Poetry With Style - The Tetractys
Posted: Monday, March 23, 2009
by David Pekrul
The title of this article would suggest that my poetry has style and pizzaz. That, of course, may be far from the truth. Each person must decide if what I writehas any style whatsoever, or if it is even poetic. I'll leave those decisions up to you.
What I do want to suggest, however, is that poetry is made up of various styles. Too often a poet writes from his or her heart, which is great, but in doing so, writes whatever rhyming style (or not) which enters his mind at the time. I know that this is how I write much of my poetry.
There are, however, some very strict poetry styles, which at the least, are most challenging to write.
For this first article, I have written two poems in a style called a Tetractys. Now this may be a word with which most of you are not familiar. The simple definition is this: " a poetic form invented by Ray Stebbing; it consists of five lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (for a total of 20). Tetractys can also be reversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2,1.
A Double Tetractys is written as 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.
A quote from Ray Stebbings says "Euclid, the mathematician of classical times, considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own - Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain's answer to the Haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables."
The two poems I have written here are in the Double Tetractys form.
Christ Our Redeemer
Christ,
Saviour,
Redeemer,
Eternal King,
Who died a death, so we may live a life.
Then sent His Spirit to dwell with us here,
To give Comfort,
And Power,
Wisdom,
Strength.
Saviour,
Redeemer,
Eternal King,
Who died a death, so we may live a life.
To give Comfort,
And Power,
Wisdom,
Strength.
Age And Remorse
Age,
Remorse,
But what if,
I need more time,
These things begin to haunt as one ages.
But demons can be killed by one's resolve,
So look ahead,
And set goals,
Be strong,
Age.
If this article is used in any publication, please send a copy of the publication to David Pekrul at
170 Carr Cres.
Okotoks, AB
T1S 1E3
Canada
E-Mail:dpekrul@gmail.com
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)You forever delight and amaze me, David. You can be sure I know nothing about poetry--I always thought Tetrachys was a video game! You are a wonder with words. God bless.SandraThanks for the kind comment, Sandra. I'm going to try writing more poetry in particular styles, as I find this really stretches my imagination and takes me out of my comfort zone, which is what I need.
This is my man!!!! You never disappoint me, ever....this is why you are good, at what you do, and you know how I feel about your work...do you remember the article that I came out with about if you had to write about a specific thing, what would it be.....this would be it for you....there are also other different styles that you can write about and give examples. I look forward to this.....Great article my friend, and great write.....Your pal, fan, and friend in pen......Gary
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