Hudibrastic Verse, Hudibrastic Verse Options

[Arnfinn]

Hi everyone, I thought this maybe of interest.



Hudibrastic Verse

Hudibrastic verse. So called from Samuel Butler’s Hudibras  (1643, 1674, 1678), a mock-heroic satirical poem in octosyllabic couplets. Butler’s wit, exuberance and invention of the poem have made it an outstanding instance of what may be called ‘low satire’.

These lines from Canto 1 give an idea of the tone and manner of Hudibrastic poetry: octosyllabic couplets of twelve lines.

He was in Logick a great Critick,
Profoundly skill’d in Analytick.
He could distinguish, and divide
A Hair twixt South and South-West side:
On either which he would dispute,
Confute, changes hands, and still confute.
He’d undertake to prove by force
Of Argument, a Man’s no horse.
He’d prove a Buzard is no Fowl,
And that a Lord may be an Owl;
A Calf an Alderman, a Goose a Justice,
And Rooks Committee-men and Trustees.

The above written, in the manner of the day, is wry and dry humour. I particularly like the reference to parting ones hair.

I’m usually pretty good at writing satire, but when I started to write a Hudibrastic poem, my mind couldn’t conjure up a satirical subject.
The old brain stalled to a halt?
Anyway I’d thought I’d post this for information of MM poets and writers.


John

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thanks so much John!  

We are always looking to add poetic forms here and this one is a new one for my eyes.  

This looks quite fun!      

I often write in tretrameter, so shall I assume that iambs aren't required?

Hope to try one soon!  :block:

~Cleo  :pharoah2

[Guest_Don_*]

Arnfinn,

Interesting form.  I suppose one should find some other examples written by the originator to gain a firmer feel of what he intended in other details such as length, line breaks, etc.

Could one write a politically correct Hudibrastic verse?

Don

[Cleo_Serapis]

Fond more tidbits about this form:

Of writer Ebenezer Cooke: His poem, "The Sot-Weed Factor" is a Juvenalian satire composed in hudibrasts, poetic lines of iambic tetrameter with several outrageously rhymed couplets.  An example of hudibrastic lines in the poem (356 rhyming couplets) include:

"These Sot-weed Planters Crowd the Shoar,
In Hue as tawny as a Moor:
Figures so strange, no God design’d,
To be a part of Humane Kind:
But wanton Nature, void of Rest,
Moulded the brittle Clay in Jest."

"A city situate on a plain,
Where scarce a House will keep out rain:
The Buildings Fram'd with Cyprus rare,
Resembles much our Southwark Fair"

An Exerpt from Samuel Butler's poem "HUDIBRAS" can be found here.

[Arnfinn]

Hi Lori and Don,

Lori's taken the time to get to the bottom of this poetry style.The rhyme is basic, each line in the couplets is of eight syllables such a iambic tetrameter. There doesn't seem to be any restriction on stanza length, though one could nominate the number of lines per stanza, as long as the number of lines nominated were even in number. The challenge would be to write a satirical mock heroic poem conforming to the poetry rules mentioned. A character who leaps to my mind is  Don Quixote.




John

[Guest_Don_*]

I have not looked into the beast, but initially conclude that eight-syllables per line takes presidence over any meter the author may or may not choose to incorporate.

The simplicity is the syllable count per line.  The complexity is the satire.

Don

[Arnfinn]

Well, your correct Don, mock-heroic satire or would it be faux heroic? Don Quixote was a mock-heroic character was he not? He fought a mob of sheep imagining, all the time, that he was fighting an army etc.

What I can gather from reference books.

Satire, a Quintilian term refered to a poem in hexameters, (as in the French tetrametre or alexandrine)  on various themes. The middle of the 17th c, the closed or heroic couplet evolved, then the mock-heroic satires of Samuel Butler and Boileau.


John

[Guest_Don_*]

I have been led to believe, Don Quixote, is an overall satire on Knighthood.

I must seek definition of heroic couplet.

Don

[Arnfinn]

Got it for you Don.

Heroic Couplet

It comprises rhymed decasyllables, nearly always in iambic pentameters rhymed in pairs: one of the commonest metrical forms in English poetry but of uncertain origin, though it is generally thought it developed with Chaucer.

Dryden's 'Mac Flecknoe' is a good example.

Poets used the couplet occasionally but it was not until the 16th and 17th c. that it became firmly established.



John :pharoah2

[Guest_Don_*]

John ~~

Dryden's 'Mac Flecknoe' is a good example of heroic couplet you said.

It's found very easily on the Web.  

Now that you have refreshed my education of heroic couplet, it seems the romantic poets also fell under its iambic pentameter spell.  Let's overlook that I use it a lot.  

I wonder why you chose your specific example.  I am grateful you did not choose a Chaucer.

Surely, I do not fully understand many nuances of "Mac Flecknoe" as some background would put some diamond dew on the green pasture blades.  Names such as Heywood, Shirley, and Shadwell probably have historic reference.

At least I have copied another worthwhile poem to read and reread.

Thanks

Don  :pilgrim:

[Arnfinn]

Ok Donny,

I live in a beautiful country town in Australia, I've fresh air, moo cows, colourful birds visit the trees in my garden, I make home brew to put a power surge through my ancient brain cells and give me inspiration, I live 10 kilometres from pristine beaches with some of (no the) whitest sand in the world. I Have a wonderful life mate.  :dance: I appreciate my friends, I'm no better than anyone else and no one else is better than I am.

