Tuesday, April 3, 2012

APRIL - Poetry Month

'Tis true, my love. April, the month of love, of poetry, of talking funny with strange words and in metered rhyme.

All kidding aside, poetry is to be commended. Just think, in the days of 'yore' the ballads were told as memorized verses.  Balladeers strolled from village to village, strumming their lutes or some other stringed instrument of the period.  A good balladeer was one with long songs with many verses filled with love, adventure, good and evil; in other words, something for everyone from the very young to the extremely old.

Storytelling was also available but it was much more enjoyable to listen to a lightly strummed lute as the voice warbled verse after verse.  Many a father had to watch their daughters when a balladeer came to town and voiced his wares for all to hear. What young damsel could defend herself against a soft verse of love coupled with a wink, a smile and strum of the lute.

But I digress.  The Greeks and Romans told their tales in verse. Who has never heard of Ovid, Virgil, Sophocles, or even of Euripedes? They were spouting rhymes before Christ was born.  In fact, a 3,000 year old Egyptian papyrus was discovered with poem on it. (See Note 1)

I write novels, stories, and articles plus a little poetry from time to time.  What I find so amazing about poetry is the fact a story, even a vingette, is told with the least amount of words.  Even the simplest of poems...(See Note 2)
Roses are red, Violets are blue;
Honey is sweet, And so are you.

That poem reveals that the author is in love, and that his true love is perfection, for honey is now considered one of the finest foods and naturally sweet.

All the nursery rhymes we learned as children are basically covert tales and some are dastardly sinister in their meanings.  'Ring around the rosie' and 'A pocketful of posey' is somber in that it mocks and tells the misfortune of the plague when it took its toll in Europe.  The rosey ring was a mark of the plague and due to the number of dying, it became quite common to place flowers in the pockets of loved ones to help cover the stench.  'Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.'  The bodies were burned, and death was so widespread, people were literally dropping as they walked. NOT!! (See Note 3) As good as the above description sounds, it is not true and probably hold true for many of the nursery rhymes that were supposed attacks at the upper crust of society.  Then again???

Still, the fact remains, a poet can tell a tale, a snippet of a story, or the angst of an emotion in a few mere words and in doing so, jerk from us an emotion of response. {insert a couple of finger snaps here with 'yeah, yeah' and 'cool'}

So, with April being the month of poetry, I ask all my readers to find a poem somewhere and embrace it, understand it, and let it flow through you. 

Share your favorite poem with me.

Until next I ramble on...

Notes:
(1) http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/love.htm
(2) http://askville.amazon.com/original-author-roses-red-violets-blue/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=39729359
(3) http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp

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