The Bouts-Rimés Challenge

Bouts-Rimés ("rhymed ends" in French) is a kind of literary game in which the participant composes a poem based on a set of rhymed words supplied by another poet. For example, if the set of words is walk, rain, pane, stalk, smile, guile, an acceptable, though dreadful, response might beWikipedia describes the origin of the term (and the game) thusly: "The invention of bouts-rimés is attributed to a minor French poet of the 17th century named Dulot, of whom little else is remembered. According to the Menagiana, about the year 1648, Dulot was complaining one day that he had been robbed of a number of valuable papers, and, in particular, of three hundred sonnets. Surprise being expressed at his having written so many, Dulot explained that they were all blank sonnets, that is to say, that he had put down the rhymes and nothing else. The idea struck everyone as amusing, and what Dulot had done seriously was taken up as a jest."

The object is to compose a poem that makes some kind of sense. This can be particularly difficult if the rhyme words have little obvious connection to each other. The list of words to use as rhymes can be as little as two (i.e. requiring a couplet response); there is technically no limit to how many there can be, but I suggest we restrict this to a maximum of fourteen words (in other words, sonnet length). I declare slant rhymes acceptable (e.g. sword/gird). Extra credit is given for consistent metrical form (e.g., iambic pentameter), though metricality is not a requirement.

Let's start with a particularly Lit-friendly list of words:Bonne chance!

lust
scrum
thrust
come

Such is my rugby lust
that those men in the scum
make my hips want to thrust
at you 'til I come.

More! More!

GuiltyPleasure said:

lust
scrum
thrust
come

Such is my rugby lust
that those men in the scum <-- Freudian slip?
make my hips want to thrust
at you 'til I come.

More! More!

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Sorry. I should have added that the person who composes a response should provide the next set of rhyme-words. So you're up, Tess. Any set of rhymes from two to fourteen, any pattern.

Bloody hell! Is it an in this thread challenge?

Tzara said:

Sorry. I should have added that the person who composes a response should provide the next set of rhyme-words. So you're up, Tess. Any set of rhymes from two to fourteen, any pattern.

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As, so be it. Sorry to all rugby players for accidentally calling them scum, kinda.

next rhymes.....

grief
cedar
belief
bleeder
sheaf
cheerleader

GuiltyPleasure said:

As, so be it. Sorry to all rugby players for accidentally calling them scum, kinda.

next rhymes.....

grief
cedar
belief
bleeder
sheaf
cheerleader

Click to expand...

Letting Go

Loss does not always lead to a reasoned grief
and a dying love need not always be hung in a cedar
closet in the faith and belief
it someday can be retrieved whole. A passionate love, a bleeder,
could drip ruin on that old prom dress, the sheaf
of hand-typed love notes, your old photograph as cheerleader.


Rhyme words (feel free to change the order):

head (or something ending that way, like "drumhead")
black (or bootblack, for example)
tack (or attack, etc.)
spread (or bedspread, etc.)
red (or the homophone "read" or something ending that way, like "well-read")
smack (etc.)
back (playback, ridgeback, rollback, etc.)
dead (etc.)

I cheated is that ok ...I used both red and read ....duh! ...if not disqualify me and go back to those words heh by the way ..smack SUCKS kks or maybe its just my writing lololol


Blood Red

It’s all in your head
These misted visions in black
Tick for tack
Wide open and spread
Like a play well read
The truth of a mental smack
As the phantoms of life to set you back
Leaving you as good as dead
Because reality runs blood red


Pie
Tie
Fly
Shy
Die / dye

Pudendum Pie

Pudendum pie, pudendum pie
if I don’t get some, I think I’m gonna die
shave away that pubic grass, don’t be shy
on my tongue baby, you’re really gonna fly

With sincere apologies to Denis Lee

behold
tune
ember
marigold
swoon
September

Loony iTunes

A sprawled Melissa’s something to behold
October, listening to another tune.
The frost is on the pumpkin, one last ember
in the stove, and dead’s the marigold,
but she would rather with her iPhone swoon
than go to school which started in September.

