Lauren Hynde
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- Apr 11, 2002
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I recently read on the news that a music CD called Alma Mater and featuring Pope Benedict XVI will be released worldwide in November 30. Together with last month's challenge, this tidbit made me think about a particular form that I had thought of including as a requirement for Survivor, but ended up not.
The kyrielle is a poetic form that originated in troubadour poetry and Gregorian chants. A kyrielle is written in rhyming couplets or quatrains. It may use the phrase "Lord, have mercy" - or a variant on it - as a refrain as the second line of the couplet or last line of the quatrain. In less strict usage, other phrases, and sometimes single words, are used as the refrain. Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the number of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum.
If the kyrielle is written in couplets, the rhyme scheme will be: a-A, a-A. There are a number of possible rhyme schemes for kyrielle constructed in quatrains, including a-a-b-B, c-c-b-B and a-b-a-B, c-b-c-B (uppercase letters signify the refrain). In English, the lines are generally iambic tetrameters.
An example:
You don't need to be participating in Survivor to take this challenge. If you are participating in Survivor, for your poem to be eligible for points under the Special Bonus Rounds heading, it needs to be submitted to Literotica.com and be posted between 08/12/2009 and 09/09/2009.
Feel free to use this thread to workshop this challenge, to banter about this challenge, to post links to your submissions to this challenge, and to give your opinion on poems submitted to this challenge.
The kyrielle is a poetic form that originated in troubadour poetry and Gregorian chants. A kyrielle is written in rhyming couplets or quatrains. It may use the phrase "Lord, have mercy" - or a variant on it - as a refrain as the second line of the couplet or last line of the quatrain. In less strict usage, other phrases, and sometimes single words, are used as the refrain. Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the number of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum.
If the kyrielle is written in couplets, the rhyme scheme will be: a-A, a-A. There are a number of possible rhyme schemes for kyrielle constructed in quatrains, including a-a-b-B, c-c-b-B and a-b-a-B, c-b-c-B (uppercase letters signify the refrain). In English, the lines are generally iambic tetrameters.
An example:
A Lenten Hymn
by Thomas Campion
With broken heart and contrite sigh, (a)
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry: (a)
Thy pard’ning grace is rich and free: (b)
O God, be merciful to me. (B)
I smite upon my troubled breast, (c)
With deep and conscious guilt oppress, (c)
Christ and His cross my only plea: (b)
O God, be merciful to me. (B)
Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see:
O God, be merciful to me.
Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me.
And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.
For this Survivor Bonus Round Challenge, your mission is to write a kyrielle on a theme of your choice.by Thomas Campion
With broken heart and contrite sigh, (a)
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry: (a)
Thy pard’ning grace is rich and free: (b)
O God, be merciful to me. (B)
I smite upon my troubled breast, (c)
With deep and conscious guilt oppress, (c)
Christ and His cross my only plea: (b)
O God, be merciful to me. (B)
Far off I stand with tearful eyes,
Nor dare uplift them to the skies;
But Thou dost all my anguish see:
O God, be merciful to me.
Nor alms, nor deeds that I have done,
Can for a single sin atone;
To Calvary alone I flee:
O God, be merciful to me.
And when, redeemed from sin and hell,
With all the ransomed throng I dwell,
My raptured song shall ever be,
God has been merciful to me.
You don't need to be participating in Survivor to take this challenge. If you are participating in Survivor, for your poem to be eligible for points under the Special Bonus Rounds heading, it needs to be submitted to Literotica.com and be posted between 08/12/2009 and 09/09/2009.
Feel free to use this thread to workshop this challenge, to banter about this challenge, to post links to your submissions to this challenge, and to give your opinion on poems submitted to this challenge.
