What Are Words - a Florilegium Poem

What are words other than coffin nails be? Who does it belong to when it rails me? An empty vessel at best that bails thee. Lend me your ear and draw your heart near; my words might seer, but hark the raw fear. The poets have been forcibly silenced. We view circumstance through a narrow lens, a plethora of senseless violence. If all hope wanes, could you remain sane? What would you gain if empathy feigned? Trying to explain a poem, words fail me— it’s not a chair till someone rests his rear.* We can only grow if given free rein in our lonely pursuit of excellence. 16/09/2021 POETIC FORM: Florilegium (see my article: A rose by any other name: Florilegium, DD Jule 2021) *Its essence is in its purpose... The idea of the chair preceded its existence. The idea of the chair contains its purpose. From Plato’s Theory of Forms. __________________________________________________________ © 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. POETS NOTES I deviated from the iambic metre in the triplets, rhyming a masculine rhyme (lens) with the feminine rhymes (silenced & violence) in the second triplet. I used double rhyme in the first triplet: nails be/rails me/bails thee, where the stress falls on the first word and both words rhyme with the corresponding words in the three lines, plus ‘fail me’ in the final stanza. I employed leonine verse in the couplets, and used conjunctions and, but, & if.