Saturday, May 30, 2015

Sunday challenge Bout-Rimés

Today I thought we’d try a little game that’s called Bout-Rimés (from French and means rhymed ends. The game itself is attributed to the French Poet Dulot, and though the poet himself is mostly forgotten the game has since attracted many famous poets.


In the English speaking world the Rosetti’s used this game in their literary salon, and especially Christina was very skilled in this.


Consider for instance the following sonnet made by Christina:


Methinks the ills of life I fain would shun;
But then I must shun life, which is a blank.
Even in my childhood oft my spirit sank,
Thinking of all that had still to be done.
Among my many friends there is not one
Like her with whom I sat upon the bank
Willow-o'ershadowed, from whose lips I drank
A love more pure than streams that sing and run.
But many times that joy has cost a sigh;
And many times I in my heart have sought
For the old comfort and not found it yet.
Surely in that calm day when I shall die
The painful thought will be a blessed thought
And I shall sorrow that I must forget.

Who would have guessed that she had not selected the end words herself?


So for today’s challenge I want you all to play with end-rhymes. I have chosen 14 rhymes that could give a Shakespearean sonnet, and for those of you who want to do go strictly with iambs, that’s OK, but experiments with meter is encouraged (though I might stick to pentameter myself)


Also use of homophones to replace the given ones, as well as composed words are allowed. I am kind enough to allow small modifications to slanted rhymes. But the order of the end-words can not be changed.
And this is in no way a competition...he he. No way...
So here are the words I have picked for you, there will be bonus point for anyone recognizing the poem I have used to for these words.


caught, him, got, dim, shade, goes, glade, flows, lies, stone, dies, tone, lawn, gone

I look forward to a lot of variations from you dear friends.




22 comments:

Outlawyer said...

Hi Bjorn--I took a peek in advance --a fun challenge--though not sure what mine, if I get it posted--means! Ha. Thanks. k.

brudberg said...

Ha.. I look forward to this.. A little bit like a puzzle ;-)

hedgewitch said...

Like Karin, I took a look earlier and am also working on something inscrutable. ;_) I have had to do a bit of modification, so hopefully you will not chastise me too roughly when its finally done.

Kerry O'Connor said...

I knew Hedge would be all over this challenge and I find such an iconic game hard to resist too.

Thanks, Bjorn.

De Jackson said...

Loved the wordplay challenge of this...as well as the "encouragement" to go untraditional with the meter. ;)

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Hello everyone,

I must admit this was quite a challenge! :D Sharing my poem "Samurai", hope you all like it :D

Thank you Bjorn for this wonderful opportunity :D

Lots of love,
Sanaa

brudberg said...

Time to go to bed.. I like what I've seen so far.. But I can understand that this was a true challenge,

Lolamouse said...

I love these parlour games! I, like others, peeked earlier so I could work on this one. What fun!

Gail said...

Alas, I'm not familiar with form.
I shall try. Thank you, Bjorn.

Hannah said...

This was easier once I got started! Thank you, Bjorn and happy weekend to everyone. :)

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

I actually loved this, as I'd been wanting some bones to hang some flesh on. But the shape of that flesh raises questions... Very little use of my rational mind in this one, lol!

brudberg said...

Very nice reading so far... I have no real guess on the poem yet... I can give another hint, it's not a sonnet, and I have picked out some words from a poem with more lines.

Fireblossom said...

It's "The Death Of A Toad." Very clever, Bjorn!

brudberg said...

Ha.. yes totally correct :-)

Mary said...

Actually I loved this prompt, Bjorn, and could not resist. I did not link here at Toads (only at Poetry Pantry) because of time issues & knowing today I couldn't respond to everyone, but did write a poem for it. If anyone visits, however, I WILL follow your link back and comment your poem as well! Have a good Sunday!

Bekkie Sanchez said...

Haven't written this yet but I'm in this week! I can't wait!!!! Thanks for the inspiration Toads!

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Wow, this is a most intriguing prompt. I am slowly digging my way through the Pantry, but I might give this one a try. I will get around to you all, though at a snail's pace, which seems to be my optimum speed these days.

brudberg said...

It's bedtime here now.. but I really like the variations.. and yes the poem I picked the end-rhymes from was the death of a toad by Richard Wilbur.. well spotted Shay..

I will catch up with you tomorrow... this was fun.

Margaret said...

Wow... almost a month since I've written a poem and I select this HARD challenge. Ha. Well, I took use of your slant rhymes and such. Good to flex my poetic muscles - weak as they are :)

Anonymous said...

Whew! And when I reread the list I realized that I substituted shone for stone. Oppps
Maybe I'll try another

Bekkie Sanchez said...

I finished and posted just now. I see you guys moved on? That's fast writing how do you work is each one weekly? I left the message below on my take on pw. I hope I did okay I just did the rhyme game part of the challenge.

"My first time writing with Real Toads in some time. I saw you have a challenge everyday? I had no idea what poem those words were from sorry!

I used to drop in very sporadically from Magpie Tales and I'd like to drop in more often. I loved this challenge and hope I understood and wasn't too late for it. Let me have it if not."

I hope you guys still visit my take I'm just getting started here and I'm from Mag I recognize some of you. I have your blog listed on pw and have actually stopped in many times but only wrote a handful. Look forward to a little more often. I don't use Google+ comments. Bekkie

Jinksy said...

Very, very late for this one, but I couldn't resist having a go. Thanks for such an interesting challenge. ♥