In the East Kingdom there is an award
For youth, and We are here to record
That one good gentle, Elizabeth Blunt
Whose name today, is put in the forefront
She sings and sews and loves helping her peers
Learning and teaching and allaying fears
Ryou, Demon King of the Three Heavens
And Rani Indrakshi’s good impressions
Have led them to call the Tyger’s Cubs
And welcome Our Elizabeth with hugs
Done the 3rd day of the 9th Month of the year
Of the Blue Tyger in skies bright and clear
In Ostgardr the Crown Province nifty
At Barleycorn AS Seven and fifty
Word count 103
KEY
RAINBOW - Rhymed Couplets
In the East Kingdom there is an award
For youth, and We are here to record
That one good gentle, Elizabeth Blunt
Whose name today, is put in the forefront
She sings and sews and loves helping her peers
Learning and teaching and allaying fears
Ryou, Demon King of the Three Heavens
And Rani Indrakshi’s good impressions
Have led them to call the Tyger’s Cubs
And welcome Our Elizabeth with hugs
Done the 3rd day of the 9th Month of the year
Of the Blue Tyger in skies bright and clear
In Ostgardr the Crown Province nifty
At Barleycorn AS Seven and fifty
WHY DIDN'T YOU BLOG THAT AMONGST OUR ASSETS TO BEGIN WITH?
I had made a real push to finish all but one scroll before Pennsic - except for the second peerage for Barleycorn. That one, I purposely put on the back burner to simmer while we were at War.
So to get another word request for Barleycorn was a bit of a surprise. I really wanted to get it done quickly, so as to give the artist more time with the scroll ... which meant, of course, that as I sat in front of the empty page, I drew a blank.
I sent a message to the contact listed but did not get back to me in my timeframe. So I chose Chaucerian rhyming couplets, which I am familiar with and which would be enjoyable to listen to in court.
I randomly wrote the first thing that came to mind and it stuck as the opening couplet:
In the East Kingdom there is an award
For youth, and We are here to record.
This became a wraparound sentence. While the rhyme is for award/record, the thought continues "for youth." I don't often use this literary technique when writing in Chaucer's style, but it will work well enough when read aloud.
That one good gentle, Elizabeth Blunt
Whose name today, is put in the forefront
The recommendation mentioned that the recipient was quiet, so I wanted to paint the verbal picture that today was their time to shine.
I also get a kick out of rhyming the recipient's name.
She sings and sews and loves helping her peers
Learning and teaching and allaying fears
For word count reasons, I had to condense many details of the recommendation into this, the descriptive couplet.
Ryou, Demon King of the Three Heavens
And Rani Indrakshi’s good impressions
I am very proud to use "impressions" as a near rhyme for "Heavens." Near rhymes offer some wiggle room for the wordsmith, but they are tricky. I always read the rhyme out loud to be sure it sounds correct, and I have left notes for the presenting herald on how near rhymes should best be pronounced.
Have led them to call the Tyger’s Cubs
And welcome Our Elizabeth with hugs
While hugging is optional, it has become a tradition after being accepted into an order.
Done 3rd day of the 9th Month of the year
Of the Blue Tyger in skies bright and clear
This couplet proved tricky. I was trying to break up the day/month/year information and write it in a new way ... and discovered that "month" has no clear rhyme. None of the near rhymes hit the right sound, so I abandoned that track.
In Our Ostgardr the Crown Province nifty
At Barleycorn AS Seven and fifty
I managed to get the first line of the last couplet to the 10 syllable limit, but the final line goes to 11. "Nifty" isn't a period word - it's an Americanism dating to 1860-65 - but it rhymes with "fifty" and fits with the scroll's bright and cheery tone.
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