The Welkin - and - the Influences

1. The Welkin Wind blows / clouds race / vast blue sky Breeze tugs / trees sway / great green hills Sun scourged / sand glares / small white beach Skip stones / thoughts nag / mind fug stills 2. The Influences Seeds sprout / stems firm / youth glean part New buds / core splayed / new growth hearth Weeds choke / leaves furl / old rot stench Chance lost / child left / seek fresh start _________________________________________________________ '[A] single rhyme in even-numbered verses (lines)...' Jueju (Chinese, meaning severed sentence) is a curtailed verse of Chinese origin that grew popular amongst Chinese poets during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Some of the formal rules of the regulated verse forms were applied in the case of the jueju curtailed verse. These rules, as applied to the jueju, include regular line length (either 5* or 7† stressed monosyllables per line in each quatrain), the use of a single rhyme in even-numbered verses (lines) example 1, strict patterning of tonal alternations (see the updated definition of jueju here at PS), use of a major caesura before the last three syllables, optional parallelism and grammaticality of each line as a sentence. Each couplet generally forms a distinct unit. The first introduces a reference to nature, and the third line generally introduces some turn of thought or direction within the poem, often introducing humanity. The final line ponders the meaning and draws the parts together by means of the final three syllable phrase containing a recurring reference to the subject first introduced in the first couplet. It uses a common MOTIF per quatrain, which is ideally a single poem because of the difficulty in composing a quality jueju. The English form was first taught by Dr Jonathan Stalling at UC Berkeley in 1997 who introduced the rhyme scheme aaba (mimicking the Rubaiyat) example 2, and a dictionary of monosyllable words to be used in the phrases. The word units should pair off, more than they do between the groups, ie, into phrases of 2, (2—optional), & 3 syllables—natural caesurae (and presented as illustrated). The first groups of words in each line are spondees. The words are imagistic, and the use of symbolism are encouraged. It creates a mood rather than tell a story. Unlike haiku (a Japanese poetic form), Chinese poetry do have rhyme (as discussed above) and metre. See my article, Introducing Three New Sonnet Forms, for the picture of metres summary. Punctuation in jueju is superfluous. A title is optional—it is usually identified by the first two words of the jueju, but I have elected to use headnotes in these instances. GLOSSARY *The five-syllable form is called wujue (meaning five titles of nobility) †The seven-syllable form qijue (meaning good grace) RECOMMENDED READING 1. My latest article on the subject of HEADNOTES. 2. poems.com/features/what-sparks-poetry/jonathan-stalling-on-spring-snow/ 3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jueju 4. LINK (A highly recommended read with a fine example of the structure of jueju poetry): About English Jueju