Pre-amble

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Heather

Pre-amble

Post by Heather » Thu Nov 04, 2010 3:45 pm

I was wondering if it is allowed to have a preamble for a poem in a competition? Is it allowed or frowned upon or not allowed at all?

Heather

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Zondrae
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Re: Pre-amble

Post by Zondrae » Thu Nov 04, 2010 4:31 pm

Heather,

I believe you can have a pre-amble. They are scored in relation to the relevance to the poem and they are included in your time limit. There are official ABPA guidelines for judging and then again each competition may have added rules of their own. So you must check the time allocation and time yourself (including pre-amble) before the comp.
Zondrae King
a woman of words

william williams

Re: Pre-amble

Post by william williams » Thu Nov 04, 2010 4:37 pm

I am not sure Heather but I do not think so as a poem is a poem( Written of coarse) from top to bottom but a preamble is allowed for a preformance poem or yarn
that is what I precieve so the answer would be no for written or yes for preformance

:mrgreen: :evil: :roll: :lol: Does that make you even more confused

Old Bill

Heather

Re: Pre-amble

Post by Heather » Thu Nov 04, 2010 4:42 pm

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I meant in a written comp.

william williams

Re: Pre-amble

Post by william williams » Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:03 pm

what you understood what I wrote. Hell woman I must be improveing

bill the old battler

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Zondrae
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Re: Pre-amble

Post by Zondrae » Thu Nov 04, 2010 7:23 pm

Sorry Heather,

I thought you had a performance comp in mind. I have never even thought of using a pre-amble for a written poem. I would consider writing the preamble into the poem as a first stanza. I have even used the technique of a row of *** in between the first or last stanza to designate a pre or post amble (is there such a thing as a post-amble?). I was looking for a Lawson poem this afternoon and noticed he has used this device in several poems including 'Reedy River' and 'Ballad Of The Elder Son' among many. (These are random poems I spotted by leafing through the book with my thumb)

I have, in one of my (very early) poems written two lines to start and two lines to finish where all the rest of the poem is in 6 line stanzas. I don't tink I have ever entered it into a comp as it was possible the third poem I ever wrote and I knew I had no idea what I was doing. I'll pm it to you in case you haven't read it.
Zondrae King
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Heather

Re: Pre-amble

Post by Heather » Thu Nov 04, 2010 8:05 pm

Thanks Zondrae, I will have a look in one of my Lawson books to see if I have either of those poems. You've kinda answered my question I think. The poem I am currently writing has a first stanza that is related but is sort of separate to the rest of the poem but then I link it with the conclusion. I think it does the trick. I don't want to be too obvious with what I am writing, I want the reader to work it out.

Heather :)

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Glenny Palmer
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Re: Pre-amble

Post by Glenny Palmer » Fri Nov 05, 2010 11:55 pm

...
G'daay Heather,
As a written judge I can offer my particular feeling for this. In my view a poem's message should stand on its own. If you have to explain it you have not succeeded in getting the message of the poem across. Where there are exceptions that are unavoidable, the preamble, or intro should be as short & to the point as possible.
That's just my feeling & other judges may differ in their opinions, but it puts me right off at the very beginning, so why make it tougher on yourself? Connecting the message via the 1st & last stanzas is a clever write & I like poems that are 'circular' like that.

Any other judges have a view on this...?

Cheeers
Glenny
The purpose of my life is to serve as a warning to others.

Heather

Re: Pre-amble

Post by Heather » Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:06 pm

Hi Glenny and thanks. I think if I posted it here I might do an preamble as it is a tribute to a particular soldier and if you listened to the news you would probably work it out. However, the poem could stand on its own and be about any soldier. I think what I have done works.

Heather :)

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