The weather is slowly turning into spring finally!! This week had its wintery days intertwined with the spring-y ones ending with a warm weekend. And if you are wondering about what comes after #66 above, I was not sure of what it should be.. I was wondering to myself however, “what is the essence of spring; of poetry; of well, just about a whole bunch of things…”
What about you? What, for you, is the essence of spring? Or poetry? Or are you pondering about the essence of something else in your life? Do let me know ..
According to Christina Rossetti
Spring is when life’s alive in everything
And Susan J. Bissonette wonderfully remarks that….
An optimist is the human personification of spring
While Rainer Maria Rilke beautifully intersects both poetry and spring when he says
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems
Poetic Sundays
The Essence
I decided to use this last Sunday of Women’s History Month to include an invented poetic form by a woman poet. Of course, there are many more that I have already introduced over past Poetic Sundays, and so many more I am yet to explore and even discover. But I simply loved the name of this one – the Essence!
What is the Essence Poetic Form?
The Essence, created by Emily Romano is a short, structured form of two-lines, six syllables each with an end rhyme and internal rhyme(s). (h/t: ShadowPoetry)
In essence, it is a hexasyllabic, multi-rhymed couplet. (sorry, could not resist it!)
The Essence Poetic Form’s Characteristics
So the Essence poetic form’s elements are that at its most basic, it is:
- stanzaic: a couplet (two-lined stanza); can contain more than one couplet
- syllabic: each line consists of six syllables
- rhymed: end-rhymed and internal-rhymed too! The poet can choose to have one or two internal rhymes.. and considering that there are only six syllables per line, coming up with two (or three) pairs of rhyming words across the lines of the couplet can be a challenge.
Note for internal rhymes
The position of the internal rhyme is not a fixed one, can be anywhere within the lines. The ‘where’ can also vary across the lines of the couplet; that is syllable two of line one can internally rhyme with syllable three of line two. And if the poet chooses to add an additional internal rhyme, it could be syllable four of line one with syllable five of line two…or…
So this is how it looks
xxaxxb or xaxxxb or..
xxaxxb or xxaxxb or..
xaxxcb or..
xxacxb or..
My Example
Dashed Dreams
“We regret to inform…”;
See it go; My dream dorm.
– From my teen (for Vidya @ LadyInReadWrites)
The above example is one that my teen wrote as we receive responses from college applications… While it is a true sentiment, don’t worry – he is doing good and does have acceptances from other colleges that he loves and applied to!
And the internal rhyme scheme there is regret/’see it’ (close enough for me!)
You can check out more examples at ShadowPoetry (linked above)
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This week’s posts…
- Sunday Scribblings #65: Count Down To a Sunny Spring…
- 6 Wonderful Make Your Own Adventure Books
- Book Titles That Make You Smile, Grin, or LOL
- The Slumbering Pearl by Tyler Oliver
On the Home Front
We celebrated my DHs birthday this past week. And while my DD loves to bake and bake from scratch, this time was different. We had picked up a mix from our last visit to Trader Joes because it looked interesting. So the birthday boy got a blood orange cake which turned out pretty beautiful and good!
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Upcoming
On My Blog and Home Front
Oh well.. No more making promises here.. I hoped to have a book summary, and other types of posts as well last week. So for this coming week, no promises but I know I am entering April; which means it is the A – Z Poetic Potpourri here on my blog.
Stick around to see what I come up with; I myself have no idea yet!! Each year I plan to have all 30 posts ready to go; but each year I work on them just a couple of days – oh, who am I kidding – just the night before (and sometimes on that day)!!
Nothing new on the home front but we are finally getting ready to get vaccines. Not my turn yet as my age group has to wait till mid April but my DH can get his this coming week.
This Week’s Celebrations
The Literary and Close-to-it Celebrations
The Literary Birthdays
- Anna Sewell’s birthday is on the 30th of March
- And March 31st celebrates Nikolai Gogol and René Descartes’ birthdays
- April 1st birthdays include that of Abraham Harold Maslow and Milan Kundera.
