Kyrielle

According to Wiki the name kyrielle derives from the Kýrie, which is part of many Christian liturgies. A traditional kyrielle is written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets....typically, a kyrielle will use the phrase "Lord, have mercy". Which is much what I thought when I saw this as a topic.

About a year ago we had a similar theme to write about, as in Double Dactyls, and in the writing of it I found the result of work done by Robert Lee Brewer, from the Writer’s Digest in 2021. He had found 168 poetic forms and gives examples of everyone. Sometimes making them up himself. An amazing job.

I just checked his results again and the kyrielle is indeed mentioned. I had a look through his list, which does include forms from all over the world, and didn’t recognise 106 of them.

How about ‘Mistress Bradstreet Stanza’ .A John Berryman invention. Who is John Berryman?

So, I suppose I’ll have to get down to it. What is a Kyrielle?

The kyrielle is said to have originated in troubadour poetry, which would place its emergence somewhere between the 11th and 14th centuries.

Specifically, a Kyrielle is a French form of rhyming poetry written in quatrains (a stanza consisting of 4 lines), and each quatrain contains a repeating line or phrase as a refrain (usually appearing as the last line of each stanza). Each line within the poem consists of only eight syllables. There is no limit to the amount of stanzas a Kyrielle may have, but three is considered the accepted minimum.

Some popular rhyming schemes for a Kyrielle are: aabB, ccbB, ddbB, with B being the repeated line, or abaB, cbcB, dbdB.

Mixing up the rhyme scheme is possible for an unusual pattern of: axaZ, bxbZ, cxcZ, dxdZ, etc. with Z being the repeated line.

The rhyme pattern is completely up to the poet.

This is an Oxford English Dictionary view of the form and it is not kind to the Kyrielle: "1. A long rigamarole ex. 1653. Urquhart. Rabelais I. XXII. With him he mumbled all his kirielle and dunsical breborons. 2. A kind of Fr. verse divided into little equal couplets and ending with the same word which serves for the refrain. ex. 1887 Sat. Rev. 3 Dec. 770/1.

Among the verse forms the kyrielle of which we have three specimens, is not a form at all, and ought to have been discarded." But might this be British discrimination against French poetic forms?

I got the above piece of information from a splendid source called The Hypertexts.

Whoever they are then gives a detailed description of how the kyrielle is related to the Kyrie Eleison. This prayer dates back at least to the sixth century, as it was mentioned by Pope Gregory the Great (540-608). The earliest Anglo Saxon or Old English poem with a refrain may be "Wulf and Eadwacer," circa 990. The Kyrie Eleison prayer was being recited in English by 1549, and it appeared in the Book of Common Prayer published in 1552, but oral versions could be considerably older.... More recently, the phrase can be found in the titles of the John Berryman poem "Kyrie Eleison". Who is this John Berryman?

As to an example of this kyrielle form I couldn’t really find anything that appealed so reluctantly I decided that I’d to have a go myself. Of course, you will know that Birmingham’s club song is ‘Keep Right on to the End of the Road’ and I have included a Saint’s name.

Birmingham City Are Promoted

That’s one heck of a good reason
to remember our last season
I’m sure that you’ve heard the good news
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

We don’t care about any Cup
because now we are going up
we drew a few but didn’t lose
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

We have Kept Right on to the End
of the Road, taken every bend
won the league so it’s Up the Blues
we haven’t lost at St Andrews

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.