sand
leave
understand
grieve
bed
relief
dead
intent
fed
represent

sand
leave
understand
grieve
bed
relief
dead
intent
fed
represent

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Reflections

I walk slowly, footprints in the wet sand
of the shore. You hadn't wanted to leave,
and I think I finally understand;
I just wish I could do more than grieve
for eating alone, and having half my bed
empty. Surely there's some sort of relief
to be had from the memories of the dead?
I meant to say so much, but intent
like that is what keeps Satan's work crews fed.
And is not how I would wish to represent
Us.

~~~~~


(alright, would be sonneteers...here's a chance for you )

bough
steal
endow
congeal
heart
winter
start
splinter
facet
mirror
casket
endure
plain
pain

Remec said:

Reflections

I walk slowly, footprints in the wet sand
of the shore. You hadn't wanted to leave,
and I think I finally understand;
I just wish I could do more than grieve
for eating alone, and having half my bed
empty. Surely there's some sort of relief
to be had from the memories of the dead?
I meant to say so much, but intent
like that is what keeps Satan's work crews fed.
And is not how I would wish to represent
Us.

~~~~~


(alright, would be sonneteers...here's a chance for you )

bough
steal
endow
congeal
heart
winter
start
splinter
facet
mirror
casket
endure
plain
pain

Click to expand...

I don't see how you can make a sonnet out of that when none of the words rhyme

UnderYourSpell said:

I don't see how you can make a sonnet out of that when none of the words rhyme

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Remec has set up the rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet, though there are a couple of slant rhymes and, of course, the possibility that the words are pronounced differently in your part of England than they are in the USA.

Here's the rhymes as I hear/read them:Now, keeping them in order, writing something to fit that order, and (if you're writing a standard sonnet) doing all that in iambic pentameter is something of a challenge.

Just remember that it only kind of needs to make sense.

I'll let someone else take it on, not too well again and the drugs turn my brain to cottonwool.

Tzara said:

Remec has set up the rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet, though there are a couple of slant rhymes and, of course, the possibility that the words are pronounced differently in your part of England than they are in the USA.

Here's the rhymes as I hear/read them:

bough/endow
steal/congeal
heart/start
winter/splinter (feminine rhyme, but, I think, true)
facet/casket (slant rhyme, and feminine as well)
mirror/endure (this one is rather rough, slant and accented differently, but still acceptable)
plain/pain​

Now, keeping them in order, writing something to fit that order, and (if you're writing a standard sonnet) doing all that in iambic pentameter is something of a challenge.

Just remember that it only kind of needs to make sense.

Click to expand...

Hmmm -- my understanding is that pretty much any sonnet form requires you to rhyme each word more than once.

Tzara said:

Remec has set up the rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet, though there are a couple of slant rhymes and, of course, the possibility that the words are pronounced differently in your part of England than they are in the USA.

Here's the rhymes as I hear/read them:

bough/endow
steal/congeal
heart/start
winter/splinter (feminine rhyme, but, I think, true)
facet/casket (slant rhyme, and feminine as well)
mirror/endure (this one is rather rough, slant and accented differently, but still acceptable)
plain/pain​

Now, keeping them in order, writing something to fit that order, and (if you're writing a standard sonnet) doing all that in iambic pentameter is something of a challenge.

Just remember that it only kind of needs to make sense.

Click to expand...

UnderYourSpell said:

I'll let someone else take it on, not too well again and the drugs turn my brain to cottonwool.

Click to expand...

AlwaysHungry said:

Hmmm -- my understanding is that pretty much any sonnet form requires you to rhyme each word more than once.

Click to expand...

Quite right, Tzara...I know of Shakespearean and Petrachan (although I would have to look them up since I never really learned the Italian form) sonnets, so I set up the framework for such...

I know it's prolly not good form to follow myself...but I was thinking over the list I left this morning and the following jumped out:

Sonnet

The winter’s wind blows through every bough
of every evergreen in the wood, as if trying to steal
their thick blankets of the bristles that God did endow
them with so the blood of those beneath would not congeal;
I would that you could do the same with my heart,
to be something to keep it safe from the breath of winter,
and perhaps find us a fresh place from which to start
over the dance that we began before things began to splinter;
But I am not sure that safety is a facet
to be seen in your personality—you are a clouded mirror,
an unreadable face, like that of a body in its casket--
and it is just more thing that I find I must endure;
I know it is being blunt, but I must speak plain
Remaining together means balancing love with pain.




