Poeta Atlantiae Competition
Summary: This entry includes two original poems submitted for the Poeta Atlantiae Competition. The first poem, Of Bears and Spiders, uses the Italian terza rima meter introduced by Dante in his Devine Comedy. Small concessions were made for the English language. The characters and allegorical lesson were influenced by Aesop’s fables. The second poem, The Storm’s End, is an early-to-mid 16th century English poem written in rhyme royal using iambic pentameter. This piece attempts to replicate period in format, syntax, and spelling. The poem written in period spelling is provided at the beginning of the document and the poem with modern spelling appears at the end. Both Of Bears and Spiders and The Storm’s End are performed by the author on YouTube videos with links provided below.
Of Bears and Spiders: https://youtu.be/sioc0n-GjHI
The Storm’s End: https://youtu.be/qrYrr4pocmY
Of Bears and Spiders
The little bear at home in woodland deep,
To walk the river side or under oak,
Until the setting sun, then den to sleep;
But little bear, one break of day awoke
As if in dream, beheld above his head
A web of woven white, as think as smoke.
Lie in the midst the devil of his dread;
Who sat content from all his evening work,
A claim upon the cave devised in thread.
The little bear in fright could never lurk,
Doth flee in haste, pursuit a harbor home,
To fester not upon his fuming irk.
Into the valley of a course to roam;
Upon a field of flowers oft to bloom,
A lovely wondering upon the loam.
Until a storm approach that wreaks of gloom;
No rain can fall from any cloud that flies
On its own wings, a countless swarm doth loom
Of vicious bees; the little bear he cries
And races fervently, a sting is stung
And more upon, till runs and clears the skies.
When little bear is safe and he among
The forest trees; no sting to bite his face,
No longer will he flee. And there the young
Bear find a lake, a quiet gentle place;
With soothing shade to stop the noon day sun;
And tender ground to lay his full embrace.
Till came a sound into his ear of one
Most awful buzz, this followed with a bite,
Then others bore; so little bear did run.
He walked all day in discontent his fight
A desperate doom. In want of simple rest,
To sleep in peace, enjoy the gentle night.
He walked in thought while mind a woe till crest
A lonely hill; and there he spied his cave,
He slept the morn before. Inside the pest
That he had left, that home steeling old knave;
About to leave, but suddenly aware,
That bugs and bees upon the web fell grave.
He stopped in thought, when bugs too great to bare,
And keep from me the field and lakes of great,
Could spider company I stand to share?
Suppose a web at home could tolerate,
For better to adjust than suffer great.
The Ftormes End
The royall princeffe, darkneffe did fhe fee;
A ftorme approch’d to caft the kingdom cold;
In preparedneffe, with her people flee’d
To castle on the coaft where might was told;
The raging winde befell’d the harbour hold;
The wicked curse became a winters squall;
A year it went, when word, the crown had fall.
In ever hafte prepar’d of whence fhe came,
With company fmall, attendants and garde;
A carriage built, the herauld of her name
They fet a courfe, all danger disregard;
Upon the Royall Rode where pace be hard.
In open field no freedome of the fky;
On mountaine top the mighty winde did flye.
To fhelter of the ever bitter night,
Into a caue for refidence and reft;
When late the houre, villanie and plight
By men of wilde woode in arms contest;
With weapons drawen, they ftood in battayl dreff;
A fcornefull will, the garde against the horde,
Till princeffe fpoke, and all would fheath the fwoord.
Fhe fpoke of homes and crops that lost of rain,
Fhe fpoke of familys who torne of feare,
Fhe fpoke of fuffer’d loss and moorning payne,
Fhe fpoke of towns that drownde where loue was deare,
And how each day another caufe to teare;
But then fhe fpoke of how the funne returns
Fhe fpoke of hope and how the loue still burns.
The men with heauy loffe began to paufe,
Remember wel the dayes before the darke,
For want of light and hope they ioin’d her caufe,
Upon their cloke her carriage they would marke,
And when the funne returne to heed the harke.