- One of my earliest favorite writers, Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday is on the 2nd of April
- We can read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on the 3rd of April to celebrate its author, Washington Irving’s birthday..
- And April 4th marks the birthday of Maya Angelou
Other Lit Celebrations
- April 2nd is International Children’s Book Day
- National School Librarian Day is celebrated annually on April 4th, while the month of April is School Library Month
- April is English Language Month as well as National Poetry Month (hence my poetic potpourri a-z)
Foodie Celebrations
- National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day is on March 29th followed by National Tater Day on the 31st of March
- April 1st is National Sourdough Bread Day, and being the first Thursday in April, it is also National Burrito Day
- The 2nd of April is for a favorite snack/quick lunch for many kids at least here in the US. It is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day; and if you need some more sugar, then do not fear. For it is National Chocolate Mousse Day on April 3rd
The Other Celebrations
- March 30th is National Take a Walk in the Park Day, National Pencil Day, as well as National Virtual Vacation Day; but I am thinking we are all now waiting to take a REAL VaCayTion now, right?
- The 30th also happens to be National Doctors Day. So why not thank our wonderful doctors whose selfless efforts this past year has certainly helped each and every one of us
- Another writing device follows the pencil as the 31st of March is National Crayon Day
- And how how many of you remember chemistry lab in high school? I enjoyed my time with the cool bunsen burner. Look back at those times with National Bunsen Burner Day on the 31st of March
- Manatee Appreciation Day is celebrated annually on the last Wednesday in March
- And the 2nd of April is World Autism Awareness Day (One of my recent reads was a book titled Real; and I highly recommend it)
- April 3rd – National Film Score Day, National Find a Rainbow Day, World Party Day and…..it also is the
- The first Saturday in April is National Love Our Children Day and National Handmade Day
- April 4th is National Walk Around Things Day (yes, there is a day for that!)
Month Long Celebrations for April
- I love that hope and humor are celebrated together. April is both National Humor Month and National Month of Hope
- Music seems to be another focus for this month as it is both International Guitar Month and National Jazz Appreciation Month
- One way to Keep America Beautiful Month is by working on our own gardens; for it is also National Lawn and Garden Month!
- April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so let us each do our part in keeping our world safe, especially for all the vulnerable ones around us.
Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings
So dear reader, this was it for my Sunday Scribblings. As always, appreciate and totally welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions. And which of these days do you plan to celebrate?
Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon
Next month will be your big month. We always celebrated Poetry Month in fun ways at school. My favorite was Poem-in-Your-Pocket where kids each picked a poem or two or three and read them aloud to others.
I love the look of that Selena book. I am interested in finding out more about her. I know several people who revere her, and I’d like to know more about that.
Your Instagram posts are always lovely!
Thanks so much Deb! The Poem-in-Your-Pocket is something I recall my kids did too when they were in elementary school.
The Selena book is truly beautiful, inside and out, and I am glad I got the chance to read it.
I love to both reading and writing poetry so I found this to be an amazing post.
What a busy weekend a big Happy Birthday to your hubby. His cake sounds awesome! I know what you mean about writing blogs ahead of time…or maybe not. I write mine the night before or the morning of! Looking forward to your A to Z challenge, I was trying to think of a theme so I could do that one also. We shall see.
For me the essence of Spring is hope.
Always enjoy your Sunday posts!
I love the poem that your teen wrote. Simple but has so much truth in it.
thank you Samantha, that is exactly what I felt when he showed it to me first; and of course, had to use it as is…
I can’t wait to see all your poems next month!
This sounds like an amazing poetic form.
thanks Sarah. It is definitely concise and helps us focus on what matters most
Wow, so much to learn about poetry structure. That’s why it sounds romantic eventhough it is really heartbreaking.
thanks so much..