Saturday, January 28, 2023

Johannes filius Nicholai - Silver Brooch

Mohammad! Corotica! We -

Rulers of this Great East do see

Johannes filius Nicholai 

One who makes art come to life by

Heavily detailed researched kit

Always finding the correct fit

Today has earned The Silver Brooch

For skills that are beyond reproach 

With all honor this does carry

28th of January
AS LVII, at BIRKA in the Barony of Stonemarche


Word count 60


Key

RAINBOW - Rhymed Couplets

Syllable count - if it is other than _ syllables

Mohammad! Corotica! We -
Rulers of this Great East do see

Johannes filius Nicholai 9

One who makes art come to life by


Heavily detailed researched kit

Always finding the correct fit


Today has earned The Silver Brooch

For skills that are beyond reproach 


With all honor this does carry

28th of January

AS LVII, at BIRKA in the Barony of Stonemarche


Calligraphy and illumination by Cwenthryth wine


Mr. Owl? How many licks does it take to get to the center of the BLOG?
The recipient has a lovely and detailed wiki. With no trouble at all I was able to determine his persona and time period of pre-Chaucerian England . I found a delightful piece on the subject, English Literature Before Chaucer (450-1340) and The early Middle English period.
 One of the best extant examples of the written poetry is the wonderful Owl and the Nightingale, which I have referenced before. So once again, I dived into Octosyllabic Poetry.

Mohammad! Corotica! We -
Rulers of this Great East do see
The standard opening with TRM and the name of the kingdom. While I could have spread this information out into a couplet for each ruling monarch, there was much to say about the recipient.

Johannes filius Nicholai 9
One who makes art come to life by
The recipient’s name was one syllable over the limit for Octosyllabic rhyming couplets, but exceptions shall be made.

Heavily detailed researched kit
Always finding the correct fit
The recommendation went into great detail about the recipient’s care and research into their persona, so I wanted to emphasize that in the couplet.

Today has earned The Silver Brooch
For skills that are beyond reproach
Up until this couplet the rhymes have been rather simple, kit/fit and we/see.  Brooch/reproach seems, by comparison, much more complex.  When possible, keeping the rhymes simple and full hit rhymes is the best way to go and helps with the presentation in court - the final act, as it were, of this multipart play.

With all honor this does carry
28th of January
The recipient has already been awarded a Grant of Arms and other accolades, but this could be alluded to in the carry/January rhyme rather than stated outright.


AS LVII, at BIRKA in the Barony of Stonemarche

The scribe had wanted the word count to be on the scant side.  I gave up another couplet in favor of including the last little bits of information.


Octosyllabic rhyme scheme is found across the British Isles over a few centuries.  Eight syllables is good for getting information across, without having to squeeze it into fewer.  As ever, the more I write in the rhyme scheme, the easier it becomes.









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