ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The poem I posted Contemplation April 20, has a rhyme scheme AA BB C. When I searched on line for other examples I was asked 'Did I mean 'AA BB CC.' Is there something amiss with this rhyming and specifically is it not a comfortable fit with the bush poetry form? Perhaps it is not even bush poetry.
Wazza

eg first two verses:

With seasons’ days long winter owned,
but on this evening summer cloned,
I strolled along a wind swept beach
where gentle waves just out of reach
tempted my sun warmed feet.

I wondered then, whence they had come,
marching to celestial drum
across cold depths of ocean floor
to kiss and then depart a shore
they’d journeyed far to greet.

Thank you.

G'day Wazza

It is fine to have an unrhymed line in a stanza in bush poetry. It is also fine to link two stanzas with a rhyme as you have here - the final line in your first stanza rhymes with the final line of your second stanza. Those stanzas are chain rhymed.

An example from CJ Dennis (rhymed aaba, from "Mar"):

"'Er pore dear Par," she sez, "'e kept a store."
An' then she weeps an' stares 'ard at the floor.
"'Twas thro' 'is death," she sez, "we wus rejuiced
To this," she sez... An' then she weeps some more.

"'Er Par," she sez, me poor late 'usband, kept
An 'ay an' corn store. E'd no faults ixcept
'Im fallin' 'eavy orf a load o' charf
W'ich--killed 'im--on the---" 'Struth! But 'ow she wept...

Sometimes you might see a refrain line in a stanza that isn't rhymed with another line in the rest of the stanza, but is repeated in each stanza - that is also fine.

An unrhymed line doesn't have to be the end line (as shown in the above example).

As long as the basic structure of your stanza is kept the same throughout, you are fine.

G'day Wazza,

If you go to my index of poems (up the top of the forum main page) and look up 'Rain' it will confuse you even more. There are no end rhymes! all the rhyming is internal. It won the serious section at the Wool Wagon Awards a few years back. And was included in the anthology "Award Winning Australian Writers 2010".

The major rule in writing Bush Poetry is that every stanza must conform consistantly. That is; you set the pattern for both rhyme and the metre in the first stanza and all others must be exactly the same.

It is the metre that brings me undone. But if you practice you must eventually get it. I hope I do (one day). Good luck with it.

zondrae wrote:The major rule in writing Bush Poetry is that every stanza must conform consistantly. That is; you set the pattern for both rhyme and the metre in the first stanza and all others must be exactly the same.

What divine authority decreed this supposed rule ?

Thanks John. Chain Rhyme an addition to my vocab.
Thank you zondrae. I will check out your poem Rain.
Wazza

WOW for once we thought the same thing at the same time Neville

Where do these RULES come from ?


Bob

Zondrae, I would also question that each stanza has to be the same.

I recall a poem - "Buses" - written by C. J. Dennis, where all the odd numbered verses have one pattern (first, third, fifth, etc.) and all the even numbered verses have another. He maintains this pattern faithfully throughout. I am sure if today's judges looked at it they would be quite happy with it.

Even that seem to dictate that there has to be a set uniformity Stephen ? Which in a roundabout way is what Zondrae is saying. Why is that ?

Bob

Bob, if we want to communicate our poetry it has to be in some sort of format that sets up an expectation for the listener, otherwise they may not understand what we are about; such as the traditional rhyming couplets. This is just a convention for understanding the sound of poetry, not a RULE.
If we know the conventions or if we must say it ; "rules" then they can be tweaked, subverted and played with. As long as we don't stray too far from the listeners expectation, or we might have lost them.

I think that the worst thing that happened to bush poetry was the day someone uttered the phrase that starts " bush poetry is........."
Who gave anyone the authority to make that judgment. I know the answer. NOBODY.

The only unbreakable rule that I am trying to learn to obey is that poetry must be emotion, feeling. If it's not emotion that it ain't poetry. Of that I am 100% certain.

So there's a rule that poetry should have emotion and feeling Neville?