The Dawn, by John La Farge
The dawn would come and with its light
Repair my soul and end this night
Despite my loss, and with it pain
I don’t care to upend this night
But then, there are those close to me
Who say I should suspend this night
They see the darkness over me
Concerned for how I spend this night
Their words may hold a bit of truth
But I still hope to mend this night
So I must look within myself
With hope that I may ken this night
Jane Dougherty’s Poetry Challenge #44: Ghazal, offers The Dawn, by John La Farge, and the theme Dawn, with a prompt to write a ghazal (my first).
Ghazal ~ five or more couplets, the same length, meter not required
~ first couplet same end words; 1 to 3 words in 2nd lines repeated; rhyme – aA bA cA dA eA
~ (optional) internal rhyme in second lines, preceding repeated rhyme
~ possible naming or reference to author in last couplet
Image source: Wikipedia
*A review of this poem shows that is not a true ghazal, due to an error in the first couplet. It has been revised in a post on April 13, 2017.
rivrvlogr 
You made it look effortless! And you managed to end with your name. I salute you 🙂
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🙂
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Once I had my first couplet, I listed my second line end rhymes, then built the remaining couplets around those.
Shadow Poetry specifies an odd number of couplets, but poet.org gives example with an even number. As with any form, there are variations.
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I use your technique too. No point having a fantastic second line if there are absolutely no rhymes with the key word.
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Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
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Reluctant Dawn, too, I’d say.
That internal rhyme seems the tricky part to me…you’ve done it well. (K)
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Thank you.
And. True – not only must a word rhyme, but it also needs to modify the words after, rather than before, it.
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I ended up fudging that aspect. In more than one way I think.
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Yours may be a loose interpretation of the form, but it’s still stellar.
Besides, I’m rather fond of fudge.
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It’s a necessary component to creation!
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Make that “as well as before”
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Nicely done. You did a great job with the internal rhyme, and I like how you worked your name in, too. 🙂
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Thanks. If that was a hard and fast rule, it would be hard for anyone to write more than one ghazal without being repetitive.
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Beautifully done.
Will you please clarify what is meant by ” the same length, meter not required”?
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Hi.
That would be the same number of syllables. I’ve seen some that are 14 syllables per line. When I tried longer lines, it just seemed to leave the realm of poetry for me, yet others seem to manage it alright. On the other hand, 8 syllables left little room to fit both the internal rhyme and the repeated words.
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I don’t think I can manage the syllables count.
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When I had a problem with that, I found that completing my second lines gave me the nudge I needed, since they were essentially rhyming, with meter. Then I worked on my first lines to fill in the story. I know meter is not a requirement, but it helped me, even if I didn’t stick to it.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will try for the next one. For me, following rules takes the fun out of writing. It did give me the opportunity to read many beautiful poems though and should thank Jane for for that.
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You made that look easy! Love the flow, in a really tricky form (or I thought so). It’s good to write something so technical though.
I have to say, I’m impressed you got your name in there, but then (let’s be brutal) you do have a name that lends itself to that…
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🙂
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