote, just as long as the each line of the mote is used for each stanza. In sequence that Annie said in her OP.

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If the mote is in form the stanzas should be also I think and if it is not at least adhere to the structure of the mote.

UnderYourSpell said:

If the mote is in form the stanzas should be also I think and if it is not at least adhere to the structure of the mote.

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That makes since to me. One other question, do you have to choose the first stanza of a poem for the mote?

Neonurotic said:

That makes since to me. One other question, do you have to choose the first stanza of a poem for the mote?

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February 2011 Workshop - Glosa This single post is Lauren's explanation of a glosa poem.

Neonurotic said:

That makes since to me. One other question, do you have to choose the first stanza of a poem for the mote?

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No as long as it makes sense because it has to stand alone as the first stanza and the following ones are of the same subject built on that first one to make a whole new poem.

Champagne's Glosa's are lovely and it was hard to chose just one to post here

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Max Ehrmann in Desiderata - Words for Life

Be yourself and worry
not what others do to win
your love but wait
to find what you want.

Especially, do not feign affection -
favourites of a crowd need not be
your own. To pretend draws
tears and we soon grow weary
with the effort of delight.

Neither be cynical about love;
leave this to the old and tired,
exhausted with living unhappy years,
unwilling to work for better.
They fail to move on

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
to change has become just too hard.
You are young and fresh so strive
to spring free of false fantasy and build
on this eager desire to grow.

It is as perennial as the grass
and as certain as the next generation,
that in spite of all we've failed in yesterday,
tomorrow will bring success.
__________________

I hope you will go into A Carrie Retrospective and read her others

I hope Jami-san doesn't mind but I figured it was either his or the fool's so...

mote

Cane Sugar Burn
by Neonurotic©

We move in a slow syrupy motion,
around and through each other.
Eyes are slit, mouths open, whispering.
We speak in the language of lovers
with passion burnt lips until we candy.

glossa

We move in a slow syrupy motion
gravity dictates the direction my mouth
takes to taste the reduction made by flames
we set to simmer since this morning
as you stretched and we sought to breathe

around and through each other's lips and teeth.
To call it a kiss is saying nothing about how
much I wanted to stay in bed instead of leaving.
I seasoned the recipe with a stroke along the sides
of your breasts until pleasure rattled the lid on desire.

Eyes are slit, mouths open, whispering,
good morning the same way you always do
but now I’m home and back against your curves
delving inside your navel until your giggles
turn to demands to follow the recipe again.

We speak in the language of lovers
that needs no method of when to stir.
Mise en place and then boil until soft
ball stage. Let cool with cuddles else
when we grab an early lick of the spoon

with passion burnt lips until we candy.
Forget the butter this isn’t caramel,
this is hard toffee to let sugar
on your tongue until you can’t stop
cracking the wafer between your teeth.

Yes I know it's cheating but I'm on limited time this weekend. Working straight through.

you may call it cheating, champers; i call it raising the freakin' bar so high imma gonna need a pole to try to vault it

well written

i started - but it's turning into something else. seven strophes, using the first line only in the first, first and second in the next and so on, filling in the rest of the lines till the final verse is the 'mote' in its entirety. not how i intended to write it. and not yet finished, either, so not doing so well right now. maybe i'll get another mote, a shorter one, and work it properly but keep this thing to see where it goes, if anywhere. any ideas what it's called as a form?

champagne1982 said:

I hope Jami-san doesn't mind but I figured it was either his or the fool's so...

mote

Cane Sugar Burn
by Neonurotic©

We move in a slow syrupy motion,
around and through each other.
Eyes are slit, mouths open, whispering.
We speak in the language of lovers
with passion burnt lips until we candy.

glossa

We move in a slow syrupy motion
gravity dictates the direction my mouth
takes to taste the reduction made by flames
we set to simmer since this morning
as you stretched and we sought to breathe

around and through each other's lips and teeth.
To call it a kiss is saying nothing about how
much I wanted to stay in bed instead of leaving.
I seasoned the recipe with a stroke along the sides
of your breasts until pleasure rattled the lid on desire.

Eyes are slit, mouths open, whispering,
good morning the same way you always do
but now I’m home and back against your curves
delving inside your navel until your giggles
turn to demands to follow the recipe again.

We speak in the language of lovers
that needs no method of when to stir.
Mise en place and then boil until soft
ball stage. Let cool with cuddles else
when we grab an early lick of the spoon

with passion burnt lips until we candy.
Forget the butter this isn’t caramel,
this is hard toffee to let sugar
on your tongue until you can’t stop
cracking the wafer between your teeth.

Yes I know it's cheating but I'm on limited time this weekend. Working straight through.