I love writing poetry and writing stories. I love my den, my den is my world, I can be any character I want to be when I hit the Keyboard. I can play music and cry in my beer. I do sometimes, other times I get a lump in my throat or shed a tear or two when I read a poem or story that grips my heart or tugs at my conscience. My dens a turmoil, Cd's, Dvd's, filing cabinets, printers computers, model fishing trawlers, oil paintings, beer posters and photographs.

Behind my desk is an elevated book shelf with close to eighty reference books on subjects, such as grammar, English, poetry, writing, dictionaries, wordfinders.

Yeah, I know I don't spell well, my syllables are off now and again, and my grammar tends to run into me grammar.  :cool:

So now, Don your wondering how the hell ya got mixed up in all this diatribe, ya only  asked me a simple question.  :laugh:

'Mac Flecknoe' is a good example of heroic couplet you said.

I wonder why you chose your specific example.  I am grateful you did not choose a Chaucer.

Donny me old mate. (By the way I hope your feeling a bit better)

The answer is

'Dictionary of
LITERARY TERMS &
LITERARY THEORY'

bY

PENGUIN REFERENCE

This book is the best book in my entire reference library.

The Penguin Books address in USA

Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014, USA

No doubt you can obtain a copy on the internet.

Here's another extract from the book to mull over.  :dance:

ae freislighe   In Irish prosody (q.v.), a quatrain (q.v.), of seven-syllable lines, rhyming abab. The poem should end with the same first syllable, line or word with which it begins.

Starting to make your mouth water mate.  :laugh:

And wait theres more! There's seven pages on the history of the sonnet and the correct procedures grammatically when writing the different forms.

So there you are mate. Thats ya answer.

Have a very nice day my friend.


John
 :unclesam:

[Guest_Maxim_*]

Hi Arnfinn

Hudibrastic Verse

Hudibrastic verse. So called from Samuel Butler’s Hudibras  (1643, 1674, 1678), a mock-heroic satirical poem in octosyllabic couplets. Butler’s wit, exuberance and invention of the poem have made it an outstanding instance of what may be called ‘low satire’.

I am not as prolific a writer as many here and have only tried a few strict forms (restricted more through lack of time - and probably talent! - than desire). Although I tend to rhyme and meter - my poems that are best received usually have there own 'voice' and rhythym although this will hopefully be more directed as I become more familiar with various forms. I was therefore interested to note this posting as I may have (inadvertantly) written a piece in this form. It has already been critted here in one of the older forums but here it is an example:

The Proficient Critic

I'm quiet well known, in certain parts,
for work with the poetic arts.
My skills are honed I'm most proficient
at pointing out all that's deficient.
Myself? I rarely write a line
but use my talents to divine
the failings in the works I've read;
thus my corrective creed is spread.

And yet it seldom does behoove
to indicate how to improve.
Time was when I'd permit discourse
but writers would object, perforce,
for most could not appreciate
the subtleties of my debate.
So now I'll indicate what's wrong
and then I'll smartly move along.

Accomplishments? How best to say
that my opinions have held sway?
I well recall a would-be bard
whose work, though adequate, was marred,
Once I'd exposed his every flaw,
he subsequently wrote no more.
Ergo the wisdoms I dispense
can clearly have great influence.

What qualifies me, you may ask,
that I should undertake this task
to keep poetic standards high?
A weighty charge, I'll not deny.
Well I have studied ancient Greeks
and I can quote obscure techniques,
but mostly, with innate insight,
I always seem to know what's right.

So now I seek a greater test;
I'll change the precepts of what's best
by using all the skills I know
on such as Shelley, Keats and Poe.
Let others claim these works sublime,
I know that I'll find fault, in time,
and thus will show no verse, as yet,
can meet the standards that I set.

Is the first person perspective permitted? If it does meet the definition I'll be encouraged to think that I have written something in a recognised format - even if more by accident than design!

MaXiM

[Arnfinn]

Good day mate,


The Proficient Critic

I'm quiet well known, in certain parts,
for work with the poetic arts.
My skills are honed I'm most proficient
at pointing out all that's deficient.
Myself? I rarely write a line
but use my talents to divine
the failings in the works I've read;
thus my corrective creed is spread.

And yet it seldom does behoove
to indicate how to improve.
Time was when I'd permit discourse
but writers would object, perforce,
for most could not appreciate
the subtleties of my debate.
So now I'll indicate what's wrong
and then I'll smartly move along.

Accomplishments? How best to say
that my opinions have held sway?
I well recall a would-be bard
whose work, though adequate, was marred,
Once I'd exposed his every flaw,
he subsequently wrote no more.
Ergo the wisdoms I dispense
can clearly have great influence.

What qualifies me, you may ask,
that I should undertake this task
to keep poetic standards high?
A weighty charge, I'll not deny.
Well I have studied ancient Greeks
and I can quote obscure techniques,
but mostly, with innate insight,
I always seem to know what's right.

So now I seek a greater test;
I'll change the precepts of what's best
by using all the skills I know
on such as Shelley, Keats and Poe.
Let others claim these works sublime,
I know that I'll find fault, in time,
and thus will show no verse, as yet,
can meet the standards that I set.


May I say, you've done a great job here in octosyllables and couplets. No bumps nice easy flow. There is certainly a mocking element throughout, but I doubt if there is a mock-heroic satirical feel about the words. This is my view of course, I hope Don or Lori drop by to have a read. As you say, the poem is in the first person, this may make the difference? I tend to lean towards ( in the meaning of poetic terms) --- slghtly vain satire.

However, what a wonderful piece of poetry.  

I'm glad you posted your poem.

Thank you so much for the read.


John.
 :troy:  :vic:  :wave: