New Trick Tuesday - Balliol

The second New Trick Tuesday on this blog!  This week lets look at Balliol. I hope that you will join me and post your attempt either in the comments or post a link to your blog post of the poem.  Let's go!


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From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balliol_rhyme


Balliol rhyme

A Balliol rhyme is a doggerel verse form with a distinctive meter. They are quatrains consisting of two pairs of rhyming couplets, each line having four beats. The first couplet contains the name of a particular individual, and the second couplet usually elaborates on that person's character or exploits or weaknesses.

The form is associated with Balliol College, Oxford[1][2]. It originated with "The Masque of B-ll--l", published anonymously in 1875 by a group of Balliol undergraduates.

Balliol rhymes are almost always about a person. They are four lines long and the rhyme scheme is usually AABB. They are not to be confused with Clerihews.

Examples

About Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol (from "The Masque of B-ll--l"):

First come I. My name is J-w-tt.
There's no knowledge but I know it.
I am Master of this College,
What I don't know isn't knowledge.

About George Nathaniel Curzon:

My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek,
I dine at Blenheim twice a week.

About the building of the Athenaeum Club (it does not follow the AABB rhyme scheme):

I'm John Wilson Croker,
I do as I please;
Instead of an Ice House
I give you - a frieze!




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My attempt:

FAVORITES TO READ (a balliol series)

Hello! I'm Rachel Mckibbens.
You'll take the prompt I have given.
I've been on Def Poetry Jam.
I've earned the right to be called Ma'am!

Hi! My name is Buddy Wakefield.
I have a positivity shield.
At the top of this poetry game,
many poets will know my name.

John "Survivor" Blake in the house
Listen what comes out of my mouth
Sometimes depressed, sometimes depraved
my chapbooks come with razor blades

I go by the name of Jon Sands
I'm one of the best in the land
if you need help getting higher
my poetic words will inspire

Call me Roger Bonair-Agard
poetically I do come hard
just shy of being heaven
and not just 'cause of my accent!

I am Apollo Poetry.
a few of you do know of me.
Now my name is legally changed,
even though you may think it's strange.

(I could write these all day but I'll stop here! :-P)


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PERSONAL NOTE ON THE PROCESS...
For the sake of today's assignment I chose to use the AABB rhyme scheme as opposed to the abcb scheme in the example above or using abab as a variation.



FYI, I will be sailing around the world starting in 2016 so please check out my other website: http://emunaendeavor.org/