Entry #517155, added on 06-25-07 @ 1:28 am EDT
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| The Swap Quatrain and Historical Research | Entry #517155 |
Swap Quatrain
The Swap Quatrain was created by Lorraine M. Kanter. In the Swap Quatrain form, each stanza must be a quatrain (four lines) with a couplet rhyming pattern (AABB, CCDD, etc.). The rhyming words must be different, not repeated, in subsequent stanzas. In addition, the first line of each stanza is repeated in reverse in the fourth line of each stanza. For an example, take the first and fourth lines in my poem Silver in Streams:
We gathered, like silver in streams, line 1, stanza 1
Like silver in streams, we gathered. line 4, stanza 1
Notice that the phrases in line 1 are reversed, or swapped, in line 4. Hence, the name Swap Quatrain. This swap occurs in all stanzas. There is no stanza limit for this form.
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/types.html
For my poem, I used an eight-syllable count per line in each quatrain.
Silver in Streams
We gathered, like silver in streams,
Aroused by the holy man’s dreams.
For too long, he said, we suffered;
Like silver in streams, we gathered.
Where rivers merge, we became one -
Warriors danced the dance of the Sun.
With visions of the white mans’ purge,
We became one, where rivers merge.
The prophet, sagely Sitting Bull
Assured the whites would pay in full.
For he heard from the Great Spirit,
Sagely Sitting Bull, the prophet.
Summoned to sacred lands, we came -
Mighty hunters, leaders of fame.
The nations, the Teton Sioux bands –
We came, summoned to sacred lands.
A man of great mystique, he rode;
Brave Lakota warriors followed.
Yellow lightning shown on his cheek;
He rode, a man of great mystique.
At dawn’s first light, in the cool breeze,
From riverbanks lined with teepees,
We watched the soldiers come in sight,
In the cool breeze, at dawn’s first light.
Our ponies flew on wing, en masse,
Across the creek called Greasy Grass.
The ghost riders came avenging;
En masse, our ponies flew on wing.
Bodies lay in heaps, by the score,
And Custer’s Seventh was no more.
In this valley, Mother Earth weeps.
By the score, bodies lay in heaps.
For the Sioux, there was no recourse,
Despite this win by Crazy Horse,
For there came more soldiers in blue.
There was no recourse for the Sioux.
Now we flee, a people of scorn –
The victors of Little Big Horn -
Far from the Black Hills and prairie.
A people of scorn, now we flee.
We have nothing left, save the hills;
We moved from them against our wills.
Of all we had, we were bereft.
Save the hills, we have nothing left.
Onto reservations, we walked.
For years, of peace, the white eyes talked,
But in the end - once proud nations -
We walked onto reservations.
Wandering souls, we yet travail;
At Wounded Knee, our children wail.
Where buffalo graze grassy knolls,
We yet travail, wandering souls.
©2007 Larry Powers
larryp
Note: The lines in italics in stanza eleven are an excerpt from a quote by Wanigi Ska (White Ghost), a Lower Yanktonai chief (with a bit of poetic liberty).
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6979/bighorn.html
For more about people of the Sioux Nations, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Little Big Horn, see the following links.
http://www.powersource.com/gallery/people/sittbull.html
http://www.indigenouspeople.net/sittbull.htm
http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/CRAZYHOR.html
http://www.indians.org/welker/crazyhor.htm
Historical Research
When writing historical poetry, poetry based on an event or person in history, it is important that the poet research the era and/or person. Knowing readers will quickly discern discrepancies. Such sites as Google or www.dogpile.com offer a vast array of knowledge concerning historical events. Encyclopedias and search vehicles in local libraries are also great places to complete research.
"But people of the past were not just us in odd clothing. They were people who saw the world differently; approached human relationships differently; people for whom night and day, heat and cold, seasons and work and play had meanings lost to an industrial world. Even if human nature is much the same over time, human experience, perhaps especially everyday experience, is not. To wash these differences out of historical fictions is not only a denial of historical truth, but a failure of imagination and understanding that is as important to the present as to the past."
Anne Scott MacLeod, Professor Emeriti (children’s literature) at the University of Maryland
http://web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/574_lec_hisfic.html
Although Anne Scott MacLeod is speaking of historical fiction, the same can be said of historical poetry, whether it be non-fiction or fiction.
Be accurate in your poem. Do your homework. Research the topic.
Note: Though I have included historical research as part of this entry for the Swap Quatrain, the Swap Quatrain need not be an historically-themed poem. The topic of the poem can be any of the poet’s choosing.
  kansas poet 
Don't call attention to yourself; let others do that for you. Proverbs 27:2
 
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