From den to hovel, then a town she go,
Though rode be rough, her care and courage fhow.
When iourney through fhe ftepped vnto the throne,
As crown was placed vpon her head, the sunnne
Began to fhine; the windes that ever blowne
Did halt, the birdes fote chirp, their song begun,
And every gentle saw that light had wonne;
Vnto the Royall fquare did fhe egress,
And there amongst her people would address.
Fhe fpoke of gatherings that would inspire,
Fhe Fpoke of grassy fields that call till night,
Fhe fpoke of reuelry a round the fire,
Fhe fpoke of families who reunite,
That moment when they firft come into fight;
And as fhe fpoke, with care they did arrive;
And cause fhe fpoke, their courage did furuiue.
Introduction: The intention of these poems was to write two stories that were entertaining, informative, and comfortable. For the first, period stylings, plotlines, and imagery were employed to paint an ascetically pleasing picture. For the second, the allegory in each is meant to give the reader a lesson. In the Bear poem, the lesson is on adapting to the internet. In the Princess poem, a lesson on hope during disaster. Both poems were also created with distance from the reader for comfort. For example, as using the internet is part of life for many, to create emotional distance, animals were used as characters. For the Princess poem, a storm was used instead of a plague. In both, the goal was to create mental and emotional connections with current issues however do so with enough detachment to keep them enjoyable.
Poem 1
Historical Basis: The poem was inspired by Dante’s Devine Comedy and Aesop’s Fables. Both these bodies of work were meant to teach the reader lessons on how to live life during their current climate. They are also both timeless in that their lessons are universal.
Dante’s work has a wonderful flow which lends itself well to epic stories. As such, his poem was used for the rhythmic and meter basis. Aesop’s work was used as inspiration for its playful nature and use of animal characters. This was done to keep the poem light and fun despite the heavy message.
Rhyme and Meter Poem 1: This poem’s format was inspired by Dante’s Devine Comedy. Like his, it uses terza rima for the rhyme scheme (ABA BCB CDC DED...). For meter, Dante wrote in hendecasyllabic, a standard in Italian poetry. Where I parted ways was that I used pentameter instead. This was done in the tradition of English poets who write in terza rima including Chaucer, Wyatt, and Longfellow.
Where I attempted to stay true to the Italian system was in accent. Instead of traditional English iambic pentameter for terza rima, I stayed with the Italian accent system. To do such, all lines have an accent on the tenth syllable of the line. A second accent only occurs in the Italian system when directly before a midline caesura. The caesura only may occur after the fourth or sixth syllable. Each of these rules I employed to create a poem that sounded as close to Italian as possible without having to rely on rhyming unaccented eleventh syllables after an accented tenth.
Allegory: Like Dante’s journey, everything represents something.
Little Bear: The little bear is a play on two terms. First, little is not just his size but his position. He is not a great, noble, or mighty. Then bear is then a play off the word bare. His head is bare, and therefor he wears no crown. His back is bare meaning he does not wear noble insignia. He is a regular man in the world. To take this to an allegory in modern society, he is the average Scadian.
The Web: This represents the internet, the world wide web. Its sudden appearance is the sudden change in which the SCA from an in-person organization to an online one during the plague.
The Spider: Though spiders are natural to webs, they also represent fear. Spider fear is one of the most prolific fears in humans. Despite being largely harmlessness, and their positive ability to catch dangerous bugs, their fear prevails. As such, the spider in the web represents the irrational fear associated with the internet.
The Valley: The field represents combat and beautiful flowers are the arts and sciences.
The Bees: The swarm of bees are the collective and painful reminders.
The Lake: This is Cooper’s Lake and Pennsic 2020 and 2021.
Poem 2
Historical Basis: This poem was inspired by late period English poets. For syntax, spelling, and meter the poem uses Thomas Wyatt’s works in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557). For meter and theme, it uses Chaucer.
