Greensleeves; Octosyllabus Poem by Amera Andersen

Greensleeves; Octosyllabus

Rating: 5.0


Alas, my love you do me wrong
And who but my Lady Greensleeves
Bid me my dear, O hear my song
Perchance your love in summer eves

And who but my Lady Greensleeves
Hath waged both life and promise land
Perchance your love in summer eves
Will beckon thee, O take my hand

Hath waged both life and promise land
Thou couldst d’sire no earthly thing
Or beckon thee, O take my hand
Thy music for to play and sing

Thou couldst d’sire no earthly thing
Bid me my dear, O hear my song
Thy music for to play and sing
Alas, my love you do me wrong




Author notes
Based on the lyrics from Greensleeves.

Pantoum:
The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing quatrain, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA.

The design is simple:

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4

Line 5 (repeat of line 2)
Line 6
Line 7 (repeat of line 4)
Line 8

Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanza then repeats the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza (as its first and third lines) , and also repeats the third line of the first stanza, as its second line, and the first line of the first stanza as its fourth. So the first line of the poem is also the last.

Last stanza:

Line 2 of previous stanza
Line 3 of first stanza
Line 4 of previous stanza
Line 1 of first stanza

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