Berceuse

[peacejazzspirit]

Keith and PJS-  I said that I 'd post the method behind the madness for Lullaby, and here it is.  It should be obvious that I spend way too much time "chiseling" on words.  Hey, it beats watching TV, and it opens me up to a lot of character building criticism.

Lullaby is a monometer poem patterned (very) loosely on a 14 line sonnet. I decided to attempt to write a sonnet in monometer, and of course, purists may say that this immediately disqualifies it as a sonnet.  So, let's just call it a "monnet".

The variation in accents from trochees in the octave to iambs in the sestet is intended to imply two voices/characters.  

The rhyme scheme also differs from a traditional sonnet, as it does not follow a scheme of ABBA ABBA CDE CDE.  The rhymes are mostly “near” or “slant” rhymes.  In this case they are A-B-C-D, A-B-C-D, E-F-G, E-F-G.  

The “hand-off” (volta) between the octave and sestet is very hard to pull off due to the monometer form.  That said, the tone does switch at that point, as the ethereal, ambiguous nature of the octave is “answered” in the sestet.

An obscure element I introduced is that the rhyme scheme is A-B-C-D-E-F-G, suggesting the seven notes of the “A minor” scale.   Would anyone recognize this element?  Of course not.  But it was “fun” implementing it.  

Hey, a lullaby is a song, so I figured it might as well be in a certain key.  The A minor key has been described as “tender and plaintive”, which I thought was appropriate for a poem about a lullaby.

Below is an outline of the structure (accents are bolded):

Lullaby

From a           A
distance         B
faintly            C
humming,       D
comes a         A
presence        B
gently            C
thrumming.    D

Passed on        E   “passed on” is likely a spondee:  / /
among            F
my thoughts,  G
your song        E
is sung,          F
not lost.         G   “not lost” is likely a spondee:  / /

Thank you Mark, I understand the structure better now, and as a musician admire your lullaby in A minor