O Death

*Painting by Martin McKenna...You can visit his gallery at: www.epilogue.net

Wretched, glorious mortals
Travail to wither and die.
Graves, eternity’s portals,
The fated, viciously vie!

Grim, illustrious reaper,
Pallid blue poignant bouquet,
Eternal flame's sole heaper,
The chosen’s, sacred sachet!

O death, incisive moment,
Non-triumphant intense sting,
Souls cleansed by sanguine foment,
Sanctified, supremely sing!






Note-- Foment is used as a “name” for a type of purifying bath, which makes it a noun shifting the stress to the first syllable instead of the last, ergo it is “pure feminine rhyme”. As a verb, this would be a masculine end rhyme and the stress would shift to the last syllable.

There are several two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.

 
© Copyright 2007 Mattie Sue Dubois (Dark Moon) Texas,USA
 
Author's comments:
1st and 3rd lines are "Feminine Rhyme"
2nd and 4th "Masculine Rhyme"

It has been determined almost impossible to produce "Pure Feminine Rhyme" in the English language. This poem is the outcome of dialogue on the suject with "horatius" Levan Tatishvili, who states: "Prosody is the very core of poetry, i.e. what makes poetry as poetry, the rest can be presented in prose. First of all prosody must be discussed and treated and only then the meaning. Winkelmann (18th century classicist/Philosopher) speaking about Homeros Iliad said a very Shrewd thing and I do not know why moderns cannot understand it: "He (i.e. homer) expresses the flying spear which pierces the body of a hero rather by sounding than by informing." Unfortunately, we usually call poetry "poetry" when we only express our feelings or narrate a certain story as if we could not do the same by prose." Levan Tatishvili, classical master

With Levan's permission here is a beautiful example of the "Pattern of feminine-masculine end rhymes (using both precise and imprecise):

Abundant harvest banished leisure summer
The festive autumn ran off winter’s hush
A helpless petal waning fell in slush.
And lonely hope awaits the blooming comer.

Mirage is soul and breath of tempting Mummer,
Here endless mercy—false belief is lush;
Yet blessed, whose softened heart by heinous rush
Is steeled by guile to stand despairs vast number.

NOTE: There is still a deviation in the last line, i.e. "number" since it does not match fully with summer, comer, mummer (the consonant "b" impedes), what is not allowed in the purely classical sonnet (all classical sonnets must have had the precise rhymes of masculine-feminine)“In the case of a pure rhymes the vowels+stress must exactly match (consonants as well as vowels). If it is a masculine rhyme then the last syllable must be stressed as well as the last syllable must precisely match. If the rhyme is feminine the last two syllables must match and stress must fall on the second from the end syllable; the last syllable must be unstressed. If the rhyme is dactylic then the last THREE syllables must precisely match and the stress must fall on the third from the end syllable; the last two syllables must be unstressed." Levan Tatishvili

On the subject of rhyme I have a tendency to agree with Dr. Saintsbury who said, “The exact origin of rhyme is another of those points which Fate, or Logic, or Pusillanimity, dispenses us from attacking.” Rhyme is the most prominent literary artifice used in versification. When classical quantitative meters began to decline and accentual meters were on the rise rhyme began to develop, most especially the Latin poetry. In the middle ages, end rhyme or assonance (repetition of related vowel sounds), and alliteration (repetition of consonants) were predominant in vernacular verse. After 1300 rhyme became the metrical mark of poetry until Blank verse was introduced in the 16th century. Early writers called alliteration and assonance rhyme, but today two words are said to rhyme only when the sound of the final accented syllables (usually at the end of the line) sound alike, e.g., vie/die (Long) called rising single or masculine, and portals/mortals (Short) called falling double or feminine. When the vowels in the final TWO accented syllables of the two rhyming words and the consonants succeeding the vowel have exactly the same, long accented vowel, followed by a short unaccented vowel at the end, it is said to be “pure feminine rhyme.” “ Most poets since the 20th-century use imperfect, feminine rhyme like the words, instant and infant, or approximate rhymes, in which the rhymed vowels and even the consonants might be similar but not identical, like groaned and ground. Two words cannot rhyme unless both are accented on the same syllable. When rhymes are of one syllable or end in a consonant with no mute e following, as sad and bad, they are said to be a single, or masculine rhyme. This type predominates in English verse because of the great number of monosyllabic words in the language. Feminine rhyme predominates in Spanish and Italian poetry, while German and French use masculine and feminine rhyme equally. Triple rhymes, or three-syllable rhymes, as pliable and viable, are less common. Rhymes of more than three syllables are rare. Some rhymes, as wind and kind, are called eye rhymes (words which are spelled alike but not pronounced alike) and have come into general use through “poetic license.”” Columbia.

Work sited:
Levan Tatishvili, Classical Master; "Hope" Petrarchan Sonnet
Columbia University Press
Dr. George Saintsbury, “History of English Prosody"
Dr. Guest, “History of English Rhythms"
Wikipedia.org: "History of Ancient Art", Winkelmann masterpiece, the Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums 1764.


ART BY MARTIN MCKENNA