Flash Stories & Poetry Day 29: Ballad "The Great Sojourn of Talianus"

 

Hey, everyone.

So, I have nothing funny or clever to say here. Let's just get to the poetry.

Wheel of Genres, turn, turn, turn! Tell me the genre I will discern!







Today's topic is... Ballad. To be honest, did say lyric first, but I couldn't remember what I did for lyrics. I know I did something about a month ago for them, I can't remember what it was. However, then I remembered a little project I'm doing for Heroes of Majestia that I haven't worked on in quite a while. I actually don't suppose I'll get it out until next year, but I would like to work on it. So, this shall be the first part of The Great Sojourn of Talianus.

Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go!

Before he became a myth, a legend, a king, and a man,
Talianus was like the rest and began his quest like a lad;
Small was he with a great mane of red hair ere his tale began,
Desiring to be a hero, out he went in tatters clad.

He spoke real big about all the things he was going to do,
And about all the monsters and villains he would crush;
All the treasures he would steal and all the demons he would hew,
And whenever he would come around, all the maidens should blush.

Into the wilds he went, not knowing the legacy he would leave,
And how much the temples and priests he would grieve;
But near a pond outside his village, his first brush with death would come,
And to the charms of a long kelpie he would succumb.

As he tried to tame the beast to be his mount,
He had not the beast's mien taken into account;
Wherefore would such a rare horse meander to pond so calm,
Lest it meant to entrap wanderer and dash into black somme?

Trapped in its mane was he, unable to get free,
That monster tread the water with such glee and wouldn't hear his plea;
Alas, with a great rock, did he revenge himself with,
And he shattered that kelpie's head forthwith.

***

 

Okay, stop the clock. Well, that was rough. It took me most of my half hour and I only got five stanzas. Sorry; I was dragging ass all throughout and I had no idea what I was doing. This is a POS poem, if I'm honest. But, I think it will be all right as a base. It needs a lot of reworking and there are some parts where I can feel the legend isn't so legendary, but this poem helped to point out where those weak spots were. I wouldn't know where those weak spots are if I hadn't written this one. Maybe I should also read a few hero legends to get an idea of what the hell I should be doing.

 

But anyway, that's it for today. If you want to use the wheel I made, you should be able to access it here. And if you have the time, please check out my books for sale on Amazon which you can find through my author page. The link is below. Also, I reworked my Patreon page, so why not give it a look and consider becoming my patron. I would appreciate it.

Keep writing, my friends.

More About Bryan C. Laesch:

My Works:

Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
Youtube: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar

Flash Fiction & Poetry Day 14: Ballad "The Battle for Notre Dame"

Hey, everyone.

I can't think of anything to say, so let's get cracking.

Wheel of Genres, turn, turn, turn! Tell me the genre I will discern!





Today's topic is... Ballad! And that's both good news and bad news for me. On the one hand, it's good news because I've written ballads before, two of them in fact. One when I was Sophomore in HS, and a part two that when I was a Senior. But, it's bad news because ballads tend to be long and epic. It's also bad news because ballads can be written in a variety of ways. If I felt like I had the cojones, I would try for the 13 lined form with an ABABBCBC rhyme scheme, but because I want to keep this short so you all can enjoy a complete poem, I'm going to wuss out for the ABAB form which I wrote in when I wrote my original ballads. Now, I just need a topic. And I think I'm going to honor my HS days again. I probably will so again multiple times this week until some point next week because I'll still be fresh from the experience of my HS reunion happening this Saturday. So, I think I'll write a dramatized version of the events that led to Notre Dame's closing and how we fought to keep it open.

Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go!

Back in the days when we were lads,
We were beholden to a school of merit;
A long, long time before we were dads
And thrown into a world disparate.

We attended the school of Notre Dame,
Wherein we each became a devoted son;
For Our Mother we carried no shame,
And in becoming brothers, we had fun.

But Maida, the Cardinal, was a villain,
And sought to tear us asunder;
Taking up our new mission,
We rallied 'gainst Maida like thunder.

Brothers who came before, came again,
And together we waged our war
To end Maida's greedy plan,
We let our spirits soar!

