Monday, November 07, 2016

Monday Poetry Stretch - Macaronic Verse

In celebrating my blogiversary yesterday (10 years!), I went back and looked at all the poetry stretches we've done since I started posting them in August of 2007. It's been more than two years we wrote poems in the form of macaronic verse, so it seems like a good time to revisit the form. The Handbook of Poetic Forms defines macaronic verse in this fashion.
Macaronic verse is a peculiar, rare and often comic form of poetry that sometimes borders on nonsense. It is a mixture of two (or more) languages in a poem, in which the poet usually subjects one language to the grammatical laws of another to make people laugh.
Poetry Base describes macaronic verse this way.
The definition is a poem in a mixture of two languages, one of them preferably Latin. Usually the mixture of languages is a bit absurd. The word of one language may be terminated with common endings in the other.
So, your challenge for this week is to write a poem that uses more than one language. I hope you will join me this week in writing macaronic verse. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.

4 comments:

  1. And Called it Macaronic: The Candidate Speaks



    Buenos dias, mein kopf,
    Heading into the day,
    I'm ready and able
    to see what I say.

    The tete is terrifc,
    Well rested and tested.
    And what I will write,
    You'll be most interested.

    I'm true to my calling,
    And tres jollie, too.
    And I'll bring all my musings
    to each one of you.

    So listen and learn
    As I spill all I know.
    There's no loch in my kop
    And I'm ready to go.

    ©2016 Jane Yolen all rights reserved

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    Replies
    1. Sumus Quod Sumus

      A Deus ex machines is
      what I’m looking for,
      a magnum opus by
      someone who will
      come along and have
      a cor ad cor, of course
      pro bono. If you should
      find him in flagrante delicate
      carpe diem!
      Grab him if you will
      before he runs a way
      ad infinitum and beyond.
      Those guys are all emeriti
      and hoc est bellum,
      ergo it’s up to you.
      If he doesn’t like it
      he can sue us
      quid pro quo.
      Sumus quod sumus.

      ©2016 Judith Robinson

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  2. Carpe Diem

    Carpe Diem--
    seize the fish.
    Put it in
    a petrie dish.

    Let is sit there,
    for a while,
    stewing with
    madonna smile.

    Get a magnum
    opus drink,
    cork left sulking
    in the sink.

    Carpe diem
    now replete.
    Caveat emptor
    as you eat.



    ©2016 Jane Yolen all rights reserved

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