Posted August 14, 2023 by Thaliarchus
#alliterative metre #verse form #metrics #poetry
Book VII of Cosmic Warlord Kin-Bright introduces a new verse-form to the poem, for Taru death-songs.
I have long found haiku in English dissatisfying—personally, that is, to write. I’ve met some very beautiful English haiku, but I don’t enjoy writing them very much.
I think—I think—this is because as normally practised in English the haiku seems rather unconstrained, even if one works in a cut and a seasonal indication. At the day’s end, English syllables are not the on of Japanese prosody, I guess?
So I cast about for something that might achieve some of the reported effects of haiku, renga, &c, but brewed from English materials. Here is what I concocted:
Here's an example, with the lift syllables in bold type:
I have borne forth the blade-tip
killing when called, care-worn,
in battles beyond count.
Now not ashamed I self-shatter,
of my honour in all things
sure in the act.
But for drunk-drooping dragonfly
full well lying on the leaf-perch,
ever this dreng longed,
for the restfulness of my renk-youth
in gold-city garnished
with many garden-rooves.
Now most grim is the grief-load
that to our children we chain-pass;
inly it grips and chills.