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Page name: Unlazy Poets [Exported view] [RSS]
2008-06-04 01:14:32
Last author: Mister Saint
Owner: Kiddalee
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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

124) Who's the best lay? ^^ (Administrator: [Mister Saint])

Number of voters: 2
* a) 1. [Annie] - 415.Miscellaneous.Unlazy Poets.Lay
Number of votes: 0 (0%)

* b) 2. [Eleanor] - 668.Contest entries.Unlazy Poets.May 2008 - Lay
Number of votes: 2 (100%) Voters: [iippo], [RiddleRose]



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.



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



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]



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.



Badges


<img:http://writersco.heddate.com/img/photo/135_1177195762.jpg>  <img:http://writersco.heddate.com/stuff/z/135/lamigraphs/i1177935574_2.jpg>  <img:http://writersco.heddate.com/stuff/z/135/lamigraphs/i1177935574_1.jpg>

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


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2008-02-04 [Laika]: So..we're supposed to use form, but then again the form isn't that important since it's "for our purposes", and the form itself isn't defined too accurately. Oh, and we're supposed to imitate the style of someone who writes in French.

..hokay. This ought to be interesting. :D

2008-02-04 [Calann]: Hmm, looks like my triolet sucks. :P

2008-02-04 [Annie]: lol, mine too. ;) Triolets are hard, I think.

2008-02-04 [Mister Saint]: Laika, I put 'for our purposes' there to ease the restrictions. Even in the original Lanval was not perfectly regular tetrameter. They're more like guidelines. ^^ I think if you all will just give it a shot, it won't seem so difficult. But, if everyone would prefer, I'll go back and write strict rules instead and provide a modern English example. What do you think?

2008-02-07 [Kiddalee]: I don't mind it like this. It would be a pain in the neck to write a 1500 word octosyllabic heroic epic. However, it is kind of hard for people who don't hear a lot of French to pick up the iambs by reading it. Well, examples of iambic tetrameter are in the triolets...

2008-02-09 [RiddleRose]: come on somebody! break this tie!

2008-02-09 [Calann]: Puuh. Bloody hard that was.

2008-02-11 [RiddleRose]: and now it's tied again... XP

2008-02-11 [Mister Saint]: There we go. ^^ There's an English tetrameter example.

2008-02-26 [Kiddalee]: What an... example... (I'm just teasing)

2008-02-27 [RiddleRose]: aww! thanks folks!

2008-03-13 [Kiddalee]: You're welcome. Hooray!

2008-05-30 [Mister Saint]: Wow, I utterly forgot this was going on still. So... Annie wins by default then?

2008-05-30 [Annie]: Well it's not the end yet...one more day isn't there?

2008-05-30 [Eleanor]: Got one in just under the wire.

2008-05-31 [Mister Saint]: Hee... oh, good. I saw "February's Contest" up there, and I just figured everyone gave up!

2008-05-31 [Annie]: Oh ya huh...I thought it was May's still....lol. :P

2008-06-02 [Kiddalee]: I'm really sorry, guys. Apparently hormone treatments aren't worth it for me. I have had an idea in my head for about 5 months, but you shouldn't wait up if you don't want to.

2008-06-02 [Mister Saint]: Well. The judging rules say at least 5 accepted entrants must be had; for my part I think it's well past time to put up a poll. Is it okay to go ahead and do that?

2008-06-03 [Kiddalee]: Sure it's okay.

2008-06-04 [Mister Saint]: Right-o. Poll's up, monkeys!

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