AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

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Sunday, April 20, 2008

Abandoned? ~ Easy Street Prompt #145

Pic from Easy Street Prompt #145
For the first time, I am attempting a villanelle. This is in response to the Poefusion Prompt 19.04.08 ~ The villanelle is a fixed form of nineteen lines consisting of five tercets (three line stanzas) and a quatrain (four line stanza). The first line (refrain) is repeated in lines six, twelve and eighteen while the third line is repeated in lines nine, fifteen and nineteen. These refrains (first/third lines) rhyme with each other and with the opening line of each stanza. The middle lines rhyme with each other to make the rhyme scheme aba.
~
I put the shell to my ear
Yesterday is coloured blue
Old voices from the sea of fear
~
No love do I hear
Smiling memories are few
I put the shell to my ear
~
No closeness for cheer
Youth embalmed in constant dew
Old voices from the sea of fear
~
Home is just a funeral bier
Latent grey filmy hue
I put the shell to my ear
~
Tangled garden drawing near
Swampy, muddy, murky view
Old voices from the sea of fear
~
Cold darkness lives here
Ghostling shapes of you
I put the shell to my ear
Old voices from the sea of fear
~

9 comments:

paisley said...

oh gemma that final stanza was perfection... and i love the use of that easystreet prompt...

rel said...

Gemma,
It tells the story and fits the form...first time or not, this rocks girl.
rel

Anonymous said...

AMAZING. Really. Amazing. I know I am new to this, but I also know what speaks to me ears and heart. You did a fantastic job.

Annie Jeffries said...

This is wonderful. I have not written a villanelle in at least a year. I'm inspired.

Thank you for visiting me today. I'm very happy to have found your site. Love the autumn photo at the top. It's my favorite time of year and being in California, I have too long to wait for it again.

All my best,
Annie

January said...

Good for you for trying the villanelle, one of my favorite styles. Very nice!

poefusion said...

Your first villanelle was a good try. The last stanza was my favorite too. Thanks for giving this form a try. Have a nice day.

Anonymous said...

A haunting poem, with echoes of the sea, a past life, emptiness. Well done, with simple, flowing lines that rhyme well!

Rethabile said...

A difficult form. I'm afraid of it. Takes guts.

Anonymous said...

The poem is wonderful Gemma ! And it find the style..villanelle. very fascinating . It has this very singsong kind of rhythm to it.

Great work :)

Gemma,you have read the poem about the 39 yr old who died of brain tumor . May I request you to read the other side of the coin .. her husband's point of view . Though a little late in the week I thought I would post that for the Writer's Island prompt of :"Survivor"

Thank you once again for stopping by.
http://la-muse07.blogspot.com/2008/04/survivor.html

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Archive of Blog Quotes

  • A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken. ~James Dent
  • Autumn is an introspective season when stray thoughts of the mind dive into the mystique of the soul - Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn is the bridesmaid of Summer and the flowergirl of Winter ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Autumn whispers the tones of yesterday in a minor key ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Love is born / With a dark and troubled face, / When hope is dead / And in the most unlikely place; / Love is born, / Love is always born. - Michael Leunig's Christmas Song Cycle "Southern Star"
  • Spring paints the stars of heaven in Earth colours ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Summer sizzles with a sibilant hush / Broken by dreams of / Clinking ice ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. - G.K. Chesterton
  • Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. - Stanley Horowitz
  • Winter is the fire, simmering lonely in the soul ~ Gemma Wiseman
  • Winter is the shadow, the etching of the seasons in the mist ~ Gemma Wiseman

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