Monday 25 January 2010

Decidedly Dodgy Syllabic Verse

Here is me trying my hand at syllabic verse. Not very good, I fear. The first is alternating seven- and five-syllable lines. The second appears chaotic but is actually chiasmic.


Rain

I love the smell of the earth
Before the rain. It's
Invigorating, vivid,
Tells you you're alive;
The whole world seems emboldened,
Technicolour-draped,
Like Dorothy, the first time
She stepped into Oz.

Hygiene

When I take
A show'r, it's a surreal
Strange
Experience;
Naked with hot water falling-
It will take time
To
Adjust to the real world
After that.


Hmmm....perhaps I should stick with accentual verse.

3 comments:

Kiran said...

I wrote some syllabic verse in my younger days. If you do want to write syllabic verse, you should familiarize yourself with its greatest practitioner, Marianne Moore.

Anonymous said...

You really are getting into the whole Oz deal.

If I remember right the next bit involved "Ding dong the witch is dead."

Now what could that witch out of the East have done to deserve such a fate?

Movie never really made it clear.

GAB said...

Actually, it's a bit of bizarre coincidence, as I wrote these two a while ago, felt like posting a bit more experimental poetry and they were what lay at hand. There does seem to be an Ozian theme developing here, though, doesn't there? Hmm...interesting.