OctPoWriMo Day 24. Cauldron Bubble (In trochaic tetrameter, after the witches of Macbeth)

OctPoWriMo Day 24. Predicting a Return for Revenge

Each poem could be seen as a spell: words put together with the intent to have control over another human being: to make them think, to make them feel, to make them read the poem again.

Think of all the ways that your poem might put your reader under your spell:

• onomatopoeia
• rhyme
• rhythm
• repetition
• nonsense words
• alliteration
• assonance and consonance
• euphony and cacophony

Example Poem: “The Apparition” by John Donne from Poems Dead and Undead(Aal)

The Apparition

When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead
And that thou think’st thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feigned vestal, in worse arms shall see;
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tired before,
Will, if thou sstir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call’st for more,
And in false sleep will from thee shrink;
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie
A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent,
I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threatenings rest still innocent.

~John Donne

Prompt: Write a poem to keep your reader spellbound. Match the sound of your words to your meaning as you predict what you will do if you come back for revenge.

Possible form: Rhyming couplets in trochaic tetrameter (each line has four feet of DUM dah—8 syllables with stresses on 1, 3, 5, and 7) after the witches of Macbeth. You may also try using occasional Catalexis —which is the omission of the final syllable at the end of the line—to mix things up.

~ 

Cauldron Bubble

(In trochaic tetrameter, after the witches of Macbeth)

DOUble, DOUble, TOIL and TROUble;

FIre BURN and CAULdron BUBble.

FAces FOLD and FAdes and WRINkles,

SPINning FATE with GOLden TWINkles.

WHISpering DEath in EARs a-GLOWing,

SEWing TRUst while EVil’s GROWing.

SInners FALL and SAints get BRAzen,

MAking VIce the BEAstly FAshion.

MAny WOrds for MAny WIcked,

LIes for LOVers, TRUth be TRIcked.

NOne can KNOW the THOUghts they HARbor,

UNtil THOUghts beCOME the ARdor.

FOOLS are MAde from PROpheCYing,

WIcked MEN are DOomed from LYing.

DOUBLE DOUBLE TOIL and TROUBLE,

CAULdron BUBble, CAULdron BUBble.

~ Oizys.

“Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

— from Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I (Shakespeare)