I received the following email from Richard Cavendish-Westwood, a.k.a. Dr FTSE, concerning "stellar verse" after last week's look at The Pleiades short verse form.
"The ORION in its short form has 7 lines, 7 being the number of stars in the "simple" form of the Orion Constellation, i.e. without the Hunter's shield and club.
The seven lines which must begin with the initial letter of the names of the 7 stars working in sequence from the celestial zenith, ie,
B, B, M, A, A, R, S (see picture, and key below) and each line in the "pure" form of the Orion, must have seven syllables, but flexibility is allowed. There is no set rhyme scheme.
The LONGORION recognizes that some star maps of the Orion Constellation show an eighth star between Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, and higher in the sky than either of these. So the LONGORION has eight lines of seven syllables and the FIRST line can begin with any letter, since the eighth star is not usually named.
KEY: The seven principal stars in the ORION group.
Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Mintaka, Alnilam, Alnitak, Rigel, Saiph.
Their distances from SOL (the Sun) range from Bellatrix (240 light-years) to Alnilam (1300 light-years)
Betelgeuse (640 lightyears) is a potential "supernova" and indeed, may have exploded already only we haven't seen it yet. If so, since it's very close (in astronomical terms) WE'RE ALL TOAST - and so are the rest of the Orion Group!"
My thanks to Dr FTSE for making my task very easy this week, and for sharing this form and its history with us. I welcome everyone's input on Real Toads.
12 comments:
Ooh, what fun. I must try this tomorrow. Right now, the dog is in her bed already, so I guess it's time for me to head to mine (same room). Dick is going out to the hot tub after refereeing two football games today, so Lindy and I can be sound asleep when he comes in. I'll be in fine form for poetry and putting weatherstripping on doors and windows tomorrow. Non-stop fun at our house.
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel
I have put both my stellar poems together, since I never got back to my Pleiades poem last week.
Always a star-gazer, me... :)
My brain melted about half way through the instructions, plus I don't want to cover up my second fairy tale poem yet. But I did link to a stars-related video I posted. I think it's amazing. I hope you'll not haul me up to the Real Toads front office by my ear, for not following the rules.
Haha! There are no rules here :)
No wonder I like it!
aaaah love this one! supernova, baby.
What an interesting and provocative verse-form. I'd love to meet the blogger who suggested it.
I really enjoy these prompts (and the company here, of course)! Tried my hand at this one as well, though I still find it very hard to write to set forms!
mine is a bit of a vocabulary lesson
I liked this form! I tried to give writing a cosmic significance in my attempt. I appreciate this prompt, needing a creative form for a few thoughts in my idea file!
Many thanks to all who visited the poems posted here, leaving behind your encouragement. This feedback is what keeps us going, when poetry writing is inclined to be a lonely pastime or art.
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