Are there any poets out there?

[EdgeleyRob]

I've decided to write a short ditty,
About famous old Manchester City,
Now we're down to the nitty and gritty,
And despite all the cash in the kitty,
No title and to some that's a pity,
Grown men in blue crying,that's not pretty.

[agingjb]

My contribution to this thread, despite having foolishly revealed a link to my own verse, didn't get much favour.

So a challenge: let's see some poems in the forms I've tried, but better, much better.

1) Free verse with a general structure and a complex set of allusions and references.

2) Syllabic verse (possibly the 5-7-5 structure that is erroneously named after the rather more subtle Japanese Haiku) with internal rhymes (possibly the "a a b b a" of the limerick).

3) The traditional sonnet form used to paraphrase verse in other languages.

4) Terza rima with octosyllabic lines and simple rhyme words, without proper nouns.

5) Other strict forms, such as ballades, or rhymed stanzas with an "a b c b a b c" pattern.

[french frank]

Your Matter of Britain poem also reminded me of the englyn (association ideas, I mean) - another poetic challenge to do properly. (I studied early Welsh poetry and once understood the earliest existing ones: I don't think I would now)

[Mary Chambers]

Well, I can do triolets, more or less. These are years old.

When Cupid with his darts
Had still to be invented,
The world knew not Love's smarts
When Cupid with his darts
Aimed not at people's hearts.
They must have been contented
When Cupid with his darts
Had still to be invented.

OR

Time's thief, Procrastination
Will not let me write.
I'm filled with desperation!
Time's thief, Procrastination
May send me inspiration
Sometime - but tonight
Time's thief, Procrastination
Will not let me write.

[salymap]

Well done Mary. I don't think I'll be trying any of those forms. Doggerel was more my mark.

[amateur51]

Well, I can do triolets, more or less. These are years old.

When Cupid with his darts
Had still to be invented,
The world knew not Love's smarts
When Cupid with his darts
Aimed not at people's hearts.
They must have been contented
When Cupid with his darts
Had still to be invented.

OR

Time's thief, Procrastination
Will not let me write.
I'm filled with desperation!
Time's thief, Procrastination
May send me inspiration
Sometime - but tonight
Time's thief, Procrastination
Will not let me write.

Or are you an woman, Mary?

[Hornspieler]

There was an old man from Milan
Whose limericks never would scan
When told this was so
He replied "Yes,I know,
But the trouble is that I like to get as many long and complicated words into the last line as I possibly can"

HS

[cloughie]

Well done Mary. I don't think I'll be trying any of those forms. Doggerel was more my mark.

Have you a bank of it? I've got say though I put the odd rhyme together it's usually spontaneously thrown together avoiding the theory!

[gurnemanz]

The "scansion" rhymes reminded me of:

For a limerick's built like a mansion
Word by word with most careful expansion
The rhymes must display
A A B B A
But the crucial component is scansion."

Non-rhyme also works:

There was an old man of Tralee
Who was stung in the neck by a wasp
When asked, "Does it hurt?"
He replied, "Not a bit!
It can do it again if it likes

[Mary Chambers]

I think fitting words into a form is good fun. Has anyone read Stephen Fry's book on the subject, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within?

[salymap]

Vaguely a parady of 'Hiawatha'.

On either side the roadway,lies a Palace and a Mansion,
And there is nought between them but a grassy green expansion,
A Duchess fair doth live in one, a bold Knight in the other,
Stern Albert sits between the two, just like an elder brother.

Their windows look across the Park, and every morning, daily,
She climbs upon the ramparts high and waves heer hanky gaily.

etc, etc, it was very long and I had some help from a friend.

[vinteuil]

Non-rhyme also works:

There was an old man of Tralee
Who was stung in the neck by a wasp
When asked, "Does it hurt?"
He replied, "Not a bit!
It can do it again if it likes

... the variant I had was:

There was a young man of Dundee
Who was stung on the neck by a wasp
When asked, "Does it hurt?"
He replied, "No, it doesn't -
I'm so glad it wasn't a hornet... "

I also like

There was a young man from Tralee
Whose poems ended at line three
He said, "That's just right."

and

There was a young man from Corfu
Whose poems ended at line two.

and

There was a young man from Cancún.

[salymap]

Does anyone know where this comes from.? A relative made me laugh when I was five or six and it 'stuck'.

If a man who 'turnips' cries,
Cries not when his father dies,
'tis a proof that he would rather,
Have a turnip than a father.

[vinteuil]

Does anyone know where this comes from.? A relative made me laugh when I was five or six and it 'stuck'.

If a man who 'turnips' cries,
Cries not when his father dies,
'tis a proof that he would rather,
Have a turnip than a father.

It's Samuel Johnson, I'm sure. I'll check details...

[vinteuil]

It's Samuel Johnson, I'm sure. I'll check details...

Yes: in "Johnsonian Miscellanies" vol 1, p 193 -

"Recollecting some day, when praising these verses of Lopez de Vega,

Se a quien los leones vence
Vence una muger hermosa
O el de flaco averguence
O ella di ser mas furiosa,

more than he thought they deserved, Mr. Johnson immediately observed 'that they were founded on a trivial conceit ; and that conceit ill-explained, and ill-expressed beside. __ The lady, we all know, does not conquer in the same manner as the lion does : 'Tis a mere play of words (added he), and you might as well say, that


If a man who 'turnips' cries,
Cries not when his father dies,
'tis a proof that he would rather,
Have a turnip than a father.

And this humour is of the same sort with which he answered the friend who commended the following line :

Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free.

'To be sure (said Dr. Johnson),

Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.'