Welcome To The Unlazy Poets' Contest

This wiki is all about formatted poetry. We aren't all haters of free verse, but seeing as that's everywhere, I thought it would be nice to have one place dedicated to poetic format.
I hope to hold monthly contests here, with a different format specified each month.

See Also:
Unlazy Poets Winners
Unlazy Poets List



Competition Rules
1. No plagiarism, of course. That is bad. BAD!
2. One entry per person.
3. The entry must follow the monthly specs or be removed by the judges.
4. Please read Unlazy Poets - Appropriateness and do not submit something too pornographic or graphically violent for teenagers. If the judges believe it is inappropriate, they reserve the right to remove it.
5. Yes, placeholding is allowed, as long as your entry is on the wiki page by the last day of the month.
6. To enter, place your name on the list, and a link to either a separate wiki page or writings page.
6b. To eliminate confusion, make your entry the only piece on that particular page.
7. I need at least 5 accepted entries by the end of the month in order to close the contest for that month. Otherwise, it will carry on into the next month. Which is why it's a good idea to enter a few days before the last day of the month.
8. Contests will be judged by poll. (The judges are only here to make sure a poem follows the format specifications.) And no voting for your own entry.
9. This one's a guideline: it would be really nice if you spread the word about this contest so it could get more active and you'd have someone to compete with.
10. I really hope I didn't forget any rules.

And some advice: Don't worry if your piece gets rejected. It's not the only one! Don't be afraid to try again.

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February's Contest: Imitations of Marie de France

So I thought it would be fun to try imitating the style of another poet, and it may as well be one of the influential no-name women of the dark ages, Marie de France.

The challenge is to write Lais in Marie de France's style. We'll use Lanval as a reference. It's the story of King Arthur's knight Lanval, who is, apparently, so virtuous and hotness that he attracts a faerie queen for a lover. Et cetera.

The Lais

Marie de France's Lanval is written with a few important tenets.

First off, the original is written in old French. Translations are not going to do it justice, but good ones keep the stylistic qualities in mind. ^^ Keep that in mind if you read a translation!

GUIDELINES!

The Lay is written:

1. In Iambic TETRAmeter. (my bad). da DUN, da DUN, da DUN, da DUN. For our purposes, you can deviate from it slightly now and again.

2. Primarily in Stanzas of ten lines: eight lines of regular rhyme (ABAB OR AABB for every four lines) followed by a heroic couplet (Two lines, rhyme AA). HOWEVER sometimes the heroic couplet is left out, and the rhyme is approximate.

3. Lays are usually about love and honor and knightly stuff, and tell a story.

For our purposes, short is fine. Lanval is quite long, but we don't have the time for writing things of that length.

Example

Ki Deus ad doné escïence
E de parler bon' eloquence
Ne s'en deit taisir ne celer,
Ainz se deit volunters mustrer.
Quant uns granz biens est mult oïz,
Dunc a primes est il fluriz,
E quant loëz est de plusurs,
Dunc ad espandues ses flurs.

English Example of iambic tetrameter

A frog, who ate a giant fly
a baker put into a pie,
went running for the nearest pond
because he could not find the john

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ENTRANTS

1. [Annie] - 415.Miscellaneous.Unlazy Poets.Lay
2. [Eleanor] - 668.Contest entries.Unlazy Poets.May 2008 - Lay
3.
4.
5.
and more...

[username] - [link to page containing the poem@wiki] OR [link to that page@writings]

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Judges (we need more!)

[Mister Saint]! Whee! I found a volunteer!
Often: [Kiddalee]
More Judges at: Unlazy Poets Judges
NOTE that the judges aren't really judging which poems will win the contests, but only whether or not the poem actually follows the format. Contests will be judged by poll!
If you'd like to become a judge, read Unlazy Poets: How To Judge. This new page has brought major changes to the way the judging will be run on this page.

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Badges

    

These marvelous badges were made by the talented [Calann].

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