[Bards] Poetic Exercise #3

[Marie Adams]

Devotion first to God, also to man;
He offers caring heart and guiding hand.
Though none can ever marry him, he's glad
Because the privilege of his work he's had.
	---Serena
(sorry this is kind of late; it took me a while to come up with)

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003, Ulf Gunnarsson wrote:

> Iambic pentameter is best known to us from the plays of William
> Shakespeare. It is a line of five sets of unstressed/stressed syllables,
> such as "The course of true love never did run smooth" from "A Midsummer
> Night's Dream". (Hint: da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum.)
>
> C.S. Lewis described courtly love as the "Religion of Love". In the
> middle ages, a common topic of poetry was the unattainable love.  The
> object of the poem was often of a higher station or calling, though in
> some cases they were unattainable because they were dead or, more often,
> already married.  This did not deter the poet from pouring his heart's
> blood out through his pen.
>
> For bardic exercise #3, write four lines of iambic pentameter.  The
> subject should be an "unattainable", such as your Queen, a knight, or a
> church figure.  It should be expressed in terms of courtly love.  Talk
> of their beauty, their grace, their wondrous physical attributes...
> whatever.  It doesn't have to outright declare your undying love, but it
> should at least hint at the potential inclination.  Your current
> significant other is not allowed.
>
> Remember that this is for fun, and that we play at the Middle Ages
> here.  Don't take any of the answers posted here as serious love
> letters.
>
> Ulf Gunnarsson
>
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