Moonskittles recently posted an extremely accomplished take on the Rondeau https://wordpress.com/read/post/feed/35361774/895889064 —a difficult form to work with—and challenged me to do likewise in my own more care-free style. This is the result.

When approaching a poetic task involving rhyme, I tend to start off methodically, drawing on my training in theoretical phonetics, and draw up a grid of all possible monosyllabic rhymes and any polysyllabic ones that spring to mind as I am doing so. I then pick out the ones that appeal to me: usually because they are modern coinages that have a ‘cool’ flavor to them or because the orthography causes the sound-rhyme to clash interestingly with the eye-rhyme or vice versa. After that I just let the poem splurge out, paying token, but obviously not very heartfelt or consistent, obeisance to the formal rules.

The eventual outcome has often been at the back of my mind from the outset, but only comes out consciously as I start writing. In this case, the result is a sort of drunken dance and dirge for a dead celebrity and a critique of the circularity of pop culture.

 

Ron Doe

We all know Ron Doe; he’s a hero to the core,

with a swagger in his step and a firm-lined jaw.

We all love Ron Doe; with his huge ego,

with his lips on a bottle and his arm round a hoe.

That no-one can ignore.

*

We all love Ron Doe, with his pocket full of dough,

though his nose is full of snow

and he’s flagged out on the floor

and he has a fatal flaw.

That we all know.

*

We all loved Ron Doe and the clothes that he wore

& the way that he swore & broke the law.

He was an ageing beau.

It was his time to go.

That we all know.