Poetry Challenge: Introducing the Kyrielle
The kyrielle is a French poetic form dating from medieval times. It sometimes consists of couplets, or couplets paired into a quatrain usually linked by a chorus or refrain. The chorus may be as short as one word, or take up a whole line.
Each couplet is usually four lines
long, and each line consists of eight syllables. Different rhyming formats are
used. If the poem is written in couplets it has an a-A, a-A format. If it is in
quatrains, it might be rhymed in
a-a-b-B, c-c-b-B or a-b-a-B, c-b-c-B format, with the capital letters
signifying a rhyme ending a chorus line.
A kyriells should be no less than three
quatrain stanzas (24 lines) long.
An example of a kyrielle is below.
Have all the Dragons Gone and Died
Long ago, they
lived in caves,
as did mankind; we
were their slaves
We feared them
once, all men and I
Why ever did the
dragons die?
Where did they go,
the dragons bold?
Where did they go,
when they grew old?
There is no sign
of them on high.
Whenever did the
dragons die?
When the men moved
from their caverns
built their
castles, built their taverns
The dragons stayed
away, but why
Why ever did the
dragons die?
Why did they
vanish from our halls?
Why did they stop,
ans’wring our calls?
Why did they cease
their midnight flight?
Whyever did the
dragons die?
We cannot find
them. We don’t know.
Where they went,
where we now must go.
We miss their
voices and their fire
Where did the
dragons go to die?
Where they have
gone, so must we, too,
Our lives are
bonded, our souls true.
When they left us,
our souls did cry
Pray not all dragons
went to die.
Why don’t you give it a try? Try writing at least one sestet for
each day of the week.
You can find out more about how to
write sestets from the following sites:
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