Failed my first Perform Poetry roll at the Java Hut tonight. Then did ok the second time around, even though I left out three middle verses of the piece. Need to review the Heron and Midas in the next few days. I definitely want to perform Midas next Sunday.

Special meeting post-tournament on Sunday for fencing may be delayed by a week. THis puts it in Labor Day weekend, which would suck, because then I’d have to leave Labor Day plans for a scheduling meeting. On the other hand, this means I may be able to share the day with … PL, the master chief fencer in CT, said he’d let me know if I actually needed to be there, by Wednesday.

asked for the form of the Canzone which I use in the poem, The Knitting Lesson. Blithely and offhandedly, I mentioned that the form appeared in Lewis Turco’s book, The Book of Forms, and I promsied to look it up and post the form here.

So I got home and looked it up, and …

It’s not in Book of Forms. It must be in John Hollander’s book, Rhyme’s Reason, which some cute punk poet in Middletown swiped after a reading, when my back was turned. At least, I think it might have been her. The other candidate was the academic poet who stopped by once in a while and wrote in his own invented script.

Anyway, here’s Lewis Turco’s interpretation:

The canzone is an Italian form structured, like the Pindaric ode, in three strophes or movements. Each strophe is divded into three parts. The first stanzas (piedi, “feet”; singular, piede “foot”) are structurally alike in each strophe; the third stanza in each strophi (the sirima or cauda is structurally different from the piedi, but the structures of piedi and sirima are nonce forms: the poet’s invention. The poem often closes with an envoy, a commiato, or valediction.

Aren’t you glad she asked?

John Hollander has a rhyme-scheme for the canzone which is mad-crazy, but which I don’t have the resources (at 3am) to decipher from my poem. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, after I clean my house…

and are coming to dinner tomorrow at 6pm. I have to get some groceries in the house so I can eat this week, and feed them. Hmmm.

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6 comments

  1. I’m bringing a yummy side dish :-). It’s this pasta with asparagus and strawberries. YUM!

    We REALLY enjoyed Poetry last night :-), and are looking forward to going again :-). If you get out of going to fencing next Sunday, and you guys would be up for spending your anniversary at the NY Ren Faire (which would be fun fun fun!) let us know as we have been considering going!

  2. I’m bringing a yummy side dish :-). It’s this pasta with asparagus and strawberries. YUM!

    We REALLY enjoyed Poetry last night :-), and are looking forward to going again :-). If you get out of going to fencing next Sunday, and you guys would be up for spending your anniversary at the NY Ren Faire (which would be fun fun fun!) let us know as we have been considering going!

    • HI Cheryl. Sunday wouldn’t work for me. We are also hoping for a quiet weekend to ourselves for our anniversary. Thanks anyway!

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