There are many difficult forms of poetry that we have taken from ancient France. Rondeau may not be that difficult, but we up the ante a bit with the villanelle, and writing a quality sestina is quite a challenge, or at least an exercise. Scarcely though will one find a form anywhere that is nearly as difficult as a paradelle.
Paradelles are 24 lines long. They consist of 4 six-line stanzas (sextets). In each of the first 3 stanza, line 1 and 2 are identical, as are lines 3 and 4. Lines 5 and 6 are then a rearrangement of the words from lines 1 and 3. The final sextet is a rearranging of lines 1 and 3 of the 3 previous stanzas.
This is often regarded as one of the most difficult forms to write. Scarcely will a poet undertake this task. Too often when they do, the poem ends up looking like "Paradelle for Susan," by Billy Collins, the last line of which reads as follows:
Darken the mountain, time and find was my into it was with to to.
Awkward. Collins received a lot of criticism over this. It was generally regarded as his taking an ancient form which he did not understand and trying to use it.
There is only one problem with this: a paradelle is not actually an ancient French form. As a matter of fact, "Paradelle for Susan" was the very first paradelle ever written, way back in 1998. It was invented by Billy Collins as a means of criticizing the way in which some poets cling to form to their own detriment(1). However, it was believed to be an ancient French form because of a footnote to the poem (I believe the only footnote in
Picnic Lightning), which begins as follows:
NOTE: The paradelle is one of the more demanding French fixed forms, first appearing in the langue d'oc love poetry of the eleventh century.
Since the publication of "Paradelle for Susan," there have been a few paradelles written that actually use the form to create a good poem. An anthology of paradelles has even been released. This ancient French form has a very interesting 12-year history.
I have a project. I considered writing a paradelle, but decided against it. I'm not saying I never will. However, that is not the nature of this project. This project is heavily inspired by the word rearrangement of the paradelle with the parallelism of train tracks. The poem will consist of 2 parts (this may or may not mean 2 stanzas), each consisting of the exact same words rearranged. Further, the 2 parts are going to be opposite sides of the coin, depicting the same thing in 2 different ways.
Long term, I want to reach 54 words. Thus far I've written one, a whopping 15 words. This poem is called "First Date." It brings us first romance and idealism, then awkwardness and the desire to focus on everything but the date(2).
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, "First Date."
You and I.
The date.
The chairs and the table.
Under the surface? A mystery…
Table and chairs date under a surface mystery.
The you. The I.
And the the.
1 Sometimes a change of form can be a good thing. One cannot help of thinking of Frost's discussion of whether or not to take his own life in that snowy meadow one evening, and his final decision not to which is offset by his change of meter. Collins recognized this, one of the many reasons he is my favorite living poet, if not my absolute favorite poet.
2 Obviously, I've never experienced this second half, as I'm never awkward at all. Or else I've never experienced either part because I can't get a date. Either way, I think I understand the concept.
There are many difficult forms of poetry that we have taken from ancient France. Rondeau may not be that difficult, but we up the ante a bit with the villanelle, and writing a quality sestina is quite a challenge, or at least an exercise. Scarcely though will one find a form anywhere that is nearly as difficult as a paradelle.
Paradelles are 24 lines long. They consist of 4 six-line stanzas (sextets). In each of the first 3 stanza, line 1 and 2 are identical, as are lines 3 and 4. Lines 5 and 6 are then a rearrangement of the words from lines 1 and 3. The final sextet is a rearranging of lines 1 and 3 of the 3 previous stanzas.
This is often regarded as one of the most difficult forms to write. Scarcely will a poet undertake this task. Too often when they do, the poem ends up looking like "Paradelle for Susan," by Billy Collins, the last line of which reads as follows:
Darken the mountain, time and find was my into it was with to to.
Awkward. Collins received a lot of criticism over this. It was generally regarded as his taking an ancient form which he did not understand and trying to use it.
There is only one problem with this: a paradelle is not actually an ancient French form. As a matter of fact, "Paradelle for Susan" was the very first paradelle ever written, way back in 1998. It was invented by Billy Collins as a means of criticizing the way in which some poets cling to form to their own detriment(1). However, it was believed to be an ancient French form because of a footnote to the poem (I believe the only footnote in
Picnic Lightning), which begins as follows:
NOTE: The paradelle is one of the more demanding French fixed forms, first appearing in the langue d'oc love poetry of the eleventh century.
Since the publication of "Paradelle for Susan," there have been a few paradelles written that actually use the form to create a good poem. An anthology of paradelles has even been released. This ancient French form has a very interesting 12-year history.
I have a project. I considered writing a paradelle, but decided against it. I'm not saying I never will. However, that is not the nature of this project. This project is heavily inspired by the word rearrangement of the paradelle with the parallelism of train tracks. The poem will consist of 2 parts (this may or may not mean 2 stanzas), each consisting of the exact same words rearranged. Further, the 2 parts are going to be opposite sides of the coin, depicting the same thing in 2 different ways.
Long term, I want to reach 54 words. Thus far I've written one, a whopping 15 words. This poem is called "First Date." It brings us first romance and idealism, then awkwardness and the desire to focus on everything but the date(2).
Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, "First Date."
You and I.
The date.
The chairs and the table.
Under the surface? A mystery…
Table and chairs date under a surface mystery.
The you. The I.
And the the.
1 Sometimes a change of form can be a good thing. One cannot help of thinking of Frost's discussion of whether or not to take his own life in that snowy meadow one evening, and his final decision not to which is offset by his change of meter. Collins recognized this, one of the many reasons he is my favorite living poet, if not my absolute favorite poet.
2 Obviously, I've never experienced this second half, as I'm never awkward at all. Or else I've never experienced either part because I can't get a date. Either way, I think I understand the concept.
On Paradelles
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