"Paid by my lord, one portrait, Lady Anne, full length with bird and landscape, twenty pounds and framed withal. I say received. Verelst."
So signed, the painter, bowed, and took his leave. My lady Anne smiled in the gallery a small grave child, dark-eyed, half turned to show her five bared toes beneath the garment's hem, in stormy landscape in a swirl of drapes. And, who knows why, perhaps my lady wept to stand so long and watch the painter's brush flicker between the palette and the cloth while from the sun-drenched orchard all the day she heard her sisters calling each to each. And someone gave, to drive the tears away, that sulphur-crested bird with great white wings, the wise, harsh bird - as old and wise as Time whose well-dark eyes the wonder kept and closed. So many years to come and still, he knew, brooded that great, dark island continent Terra Australis.
To those fabled shores not William Dampier, pirating for gold, not Captain Cook his westward course had set jumped from the longboat, waded through the surf, and clapt his flag ashore at Botany Bay. Terra Australis, unimagined land - only that sulphur-crested bird could tell of dark men silently moving through trees, of stones and silent dawns, of blackened earth and the long golden blaze of afternoon.
That vagrant which an ear-ringed sailor caught (Dropped from the sky, near dead, far out to sea) and caged and kept, till, landing at the docks, walked whistling up the Strand and sold it then, the curious bird, its cynic eyes half closed, to the Duke's steward drunken at an inn.
And he lived on, the old adventurer, and kept his counsel, was a sign unread, a disregarded prologue to an age.
So one might find a meteor from the sun or sound one trumpet ere the play's begun.
Read the above and then place it into free verse stanzas and give the piece a title. Do not omit one word or add another. This is an exercise in lineation and stanza formation in modern verse.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on September 22
- Rewards: Gold: 2000, Silver: 1000, Bronze: 500, Honorable mention: 4 people
- Final notes: Gold goes to a most excellent rendition of prose into poetry. Congratulations, poet on your effort and judgement. "Portrait, Period and a Bird"
Silver to a lesser poem but still a very fine effort. "Twenty pounds, and Framed Withal"
Bronze goes to "The Story Behind the Painting". I thought this a promising work in rendering prose into verse.
Heartiest congratulations to the trophy winners above.
THe four HMs are in order. They each have slight impediments which meant the trophy poems had the 'edge'. However, congratulations to you as well. Ronald, the host and judge.
Contest Winners
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"Paid by my lord, one portrait, Lady Anne,
full length with bird and landscape,by myrataal 40 lines, 7 comments, on Aug 28 12:36 PM. In Creative Writing, Free Verse
Gold trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
"Paid by my lord,
one portrait, Lady Anne,• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
"Paid by my lord,
one portrait, Lady Anne,• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
"Paid by my lord,
one portrait,by fullfathomfive 80 lines, 1 comment, on Sep 10 1:43 PM
Honorable winner• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
"Paid by my lord, one portrait, Lady Anne, full length
with bird and landscape, twenty pounds and framed withal.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
"Paid
by my lord,by Mirthryl 105 lines, 3 comments, on Sep 9 11:32 AM. In Lineation and stanza formation exercize
Honorable winner• Commented on by judge. [remove]
Silver trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [8]
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by gentle breeze 94 lines, 1 comment, on Aug 30 10:13 PM. In Contest• Commented on by judge.
Add a comment
Comments
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Why?
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Some Winklings who do not write free verse
like to practise lining. And forming stanzas. This is a creative exercise rather than the writing of an original poem.
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Thank you so much, Host,
for the lesson in creative lining, the Gold and the coins.
Congratulations to the other winners and all who entered.
Love
Myra
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Thank you for the bronze. I am honored. This is my fourth trophy placing in all of Winklings contests.
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