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Unread 05-15-2022, 05:04 PM
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Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Middle England
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I for one would certainly welcome thoughts on what writing a villanelle, a sestina, a triolet, (my bold) does to the universe of thought we inhabit. Is it narrowed? Expanded?
Hi John,
When it comes to this particular form the one below, by David Anthony, is my all-time favourite. For me, it's a perfect match of form and content, which is another topic we've debated here many times.

Mother’s Day

I hold the phone remembering —
no need to call today.
Routine’s my life raft; as I cling
I hold the phone, remembering
a loss. It is a cruel thing,
this trick the mind can play.
I hold the phone, remembering.
No need to call today.

I think forms are a bit like recipes. The 'ingredients' are often the same, or similar, yet the end results can be vastly different. Just take lasagne, for instance, compared with spaghetti bolognese; pasta, meat, sauce... but very different meals. Likewise, rhyme schemes, repeating forms like triolets, villanelles and pantoums give us varied end products while the main components are basically the same.

So why do we choose to write a sonnet or sestina, say, over any other form on a particular occasion? Content comes into it, naturally, as do personal preferences; I know several Sphereans who hate villanelles (I love 'em!) ... but hey! I'm veering off on a tangent, sorry - this isn't about why we choose to write a poem in a certain form.

TBH, I've lost sight of (and don't fully understand) your original question: what [does] writing a villanelle, a sestina, a triolet, [do] to the universe of thought we inhabit. Is it narrowed? Expanded?

I'll think on it some more... meanwhile, it's bedtime - somewhat awkward with my right arm in a plaster cast, as is typing with one finger of my not-dominant hand!

All the best,
Jayne

Last edited by Jayne Osborn; 05-15-2022 at 05:10 PM.
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