Rhyme and Meter: The second poem uses the rhyme royal meter popularized by Chauser through works such as “Troilus and Criseyde”. This meter and rhyme scheme was then prolifically utilized by 16th century English poets such as Thomas Wyatt, an example being “They flee from me that Sometime did me Seek”. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCC in repeating stanzas, with a meter of iambic pentameter.
The format was chosen first for its name as the main character is a royal and because of its flow through the stanza. With the repeated sound in the fifth line, it appears to emphasize the emotion of the fourth. It also adds tension as the listener is expecting a change. This is then compounded with the couplet at the end. The relief then comes in the next stanza to build again. As this poem was meant to be intense, dramatic, emotional, and dark, I capitalized on the format to aid these dynamics.
Writing Style: This poem was written stylistically of mid-16th century London. To accomplish such, I attempted to use grammatical principles from the period. The vocabulary was taken largely from Tottel’s Miscellany. The following are some of these guidelines.
Period letter usage:
{U and V}: During this period, the letters u and v were considered variants of the same letter. For usage, if the letter appeared in the middle of a word, a u was used. If the letter appeared at the beginning of the word, a v was used.
{S}: During this period, the letter s appeared in two ways, long and short. The long s was used in the middle of a word where the short s used only at the end of a word or if it started a line. The long s was a holdover from Middle English and looked like ʃ. A second option for the long s was to use an f with or without the cross bar. In Tottel’s Miscellany, the ʃ is used in poem titles where the f is used in the poem text. In modern work, writing words using the standard f has the advantage of making words searchable and sortable.
Suffixes:
{es}: Around 1300, the e in es was dropped from most pronunciations. Then, pluralizing words from es to s occurred over the 16th century. So, most words that have es will not have a separate syllable for the plural.
{-eth}: Third person singular inflection. Proceedeth and commeth are usually used instead of proceeds and comes.
{‘d}: Past tense, but not pronounced as a full syllable, especially in poetry. Pull’d.
{s}: Plural noun and possessive nouns are both done without apostrophe. Boy, Boys, Boys.
Other Terms:
{of}: Preposition Of is used instead of By or From. Swallowed of the sea instead of Swallowed by the sea.
{do/doe}: used instead of does or doth at times. Seaman doe call.
The Storm’s End (modern spelling)
The royal princesses, darkness did she see;
A storm approached to cast the kingdom cold;
In preparedness, with her people flee’d
To castle on the coast where might was told,
As raging winds befelled the harbor hold;
The wicked curse goes on by winter’s squall;
A year it went, when word, the crown did fall.
In ever haste prepared of whence she came,
With company small, attendants and guard;
A carriage built, the herald of her name
They set ahead all danger disregard;
Upon the Royal Road where pace be hard;
In open field no freedom of the sky;
On mountain top the mighty wind did fly.
To shelter from the ever bitter night,
Into a cave for residence for rest;
When late the hour, villainy and plight
By men of wild wood in arms contest;
The weapons drawn, they stood in battle dressed;
With scornful will, the guard against the hoard,
Till princess spoke, and all would sheath the sword.
She spoke of homes and crops that lost of rain,
She spoke of families who torn by fear,
She spoke of suffered loss and mourning pain,
She spoke of towns that drowned where love was dear,
And now each day another cause to tear;
But then she spoke of how the sun returns
She spoke of hope and how the love still burns.
The men with heavy loss began to pause,
Remember well the days before the dark,
For want of light and hope they joined her cause,
Upon their cloak her carriage they would mark,
And when the sun return to heed the hark.
From den to hovel, then a town she go,
Though road be rough, her care and courage shows.
When journey through she stepped onto the throne,
As crown is placed upon her head, the sun
Begins to shine; the winds that ever blown
Did halt, the birds sweet chirp, their song begun,
And every gentle see that light had won;
Unto the royal square did she egress
And there among her people would address.
She spoke of gatherings that would inspire,
She spoke of grassy fields that call till night,
She spoke of revelry around the fire,
She spoke of families who reunite,
That moment when they first come into sight;
And as she spoke, with care they did arrive;
And cause she spoke, their courage did survive.