Blank Verse III
Poetry Contest
Blank verse is verse written in iambic pentameter (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM) without rhyme. Shakespeare often used it. For this contest, no end rhymes, either true or proximate, are allowed. No internal or true rhymes are allowed in the same line (they may be in consecutive lines.)
True rhymes--ones in which the ending vowel and consonantal sounds are the same. (e.g. fate/late)
Proximate rhymes--ones in which the ending vowel sound is the same, but the ending consonantal sounds differ.
(e.g. time/nine)
End rhymes--rhyming words at the end of a line.
An example of blank verse:
Ravages of War
by
Alvin Thomas Ethington
I miss the sound and feel of your embrace,
Although I know that some things cannot be.
A love which was not never comes to pass--
Beyond our lust there was no fire from you.
I miss you more than time or space can tell;
I wake up in the night and call your name.
I think I view you on the street each day--
Alas! It is a stranger with your form...
Your silhouette still haunts me even now;
I see your beauty in the windowsill.
Your soul still lives inside my mind and heart;
I dream of you in dark of pitch black night.
Your youth expired long before its time
When ravages of war brought home the pain;
The flag-draped coffin shut its lid on me
And I became a shadow of myself...
I do not have the courage to commit
A suicide; yet a ring I still wear,
For I am bound to you eternally
Yet I am but a shade in Satan's hell...
Before you left, you said to me that I
Meant nothing to you; I was just a fling
That I should now forget you while I could.
My soul stung as if in a hive of bees,
Although you slipped a ring upon my hand--
A symbol of strong friendship you opined.
"Let's see what happens when tomorrow comes."
You knew when you came back you would be dead.
And now I mourn and pine the hours away
In purgatories of my own design.
I long for just a moment of your touch--
But with your death, the gate of my heart closed.
The entry fee is high because this is a difficult form and there is a minimum of 24 lines.
This is to be a romantic poem, so please NO humorous poems.
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 360.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Tuesday, August 31, 2010.
Full Contest Listing
True rhymes--ones in which the ending vowel and consonantal sounds are the same. (e.g. fate/late)
Proximate rhymes--ones in which the ending vowel sound is the same, but the ending consonantal sounds differ.
(e.g. time/nine)
End rhymes--rhyming words at the end of a line.
An example of blank verse:
Ravages of War
by
Alvin Thomas Ethington
I miss the sound and feel of your embrace,
Although I know that some things cannot be.
A love which was not never comes to pass--
Beyond our lust there was no fire from you.
I miss you more than time or space can tell;
I wake up in the night and call your name.
I think I view you on the street each day--
Alas! It is a stranger with your form...
Your silhouette still haunts me even now;
I see your beauty in the windowsill.
Your soul still lives inside my mind and heart;
I dream of you in dark of pitch black night.
Your youth expired long before its time
When ravages of war brought home the pain;
The flag-draped coffin shut its lid on me
And I became a shadow of myself...
I do not have the courage to commit
A suicide; yet a ring I still wear,
For I am bound to you eternally
Yet I am but a shade in Satan's hell...
Before you left, you said to me that I
Meant nothing to you; I was just a fling
That I should now forget you while I could.
My soul stung as if in a hive of bees,
Although you slipped a ring upon my hand--
A symbol of strong friendship you opined.
"Let's see what happens when tomorrow comes."
You knew when you came back you would be dead.
And now I mourn and pine the hours away
In purgatories of my own design.
I long for just a moment of your touch--
But with your death, the gate of my heart closed.
The entry fee is high because this is a difficult form and there is a minimum of 24 lines.
This is to be a romantic poem, so please NO humorous poems.
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool of 360.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 2 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Tuesday, August 31, 2010.