Our fight, with clash and clatter,
Made headlines 'cross the state;
Many came to watch the matter,
And see if we could seize our fate.

Late into the school year we fought,
But Maida was too great a curse;
Our voices and actions came to naught,
And in June, we had to disperse.

With great lament and grinding of teeth,
We were forced from Our Mother;
To this day, many still seethe,
And long for the days of our brothers.

Maida has passed and so have the days,
And we grieve for a time long gone;
But to this day, our pride will still blaze,
As sons of Notre Dame, we march on.



***

 

And stop the clock! I have a minute and a half left. Yes, that almost took me the entire time. Unfortunately, it's not as good as I would like it to be. For whatever reason, it's really difficult for me to reacquire the poet's voice, but just as I get going, I can feel it again. All my poems of late have great endings and terrible beginnings. I also experimented with line length, but for whatever reason, I'm more attuned to shorter lines rather than longer, and a part of my brain just seems hardwired for an AABBCCDD rhyme scheme rather than ABAB CDCD. Perhaps I should go back and take a look at my old poetry and see what my younger self new so well that my older self seems to have forgotten. I should probably also pick up Shakespeare again; he has a great voice and used words so creatively.

 



But anyway, that's it for today. If you want to use the wheel I made, you should be able to access it here. And if you have the time, please check out my books for sale on Amazon which you can find through my author page. The link is below. Also, I'm redoing my Patreon page to reflect my humbler actions and so forth. I'm going to re-work it so the only focus is on writing rather than on YouTube. But, that's a story for another time. See you tomorrow.

Keep writing, my friends.

More About Bryan C. Laesch:
Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
Youtube: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar

Flash Stories & Poetry Day 2: Ballad "The Hunt"

Hey, everyone.

So, yesterday was the first day of my daily writing prompt challenge. Today's the second day, and I added one more genre to the wheel, "Poetry--Carol." Let's see if I get it.

Wheel of genres, turn, turn, turn! Tell me the genre I will discern!





Today's topic is... Poetry--Ballad. According to Wikipedia, a ballad is a "form of verse, often a narrative set to music." Other guidelines for the ballad include "13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets [...] of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating 8 and 6 syllable lines." Now, back in high school, I had a whole semester of Sophomore year devoted to studying and writing poetry, so I'm familiar with ballads. The one I wrote had the rhyme scheme ABAB and was like a dozen or more stanzas long. Senior year I took a Creative Writing class where I wrote a second part to that ballad. Anyway, for this one, I'm going to try the 13 lined ballad with the rhyme ABABBCBC. But I'm going to give the 14 syllables a miss. Or maybe not... we'll see.

Alright, let's give this a-go. Thirty minutes on the clock: 30:00. And... go!

Oncet in a forest dark there was a young maiden bright,
Beauteous was she with visage fair and riding-hood red,
Caught she the malignancy of a beast of ferocious might,
He caused many a terror and filled the hunters with dread.
But 'twas a hunter savage who sought to take the creature's head.
He stalked the beast foul and found him preying on the woman,
With might unequalled, he struck the beast and made it dead,
Thus did the maiden take the huntsman into her bosom.

Okay, I'm stopping the clock there at nine minutes and forty-five seconds. Why? Well, I realized too late that ABABBCBC is only eight lines, and not thirteen, so I don't know what I'm supposed to for the last five lines in terms of rhymes or content. But as you can tell, this appears to be a version of Little Red Riding Hood. If you know me as RWBY fan, this won't surprise you. But, I have intended to make a few longish narrative poems and sell them in a book, and one of them is a poem about a young maiden who is being stalked by a beast and it is slain by a hunter. So this short ballad here is sort of a prototype of the poem I plan to write. I admit that some parts of it aren't very poetical, but it's pretty decent for 21 minutes.

But anyway, that's it for today. If you want to use the wheel I made, you should be able to access it here. And if you have the time, please check out my books for sale on Amazon which you can find through my author page. The link is below. See you tomorrow.

Keep writing, my friends.

More About Bryan C. Laesch:
Amazon: My Author Page, My Influencer Page
Facebook: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar
Patreon: Bryan C. Laesch
Twitter: BryanofallTrade
Youtube: Bryan C. Laesch, Bawdy Scholar