Décima*
Apprehended
At that
sketched portrait let us gaze
where she stands alone by the fire
Nothing's special there to admire.
Yet there is something to amaze
her tearful sight from brighter days;
in those eyes nothing’s pretended
A calm stillness is intended
to seize the moment of her joy
In that portrait she’s just a toy
who loves to be apprehended.
~4th of March, 2011
Décima*
A décima refers
to a ten-line stanza of poetry, and the song form generally
consists of forty-four lines (an introductory four-verse
stanza followed by four ten-line stanzas). It is also called
"espinela," after its founder, Vicente Gómez
Martínez-Espinel (1550– 1624), a Spanish writer and musician
of the Siglo de Oro.
The décima deals with a wide range of subject matter,
including themes that are philosophical, religious, lyrical,
and political. Humorous décimas typically would satirize an
individual's weakness or foolish act. A decimero would
frequently challenge the target of the satire or his/her
defender to respond in kind with a décima, thereby setting
up a song duel that tested the originality and wit of
contending composers.[1]
The decima of Puerto Rico is a style of poetry that is
octosyllabic and has 10 lines to the stanza. The rhyming
scheme is ABBAACCDDC. It is spoken, sung and written
throughout Latin America with variations in different
countries. It is often improvised.
A person who writes or improvises décima is known as a
decimista or decimero.
Given the flexible method of counting syllables in Spanish
verse, where an "octosyllabic" line could easily have seven
or nine syllables (as normally counted), in writing a décima
in English it would seem not unreasonable to write in iambic
pentameter (theoretically ten syllables), which comes more
naturally to English verse.
"Juyzio
hallado y trobado"
"La vida es sueño"
Pedro Calderón
de la Barca wrote in décimas--some stanzas of Life is a
Dream.
Nicomedes Santa Cruz made poems about Peruvian life and
culture in décimas.
Many songs are in the form of décima. For example Violeta
Parra's Volver a los Diecisiete and 21 son los Dolores.
Read much more about the décima in
Wikipedia.
