A Mini-Challenge for Sunday ~ A Monk's Tale

The Huitain form poem, also known as The Monk's Stanza, is the object of our challenge this weekend.

Detail of the monk from Canterbury Tales ~ Geoffrey Chaucer

The Ballade is the dominant Old French form of the 14th and 15th centuries.  It was brought to England by Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it as the basis of his Monk's Tale, consequently the Ballade stanza is also called The Monk's Tale stanza:




Lo ADAM, in the field of Damascene  (a)
With Godde's owen finger wrought was he, (b)
And not begotten of man's sperm unclean; (a)
And welt all Paradise saving one tree: (b)
Had never worldly man so high degree (b)
As Adam, till he for misgovernance (c)
Was driven out of his prosperity (b)
To labour, and to hell, and to mischance. (c)


Our focus, however, is on the Huitain, a poem in 8 lines. It is made up of a single Ballade stanza. The verse form was most popular in the 16th century and was often used for epigrams in the 18th century. One source suggests the Huitain may have begun in Spain with the simple 8 syllable by 8 line frame which is typical of early Spanish verse. Which came first and who influenced whom, no one knows. 


The basic layout is as follows:


Line length: 8 (French) or 10 (English) syllables 
Rhyme scheme: ababbcbc
Number of lines: 8


The complete poem consists of these 8 lines.  Read more about the background and other uses of the Ballade form HERE.

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For those who prefer the free verse option, your topic is: 

The Monk's Tale