The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and Invented Forms, Revised and Expanded Edition by Lewis Putnam Turco, Hanover, NH: University Press of New England (www.UPNE.com) , 2012 • 384 pp. 3 illus. 5 x 7 1/2" Reference & Bibliography / Poetry 978-1-61168-035-5, paperback.
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Forensic verse is poetry of argument and debate; a set form of the debate is the Spanish pregunta in which one poet grills another poet with a requesta (question), the second replies with a respuesta (response):
UPON LOVE, BY WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Like, and dislike ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Stroke ye to strike ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Love will befool ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Heat ye to cool ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Love gifts will send ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Stock ye to spend ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Love will fulfill ye;
I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Kiss ye to kill ye.
-- Robert Herrick
Here is a pregunta written in the form of six tailgaters. A tailgater is a rhymed couplet in any meter that uses a well-known verse as its first line followed by a parodic original second line. The inventor of the form was Richard Armour in his Punctured Poems, 1962. A “gnome” is simply an apothegmor truism, sometimes written in rhyming form. This poem uses for its tailgaters first lines from Andrew Marvall, a younger contemporary of the 17th-century Robert Herrick (above):
MARVELL GNOMES
A Pregunta in the Form of Six Tailgaters
Q: When Death shall snatch us from these kids
Will we be pestered by katydids?
A: Had we but world enough, and time,
You’d come up with a better rhyme.
Q: O who shall me deliver whole?
Must I remain here in this hole?
A: The weight of thine immortal shield
Requires that you remain here sealed.
Q: Grass withers; and the flowers too fade—
May neither stand against the spade?
A: Enough; and leave the rest to Fame!
I think all your repining’s lame.
-- Wesli Court
An evasive trick beloved especially of politicians is to answer a question with a question. Here is a double pregunta by two modern poets; the second pregunta was written in reply to the first, so it is “double” in two ways:
DOUBLE PREGUNTA
I. PUNTA PREGUNTA
What is it a woman lacks?
What is it that she attacks?
What is it a woman loves?
When is it she wears no gloves?
What is it for which she begs?
What is it that has no legs?
Why does she so love to dance?
What is it for which she pants?
Would a woman sell her soul?
Are there markets pole to pole?
Does a woman have a choice?
None at all that she can voice.
Why does she not have her say?
She must heed her DNA.
-- Wiles Mantup
II. RESPUESTA APUESTA
What is each man's most ancient need?
What does the helpless captive feed?
What grows when hungry, shrinks when sated?
What loves the task for which it's fated?
What is it men can never do?
What process knits a third from two?
Where does a man most long to be?
Where was he first, and not yet free?
What keeps a man, at last, alone?
What does he buy that he can't own?
Do men profess what they believe?
Not since Adam turned on Eve.
When do men hunch over their beer?
When there's no more they want to hear.
-- Hanir Pilastela
SUGGESTED WRITING EXERCISE:
Write a pregunta in any form you like.
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