Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi
Known for her diligent works, most hardy
She helps with marvelous demonstrations
As officer, exceeds expectations
Caterina’s leading in many ways
Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays
She stands before the mighty tyger beast
Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East
Today an Award of Arms We bestow
For her alone, all the days to show
And done with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
Word count 71
Calligraphy Violet Hughes and Illumination by Fionnghuala the Volatile
Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi
Known for her diligent works, most hardy
She helps with marvelous demonstrations
As officer, exceeds expectations
Caterina’s leading in many ways
Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays
She stands before the mighty Tyger beast
Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East
Today an Award of Arms We bestow
For her alone, all the days to show
And done with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
I’m going slightly mad. I finally blo-ogged..
Knowing that the recipient of this scroll is a “major nerd,” I first tried to work in a rhyming couplet that ended with "Who." After several tries I gave up on that - nothing was seeming to work out.
Today with no presence material
Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
This was the first couplet I completed, and the last in the scroll. Sometimes when I'm searching for a theme or a direction, I go to the last line of the scroll to help me find it. I began to contemplate the phrase, "ethereal court." I took a lesson from working with Norse kennings and how mixing up individual words won't change the meaning - but might help with some alliterative patterns.
This couplet written, I went to the recipient's name:
Our gentle, Caterina Lombardi
Known for her diligent works, most hardy
That set the order of the rest of the scroll, and I was tickled to use their name in a rhyme.
Then I set a rhyming couplet each for her works in attending/working demos, as an autocrat, a chatelaine and a deputy seneschal.
She helps with marvelous demonstrations
As officer, exceeds expectations
This was the only couplet in which I mentioned one of the items she was written in for.
I then moved on to referencing her work as chatelaine and deputy seneschal:
Caterina’s leading in many ways
Learning the ropes, steering Us through the quays
As I have learned, nothing rhymes with "seneschal." As this was a deputy position I ended the couplet with, "learning the ropes," which became a nautical reference with the word, "quays."
I felt this encompassed both positions and exemplified all of Caterina's hard work.
She stands before the mighty Tyger Beast
Tindal and Alberic, Counsels East
This was one of my problem couplets and I worked and reworked it many times. I tried rhyming Alberic with esoteric, and consuls with ... well, nothing rhymes with consuls. I ended up with Beast/East. It's nice to give Sparky a little mention now and then.
Today an Award of Arms We besow
For her alone, all the days to show
This was another difficult verse. No matter what I did, one line would end up with 12 or 11 syllables or 6 or 8 syllables. The one time I had the proper 10 syllable count the sentence was horribly awkward to read outloud.
For this couplet and the preceding one, the second lines are just 9 syllables long, but as I finally had the rhythm sounding correct, I let it go.
(Of course, I'm sure I'll think of the perfect wording after the scroll goes out in Court.)
Just after I'd sent the words out for calligraphy, I discovered I had started the last two verses with the word “Today." Thankfully I caught it early enough to correct it.
Changes to the final verse:
Today with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
To
And done with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
This was my first scroll after the holiday season, which was a particularly bad one this year. It helped me get back into the swing of things and hopefully I'll jump head first into a new year of writing.
This went out at TRM Sixth Ethereal Court at the 55;41 mark.
Just after I'd sent the words out for calligraphy, I discovered I had started the last two verses with the word “Today." Thankfully I caught it early enough to correct it.
Changes to the final verse:
Today with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
To
And done with no presence material/Singing praise in our Court Ethereal
This was my first scroll after the holiday season, which was a particularly bad one this year. It helped me get back into the swing of things and hopefully I'll jump head first into a new year of writing.
This went out at TRM Sixth Ethereal Court at the 55;41 mark.
Sparky photo from Matthias von Würzburg
