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Shakespeare's Monkeys

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More in Structures, Styles and Sonnetation

Glose

Spanish and Portuguese in origin.  Usually accentual-syllabic.  Can be written in any prosody or line-length, though each line is usually of a single length.  "Glose" means gloss, a "commentary" upon something; in this case, upon quoted lines that appear as headnote or epigraph at the beinning of the poem.  This epigraph is called the texte; each line of the texte becomes a repeton, a refrain that pepars just one other time int the body of the poem.  The fist line of the texte finishes stanza one, the second line, stanza two, and so on unil the texte is exhausted and the poems to an end.

Possible diagram:

A cow goes moo
The duck goes quack { L1 and L2 are the texte}

I walk this field
a shade of blue
with words to wield
a cow goes moo {texte as repeton}

I listen hard
to what I lack
meter or yard
The duck goes quack. {texte as repeton}

I apologize for the crude example...please don't kill me. I tried searching the internet for more examples and decided to make one on the spot, since there wasn't an abundance of this pieces on the web...or I couldn't find them, and I guess you could say that my poem isn't really a commentary on the texte...but meh, what the hell, there's greater poets than I. 

 

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Stephan Ansteyfrom Lowell, MA
Associate, 6232 posts

on Jan. 29 2008


There is always someone better. I think what you posted is good as a tutorial.
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Jones, Paganinifrom Hyde in Cheshire
385 posts

on Jan. 29 2008


Ages ago I wrote an unrhymed villanelle in which the repeating lines were taken from a book by Mary Oliver. Later it was suggested that it might be considered a glose. Is it? Isn't it? I'm still not quite sure but offer it to show possibilities:

Narrative is at the heart of all literature
With its beginnings and middles and ends
No one writes epic poems now

The postman delivers the day's hand of literature
A doormat of adverts and unpaid bills
Narrative is at the centre of all literature

There's a leaflet about a new restaurant
A gas bill, a phone bill, a postcard from France
No one writes epic poems now

I wave to my neighbour. "What's new today?"
"Here's that recipe for Ellie's cake!"
Narrative is at the centre of all literature

A torn poster across the road repeats
The TV jingle the blond actress sings.
No one writes epic poems now

"The writing is on the wall," says the Times
As I skim through the headlines and obits.
Narrative is at the centre of all literature *
No one writes epic poems now *

  • lines taken from "A Poetry Handbook" p 83 by Mary Oliver

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Jones, Paganinifrom Hyde in Cheshire
385 posts

on Jan. 29 2008


PS I like the duck and cow.
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