Friday, October 16, 2015

Paradelle

I'm all about structure this week, weirdddd. Anyways, paradelles are some of my favorites, it's a really nice challenge! They were invented to be a parody (hence the name) to villanelles by US Poet Laureate Billy Collins. There, that's your history lesson for the day!

For all the structure lovers in the house, you're going to LOVE this! 
You've got four stanzas of six lines each. I would totally try to explain but Shadowpoetry.com does it a lot more concisely than I do: 

The Paradell Structure

First Three Stanzas:

The first two lines as well as the third and fourth lines of the first three stanzas must be the same (repeat). Where it begins to get difficult and become more of a poetic puzzle is when reaching fifth and sixth lines. These lines must contain all the words from the preceding four lines within the stanza using them only once to form completely new lines.

Last Stanza:

For the most difficult piece of this poetic puzzle, the final stanza of the paradelle does not repeat like the preceding stanzas, rather the final six lines must contain every word from the first three stanzas, and only those words, again using them only once to form completely new lines.

The Design is simple:

Stanza 1: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4  
Stanza 2: 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8
Stanza 3: 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 12
Stanza 4: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 

Word prompts: 
Parallel
Dimension 
Shipwreck 
Delicious 

Sentence prompts: 
O' stormy sea...
Sounding with a crunch...
In her shadow... 

Photo of the day: 
Photo courtesy of Beverly Tan Photography 


So how about that? Fun sounding huh? Now for those of you more like me (the ones who tend to be anti-formalism) remember this prompt is just a suggestion and I promise to not be offended when you go off prompt. Heck, I might be a hypocrite and go off prompt because I'm super excited about Monday's prompt. 

Wrote something? Tell me about it by tweeting @beverlytanfilm #octpowrimo! Also comment below and don't forget the linky! 





9 comments:

  1. Wow! What a form ... thanks for introducing it ... I'll try it asap! Bastet

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  2. I think I will try the form another time but that photo is all inspiring!!!

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  3. Thank you for stretching my poetry-writing skills. These structured poems have been a challenge, but I love it.

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  4. That was really difficult, but the sense of accomplishment is so rewarding!

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  5. I love the idea of the paradelle, but time and inspiration were lacking today, so I have copied it for another time, and left an apology of a poem.

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  6. What a great mind-stretcher! It's not perfect, or maybe even close...but I loved writing it. I used four lines from my Day 2 fanfic poem, Candlelight Commingled Kisses, and adapted for a more universal instant....

    Loved this prompt, Beverly!

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  7. This challenge had me in twirls :D I enjoyed writing this one!

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