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Well to be truthful I don't think it is exactly cheating because when I was writing out the form requirements it doesn't actually say where the mote lines have to fall. When I first learnt it I was under the impression that the first line of the mote had to be the first line of the first stanza and the second line of the mote the second line of the second stanza etc but that isn't the case, they just have to be incorporated and I noticed in one of Angelines some of her mote lines are enjambed. So as long as they follow the rule of one each stanza I think it's admissible. Perhaps Tzara could put me right on this.

butters said:

i started - but it's turning into something else. seven strophes, using the first line only in the first, first and second in the next and so on, filling in the rest of the lines till the final verse is the 'mote' in its entirety. not how i intended to write it. and not yet finished, either, so not doing so well right now. maybe i'll get another mote, a shorter one, and work it properly but keep this thing to see where it goes, if anywhere. any ideas what it's called as a form?

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Don't know if it has a name, I'd have to see it first to decide. Perhaps you have invented a new form! A Cento uses all of other peoples lines but as you've incorporated lines of your own it's not that. This is another one I need Tzaras help on!

UnderYourSpell said:

Don't know if it has a name, I'd have to see it first to decide. Perhaps you have invented a new form! A Cento uses all of other peoples lines but as you've incorporated lines of your own it's not that. This is another one I need Tzaras help on!

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i doubt it's a new form; poetry's been around too long
anyway, i posted it over in my 'diversity' thread so as not to mess this one up. here's the link to the post.

http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=48710385&postcount=635

butters said:

i doubt it's a new form; poetry's been around too long
anyway, i posted it over in my 'diversity' thread so as not to mess this one up. here's the link to the post.

http://forum.literotica.com/showpost.php?p=48710385&postcount=635

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As you say definitely not a Glosa because you only use one line from the mote as far as I can see. The mote seems to be an inspiration if anything and why shouldn't it be a new form I've done a couple?! It looks similar to a Roundelay (Dryden's) but it's not that either

UnderYourSpell said:

As you say definitely not a Glosa because you only use one line from the mote as far as I can see. The mote seems to be an inspiration if anything and why shouldn't it be a new form I've done a couple?! It looks similar to a Roundelay (Dryden's) but it's not that either

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it's a failure as a glosa, that's for sure

UnderYourSpell said:

Well to be truthful I don't think it is exactly cheating because when I was writing out the form requirements it doesn't actually say where the mote lines have to fall. When I first learnt it I was under the impression that the first line of the mote had to be the first line of the first stanza and the second line of the mote the second line of the second stanza etc but that isn't the case, they just have to be incorporated and I noticed in one of Angelines some of her mote lines are enjambed. So as long as they follow the rule of one each stanza I think it's admissible. Perhaps Tzara could put me right on this.

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I was talking about me using the same poem to cover the 2 challenges you've set out. I use the first line in the first, the second in second, third in third and so on so I followed the form, although I didn't use a single quatrain as my mote, I used the entire poem.

champagne1982 said:

I was talking about me using the same poem to cover the 2 challenges you've set out. I use the first line in the first, the second in second, third in third and so on so I followed the form, although I didn't use a single quatrain as my mote, I used the entire poem.

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Ooops my bad! But I hadn't read the other thread when I posted here and that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
His vain conceit? Or is 't a mere disease?
Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath;
Thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.

Francis Quarles, Emblems


Dear lord what tragic clowns some mortals be!
What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
an ugly wish inside, a gritty bit
of hate or pain that breaks and cannot hide?

Does air cloy foul with enmity or time lay hard
upon his vain conceit? Or is 't a mere
disease? To fracture kindness and repeat
until there is no more? Until no less?

When sympathy is spent, the fabric rent
to useless threads and blithering idles,
Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath
and whirl within a gabbling discontent

until midnight falls howling from the sky
to quench the babble wailing I and I.
When dawn breaks gray the day gone meaningless
thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.




Took a few liberties so I hope I won't be taking the cane! You know me. I suck at rules.

PS Langston Hughes is a descendent of Francis Quarles (and a way better poet, but the mote found me!)

Angeline said:

What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
His vain conceit? Or is 't a mere disease?
Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath;
Thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.

Francis Quarles, Emblems


Dear lord what tragic clowns some mortals be!
What ails the fool to laugh? Does something please
an ugly wish inside, a gritty bit
of hate or pain that breaks and cannot hide?

Does air cloy foul with enmity or time lay hard
upon his vain conceit? Or is 't a mere
disease? To fracture kindness and repeat
until there is no more? Until no less?

When sympathy is spent, the fabric rent
to useless threads and blithering idles,
Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath
and whirl within a gabbling discontent

until midnight falls howling from the sky
to quench the babble wailing I and I.
When dawn breaks gray the day gone meaningless
thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death.




Took a few liberties so I hope I won't be taking the cane! You know me. I suck at rules.

PS Langston Hughes is a descendent of Francis Quarles (and a way better poet, but the mote found me!)

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no cane for you and apart from adding one word I don't see any liberties and don't count that as one anyway. What I see is a very powerful piece ....... well done

UnderYourSpell said:

no cane for you and apart from adding one word I don't see any liberties and don't count that as one anyway. What I see is a very powerful piece ....... well done

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Thanks. I did break that one line but it worked better that way and I was trying to hear the meter and make it work in the line.