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I so much enjoyed writing a ballad over at dVerse last week that I decided to make it the theme of this week's challenge. What is a Ballad? The ballad as a poetic form was traditionally a lyrical, narrative poem set to music, and accompanied by dance (the word derives from the Latin ballare, 'to... Continue Reading →
This week's challenge called for a quatrain, on any subject and with any rhyming scheme/metre (though it should include both). This challenge had a wonderful variety of responses on subjects ranging from comedy to tragedy. In the realm of poetry there is room for both and everything in between. I want to say a special... Continue Reading →
For today's Poetry Challenge, we are going to take a look at Quatrains, which simply put are 4-line stanzas. They normally follow a strict rhyming scheme, e.g.: ABAB: I went to the Garden of Love,And saw what I never had seen:A chapel was built in the midst,Where I used to play on the green. From... Continue Reading →
This week's Poetry Challenge was to compose a limerick, with the aim of bringing a smile to the face of the reader, and distracting us all a little from the troubled times in which we find ourselves. I asked Poet Don of The Flippant, Comic, and Serious if he would be our judge, with the... Continue Reading →
Last time I featured the rather sombre poetic form of the Elegy for the Experiments in Fiction Poetry Challenge. Though there is a time to mourn, there is also of course a time to laugh. Life is without balance if we don't find joy in it as well as sorrow. So for today's challenge, we... Continue Reading →
Like the Ode, the Elegy has its origins in Classical literature, where it was characterised by its elegiac metre (alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter). But don't worry, this challenge does not demand such a fixed and complex metre. In English literature, an Elegy is 'a form of poetry in which the poet or... Continue Reading →
We had a great response to this fortnight's challenge: The Ode. There were some truly heartfelt and moving responses. I think being prompted to write a poem about something which moves you deeply is the perfect way to get the creative juices flowing. All of my poems (apart from the silly ones) are about something... Continue Reading →
The Ode as a poetic form dates back to Ancient Greece, where it was devised as a song to be performed by a choir, and accompanied by dance. Wikipedia describes it as: 'an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.' I also found the following definition in... Continue Reading →
I am happy to say I've had some interesting responses to, and interpretations of, this week's challenge. I loved the way that poets came up with new ideas of translation, from translating well-known poems into a local dialect of English, to sign-language recordings of poems and songs synced to poetry readings and song lyrics. Thank... Continue Reading →
Welcome, poets and poetry lovers alike: today I'm excited to announce a new EIF Poetry Challenge! After the success of the previous challenge: The Sonnet, I'm really looking forward to this. I did say I probably wouldn't be making the challenge any easier, and this is perhaps harder than the last one, (it certainly was... Continue Reading →
Experiments in Fiction 