Thoughts Of Unknowing (Complex Poetic Form) Poem by Marieta Maglas

Note: This poem uses a combination of elements of Jintishi poetry, Tyburn Poetry, Free Verse poetry and Carpe Diem poetry. Jintishi peaked in popularity during the Tang Dynasty, and its themes were often political or philosophical in nature. Many jintishis heavily employed the literary technique of allusion.The jintishi poem is based on tonal balance. The tone of the first two-line couplet expresses ping, the level tone in Middle Chinese pronunciation, or the first and second tone in modern standard Chinese. The second couplet expresses shang, a falling-rising tone. Shang is equivalent to the third tone in modern standard Chinese pronunciation. According to jintishi form, this couplet contains parallelism in its lines. To achieve parallelism, the two lines in the couplet contrast in content, but share a similar grammatical relationship. The third couplet is a 'departing' couplet expressing parallelism in its two lines. Tonally, this couplet expresses qu, the falling tone in Middle Chinese, or the fourth tone in modern standard Chinese. The fourth and final couplet expresses ru, the 'entering' tone. Ru is pronounced in a short and abrupt manner, which makes it very apt to end the jintishi. There is no equivalent to the 'entering' tone in Mandarin Chinese. A Tybur Poem is a six line poetic form, where the first four lines consist of just a single two syllabled word each that all rhyme. The last two lines are nine syllables, where the fifth to eighth syllables are the words from the first four lines. A Free Verse is poetry written with rhymed or unrhymed verse that has no set meter to it. Carpe diem is a Latin expression that means 'seize the day.' Carpe diem poems have the theme of living for today.