Poem: "Fair Maiden Meets Fierce Villain"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman. You might remember Fiorenza from "A Knot of Thyme." You can read other poems in this series through my Serial Poetry page. "Fair Maiden Meets Fierce Villain" is an example of a terza rima, presented here for this week's theme of unusual formats. Another terza rima in this series is "Three Brothers and a Bull."

Fair Maiden Meets Fierce Villain
-- a terza rima

When Fiorenza went to Fermo Fair
She climbed the hill to view the countryside
And all the vendors situated there.

The market lanes were dusty, smooth and wide
With booths spread out as far as eye could see
And herbs from distant lands brought on the tide.

She chatted with the captains of the sea
And traded sprigs of rosemary and thyme
For peppercorns and cinnamon and tea.

The clock upon the hill began to chime
And Fiorenza clapped her slim brown hands
To find a Spanish trader in this clime.

She loved the herbs of all the different lands --
See here, a lavender of Spain, remote
And delicate in green and purple strands.

Too pale by half, the Spaniard eyed her throat
And bargained badly as the sun grew hot.
The herbalist looked closer, and took note.

Some maidens might be innocent but not
A young wise-woman traveling afield
Who'd handled worse already than this lot.

So Fiorenza thought what she might wield
Discreetly in the bustle of the fair
And force the fearsome villain yet to yield.

"I have a pizza pie that I can spare,
If I may take that lavender you hold,"
Said Fiorenza, tossing her black hair.

He grabbed for her. The garlic knocked him cold.
The herbalist just laughed, and danced away.
"You're not much of a villain, truth be told!"

Her lavender was safe in potted clay,
Her spices in their basket neatly laid,
As Fiorenza went about her way.

So let that be a lesson to the trade,
Who should not underestimate a maid.

Format: Terza Rima

[ysabetwordsmith]

The terza rima is an Italian form of poetry.  Dante Alighieri invented it late in the 13th century.  It is written in tercets.  It uses an interlocking rhyme pattern in which the outer lines of each verse rhyme with each other, while the middle line rhymes with the outer lines of the following verse: aba, bcb, cdc ...  The end can either loop back to the first middle rhyme (aba, bcb, cac) or close with a couplet (aba, bcb, cc).  Other variations exist but those are the most common.

For those of you who like to set poems to music, the terza rima makes an intriguing divergence from ballads, and it also sounds good when read aloud.  Interlocking rhymes add to the structural integrity of a poem, making this form well suited to formal or classic topics, but also to imaginary things such as fairy tales.  Of course, ethnic/national forms are always a good choice for poems about the same place or people.  My historic fantasy series Fiorenza the Wisewoman takes place in Italy, so I've used various Italian forms including the terza rima (in "Fair Maiden Meets Fierce Villain") and sonnet ("Plumbing the Depths").  Not only do the cultural aspects match, but the subtle linguistic expectations of the poem also suit the names of places and people in the same base language.  It's a little easier to fit the meter with an Italian form than an English form, because the name are Italian even though the text of my poems are largely English (with a few borrowings from Italian).  

Pay attention to word choice in writing a terza rima: you'll want to choose end-words with a good selection of rhymes so that you don't paint yourself into a corner.  Consider things like "sky," "play," "sea," "bait," "meet," "blown," etc.  However, the tercet offers an ideal opportunity for contrast: consider alternating vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes, or stressed and unstressed rhymes.  Either can break up the metronome effect of tight rhyming if you want to ameliorate it without removing it.

Discussion
What are some of your favorite terza rima poems?
What things do you like or dislike about this form?
Have you written a terza rima, and if so, how well did it work for you?

Further Reading
"Terza Rima" in Forms of Verse
"Terza Rima" on Thinking Poetry
"Terza Rima" on Upenn
"Terza Rima" on Wikipedia
"Terza Rima and Capitolo"

"2012 Poetry Form Challenge #18: Terza Rima"
"Explore Classic Tercet Examples"
"Terza Rima Example"