Entry #570464, added on 04-21-08 @ 8:17 pm EDT
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| The Revanche Poem | Entry #570464 |
The Revanche poetry form combines blank verse and rhyming verse, using iambic meter.
For the purposes of review, iambic meter is measured in feet, where:
1 iambic foot (iamb) = 1 unstressed syllable + 1 stressed syllable.
Using a line from my Grossblank poem "An Evening's Excursion," I will show the scansion for a line of iambic hexameter (six iambic feet/12 syllables).
a rare| excur|sion, driv|ing crowd|ed in|terstates
The bars represent the division of the iambic feet and the syllables in bold represent the stressed syllables. Within the bars are two syllables (1 iambic foot). In the simplest terminology, a stressed syllable, when pronounced, has a stronger or heavier accent than an unstressed syllable.
The Revanche is a form invented by David Hirt. I could find very little about the Revanche form. I discovered it on the website of Australian poet Graeme King:
http://www.kingpoetry.com/white%20water.htm.
Recently, I heard from David Hirt, the creator of the Revanche poetry form. When I first presented the Revanche form, I tried unsuccessfully to contact David Hirt, who now has a Writing.com account - Cappuchino   .
David lives in Chicago, Illinois and is in the process of entering a religious order - the Capuchins. Of his poetry, David says, I would consider the kind of poetry I write to be in the vein of Hopkins, Merton, Donne, and a bit of Whitman and Frost. I also write about the people I see on the street and on the trains. I was first published by Poetry.com but dropped then pretty quick. I did Elite Skills for a while and now have found a home at Kingpoets.com. The only other place I've been published is in Shakespeare's Monkey Revue. A brand new journal. It's only had three editions so far, but is really a quality production in the vein of "Poetry." I recommend it. www.shakespearsmonkeys.com.
David states that the inspiration for the (Revanche) form, while it has a French name, is very much Anglo Saxon. It also comes a lot from Shakespeare. If you read his plays, you'll find many of the scenes end with rhyming couplets.
The poem I used to introduce the Revanche form was not completely true to the form as originally created by David Hirt. Following is the original Revanche poem written by David Hirt.
Lawnmower Man (The original Revanche)
The hot sun called him out today
For weekend rains have made his back
Yard wild, in need of care to make
His cultivation flourish true.
So baring chest and sweating free
He starts the mower's bladed fury
Around the yard in tight'ning rings,
Toward a central, stable whole
While blade remains are hurled aside:
The yard reduced to entropy.
Crickets skitter, avoiding shears
While others jump to him like prayers.
One glad petitioner lands on him,
An itch he tries to brush aside
Until he sees its fragile need
And ancient stories call him blest.
The roaring motor stutters low
Until he finds the cricket home.
"Lawnmower Man"
©David Hirt
The Original Revanche poem is written in lines of tetrameter, with quatrains of blank verse and couplets of rhyming verse. The original Revanche may be as long as the poet wishes, as long as it ends with a couplet.
Because I have already introduced the form as using tetrameter and trimeter, and in respect for David Hirt, I will call the following form, using the tetrameter and trimeter, the Revanche II form.
~~~~~~~
A Revanche II poem has eight stanzas, four quatrains and four couplets which alternate. The Revanche poem is written in iambic meter.
>>>Stanza one is a quatrain (4 lines), each line is written in iambic tetrameter - 4 iambic feet (8 syllables).
>>>Stanza two is a couplet (2 lines) written in iambic tetrameter. (all couplets - stanzas 2, 4, 6, and 8 - are written in iambic tetrameter).
>>>Stanza three is a quatrain. The first three lines are in iambic tetrameter; the fourth line is in iambic trimeter - 3 iambic feet (6 syllables ). The remaining quatrains - stanzas 5 and 7 - are also written with the first lines in iambic tetrameter and the fourth line in iambic trimeter.
>>>All quatrains are blank verse - non-rhyming.
>>>All couplets are end-line rhymes.
I like the variance of stanzas and meter used in this poetry form. In her book The Discovery of Poetry, Francis Mayes states that poets will often use various meters in a poem to keep the poem from sounding monotone. I think the variance in alternating stanza lengths and using both tetrameter and trimeter is quite affective in the Revanche.
With / = unstressed syllable and x = stressed syllable, here is the layout for the Revanche poetry form (a,b,c,d are the rhymes for the couplets):
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/a
/x/x/x/a
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x
/x/x/x/b
/x/x/x/b
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x
/x/x/x/c
/x/x/x/c
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x/x
/x/x/x
/x/x/x/d
/x/x/x/d
Following is a [b}Revanche II poem
"White Water"
by Graeme King
an Australian poet
A smile as grim as winter splits
his face as tension forces bones
to pull with muscles urgent strength
and keep the fragile craft upright.
The water's murmur rises more
as he approaches canyon's door.
Now spume is seen in rainbows orb
afloat from river's awesome drop,
and eddies try to rip the boat
from course of straight and true.
His paddle digs to stay the tide
as river's chasm beckons wide.
With no escape he rushes on
in cataract's magnetic grip
as ever faster water boils
and hurtles to the edge.
An oath is caught on gasping breath
approaching seeming certain death.
A missile dropping through the falls
to smash into the waiting pool
and live, to cheat the river's hold
to float upon the day.
So once again he drifts on home
to dream at night of rapids foam.
"White Water"
©2007 KINGPOETRY
Graeme King
http://www.kingpoetry.com/white%20water.htm
Remember that the last line of the first quatrain (stanza 1) has iambic tetrameter, while all remaining quatrains (stanzas 3, 5, and 7) the last line is iambic trimeter. All couplets are iambic tetrameter.
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© Copyright 2008 Brenpoet - Happy Valentine' (UN: brenmaple at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Brenpoet - Happy Valentine' has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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