Next:
think
shrink
fat
cat
drink

We'll find a surfeit of good time, I think.
With leisure blessed, let's drift and chew the fat
And linger like a laggard, never shrink
From torpor, like the comfort of a cat
Who, finding Lethe, daintily did drink.



Next:

urgent
divergent
aghast
last
credo
libido

What, nobody wants to work with urgent, divergent, aghast, last, credo, libido?

His wants and needs so urgent
yet totally divergent
at her strap-on he was aghast
yet knew his hard-on would last
forever, thus giving credo
to his inner sub libido.

rain
Spain
plain
capricious
venery
hennery
penury
delicious

Well this one has to be me! Quite pleased with this rough attempt at iambic pentameter...


you might expect the sun to shine in Spain
but no, my famous luck with weather’s penury
all about us howled the wind and rain
the only shelter was a hennery
but sometimes you just need it good and plain
and I for one am always prone to venery
back then Camila could be quite capricious
but when she needed me, it was delicious

Ok, next up...

muffle
kerfuffle
tingling
mingling
salacious
flirtatious

delicious_man said:

Well this one has to be me! Quite pleased with this rough attempt at iambic pentameter...


you might expect the sun to shine in Spain
but no, my famous luck with weather’s penury
all about us howled the wind and rain
the only shelter was a hennery
but sometimes you just need it good and plain
and I for one am always prone to venery
back then Camila could be quite capricious
but when she needed me, it was delicious

Click to expand...

Hi, DM -- will you accept a bit of nitpicking? I am OCD on meter.

but no, my famous luck with weather’s penury One foot too many. You could drop "famous" and be in the zone.

all about us howled the wind and rain
This one is trochaic pentameter. You could add a soft syllable like "and" at the beginning to make it iambic.

and I for one am always prone to venery One foot too many. You could drop "always" and be in the zone.

All the other lines are copacetic.

AlwaysHungry said:

Hi, DM -- will you accept a bit of nitpicking? I am OCD on meter.

but no, my famous luck with weather’s penury One foot too many. You could drop "famous" and be in the zone.

all about us howled the wind and rain
This one is trochaic pentameter. You could add a soft syllable like "and" at the beginning to make it iambic.

and I for one am always prone to venery One foot too many. You could drop "always" and be in the zone.

All the other lines are copacetic.

Click to expand...

AlwaysHungry - I am delighted to be picked up on this. I was aware of the line of trochees and was happy to run with that although I like your suggestion of leading off with "and". However, I hadn't picked up on the extra foot in the second and sixth lines. 'Penury' and 'venery' are not words I am particularly familiar with and when I put this together I was pronouncing them 'PENury' and 'VENery' . In fact, I inserted the slightly awkward 'famous' in an effort to maintain the five stresses. Reading it back it looks to me like I've left myself one foot short in the line "the only shelter was a hennery". Do 'penury', 'venery' and 'hennery' actually have two strong syllables then?

delicious_man said:

Do 'penury', 'venery' and 'hennery' actually have two strong syllables then?

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Not really, but they have three syllables total. The way I scan the poem, the reader's ear is anticipating iambic feet, and so the "y" at the end of each of those words is effectively stressed. In a different context it might not be.

AlwaysHungry said:

Not really, but they have three syllables total. The way I scan the poem, the reader's ear is anticipating iambic feet, and so the "y" at the end of each of those words is effectively stressed. In a different context it might not be.

Click to expand...

you might expect the sun to shine in Spain
but no, my luck with weather’s penury
and all about us howled the wind and rain
the only shelter was a hennery
but sometimes you just need it good and plain
and I for one am prone to venery
back then Camila could be quite capricious
but when she needed me, it was delicious

Re-reading the poem with your suggestions I think I have to agree with you. These dactylic words don't read like dactylic words within an iambic structure and I like this better. By the way, I don't consider your interjection to be 'nitpicking'. In my view, this stuff is important.

As a reminder for anyone looking for the next Bouts-Rimés challenge the words are:

muffle
kerfuffle
tingling
mingling
salacious
flirtatious

delicious_man said:

By the way, I don't consider your interjection to be 'nitpicking'. In my view, this stuff is important.

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I agree, it is important. But the poets I love the most, such as Keats, broke the rules all the time.