Saturday, March 12, 2016

Poetic Thoughts - a Ballad about the Terzanelle

I currently do a poetry workshop on Sunday mornings, at a lovely cafe in Gawler called Poetic Justice Cafe Gallery. today, the poetic subject I was telling the attendees about was the Terzanelle, using this person's website: GryphonSmith
I don't know this person, but I liked what they wrote about the form, so borrowed their words. I then went of to have a go at writing my own terzanelle poem, but sadly is is still not complete. I only have a few more lines to add, and hope to get it done before our next workshop, next weekend.

In the meantime I have written a poem about this dastardly poetic form. The poem I wrote is a ballad, and I'm quite happy with it. So happy in fact that I am going to put it on this blog, and give a link to it on the Sunday poetry group's Facebook page so that members of the group can come here to have a look at it, if they wish. This is the poem at the moment - it may change with further thought, but I'm relatively happy with it at the moment.

Dare You Try It?

Bloody hell, the terzanelle,
what a tricky poetic form.
The ballad, that’s an easy one -
traditionally, the norm.

Mention poetry, ballad’s the one
comes readily to mind.
But terzanelle, I’ll tell you now
is a very different kind.

From the villanelle, and something else
with an even tricker name,
the terzanelle could drive you mad
in this poetry writing game.

But if you try, and get it right,
oh, what a glorious thing!
A poet of such talent & skill

will make our glad hearts sing!


I'm not saying this is a wonderful ballad, or that I deserve a medal for attempting to write a terzanelle, I am just happy to help spread the word about the wonders of poetry, in all of it's many forms!

So have you ever tried to write a terzanelle? I'd love to hear about it, if you have!

2 comments:

Carolyn Cordon said...

Well, I finished my terzanelle, and shared it with those present at the Poetry Workshop at the Poetic Justice Cafe Gallery this morning. It was a finished terzanelle, so it had that going for it, but was it good poetry? Hmm, not sure. It was felt this may be a poetic style that works better on the page, rather than a performance piece ...

Does anyone have any ideas about this? Limericks are great for being read, that's for sure, they are simple and the rhyming style and the humorous content of them work well for a listening audience. Not so the terzanelle, I suspect.

Melinda Kallasmae said...

Hello, Carolyn.
I enjoyed your ballad.
Because of the rhyme and the humour, I think it would make a great performance piece!