Brocken Spectre - a Florilegium Poem

The root word for religion is not kind – Latin verb that means to tie or to bind – as it tends to play tricks on anyone’s mind. For some, the edicts lash; they mercilessly lash. Inspiration in ash, never reached heights of ash. As I am cocooned in my stoic den, the soothing melodies of the small wren, for the life of me, it’s beyond my ken. Through my mind thoughts flash fast; old habits holding fast. Chance to shine at last, fame and fortune don’t last. The display of arrogance in the past; credibility was gone in a flash. Always being right, I am left behind. Like a Brocken specter*, I haunt the glen. *A Brocken spectre, named after the German mountain on which it was first noted, also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre, is the magnified (and apparently enormous) shadow of an observer cast upon clouds opposite the Sun's direction (rarely, also the moon). The figure's head is often surrounded by the halo-like rings of coloured light forming a glory (red on the outside of the rings and bluish towards the centre), which appears opposite the Sun's direction when uniformly-sized water droplets in clouds refract and backscatter sunlight. ______________________________________________________ © FLORILEGIUM (3 July 2021) It was inspired by the new Suzette sonnet. A florilegium (Medieval Latin), literally a culling/gathering of flowers, is a compilation of excerpts from other writings, usually by the same author/poet. The Florilegium comprises various end rhymes and poetic devices (a bouquet of poetic techniques). THE STANZAS: triplets (a tercet in mono-rhyme is called a triplet), couplets, and a quatrain (in the basic design). It may be extended by the quintains plus the matching two lines in the final stanza. The topics chosen are contemporary and often personal. The design of the Florilegium A stanzaic poem written over 14 or more lines (in increments of 7 lines). • Rhyme scheme: aaa; (b1–b2)(b3–b4); ccc; (d1–d2)(d3–d4); for eg, dbac. • triplets are iambic pentameter [*/|*/|*/|*/|*/]. • The rhyming couplets are iambic and include leonine verse (‘jangling verse’) OR alexandrines, but don’t mix them in the same poem. The suggested metre: [*/|*/|*/—*/|*/|*/]. • The position of the turn is the prerogative of the poet. From the external (objective) to the internal (subjective). • CONCLUDING with a stanza in a variable rhyme scheme established by the triplets and couplets; in the sequence of your choice—in iambic pentameter. The poem might be extended by sets of triplets & couplets (quintains), rendering the final stanza a sixain, octastich, or decastich. • The poetic devices, auto antonyms (‘Janus words’), homonyms, homographs, heteronyms, and homophonic rhymes, lend interest to the couplets. • White space, a poetic device, is used to set the different stanzas apart. Ideally, there would be no enjambment between the different stanzas.