I’m never certain if I should go fully down the route of structure in poetry or now. Some of the works I most admire are short, unrhymed and without rigid structure. Others are long with fixed schemes and patterns. I’ve written about the wasteland that is modern mainstream poetry before as well.
I’ve tried Rhyme Royal, and found it quite a tidy format and my attempt at the eve of the battle of Armageddon is built around two opposing schemes. I recently decided to try writing something using the Terza Rima (literally “third rhyme”) which Dante Aligheri used in his Divine Comedy.
It’s a poetic structure based around threes - written in stanzas (blocks) of three lines where the first and third lines rhyme and the second line rhymes with the first line of the next stanza. That’s a wordy way of saying it goes A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C and so on. It’s intended for longer works. It also gives a wonderful, flowing and insistent quality
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ché la diritta via era smarrita. Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte che nel pensier rinova la paura! Tant’è amara che poco è più morte; ma per trattar del ben ch’i’ vi trovai, dirò de l’altre cose ch’i’ v’ ho scorte.
Most translations of Dante’s works, notably Anthony Esolen’s excellent one, use a non-rhyming blank verse as English is notoriously short on rhymes compared to other languages.
Why is that? Rhymes are essentially created by word endings and although English does have some grammatical patterns with these, such as things ending in -ly, -ed or -ing, it’s very few compared to most European languages. They tend to have a verb ending pattern which is more regular and repetitive in part because more letters are changed with conjugation than in English.
They also have gender as a part of the language, which has the effect of frequently making nouns and adjectives end in the same letter. It does sometimes make me think that the original purpose of grammatical gender evolving could have been either poetic or musical, as its only English and some northern Germanic languages which are as light on both gender and conjugation.
English is the language which I use to write though, and that gives a limited set of rhymes and which can result in rhyme becoming something of a preoccupation when writing structured and rhymed poetry.
I recently wrote a piece on the theme of Rome for the Antelope Hill poetry competition. I won’t share the whole thing here, as I’d like people to go out and buy the anthology when they publish it this summer. There are many articles complaining about the lack of art on the right. The reality that I and other writers here on substack have noted is that fiction and poetry posts get a lot less traction than politics.
Using the Terza Rima scheme gave me an initial section which came out as;
He Serves like his father, like his son. The Republic's proud citizen-soldier, Iron clad and armed, under the Italian sun. In the third armed, he's best armed and older, Grinding through the battle, coated in dust and gore. As Rome seizes her fate through being bolder. "Carthage must fall!" on the senate floor, On the fields and seas, Rome victorious, Her strength in the arms of citizens at war.
I decided to adapt the scheme somewhat, going for two stanzas of three lines rather than 3x3 as the previous attempt. I also shifted the rhyme scheme to something new; A-B -B; A -C -C and so on, working to keep the “A” rhymes consistent throughout to give a kind of chorus structure to the poem.
He serves like his father, like his son. The Republic's proud citizen-soldier, In the last line of the legion, best armed and older. Iron clad and armed, under the Italian sun. "Carthage must fall!" is the cry on the senate floor, Rome's strength is the arms of her citizens at war.
I was pleased by the overall effect, and like the idea of having a central pattern and rhyme. I still think the Terza Rima might offer a superior effect, and it’s something I’ll return to for a future attempt.
Poetry historically was about (among other things) recording epics and tales of heroic lives and acts, it is no secret that modern society is overly democratic and anti-martial in its culture, hence it should be no surprise that without the conditions for an Aeneas or Achilles there cannot be a Virgil or a Homer.
I think we should reclaim the realm of poetry like you say, among other things it would certainly bring some vigor into our decayed modern world, maybe the warrior needs the poet so he can really return to the world.
I also wrote a poem for the Antelope Hill submission. I wonder when they will announce any winners.
I had great fun writing a poem about Rome - i decided to center it around a man reincarnating into various peoples associated with Rome. It wasn't very long, but it was a fun exercise.