For My Granddaughter
Moriah holds my hand in early June.
Though soon
the lilies we admire will wither, still,
she will
be happy in our fugitive vignette.
Forget-
me-nots we’ll pick, blue thistle, fern rosette,
hawkweed, trillium, wild columbine:
an afternoon perennially mine,
though soon she will forget.
My first grandchild, my granddaughter Moriah, will turn thirty years old this month. I wrote this ovillejo years ago, and it appears in my first book, Lines of Flight.
How true -- time really flies!!!
The ovillejo is a Spanish poetic form consisting of ten lines, traditionally structured as three rhyming couplets followed by a quatrain.
The first line of each couplet is 8 syllables long and typically asks a question, while the second line responds with 3-4 syllables. The quatrain, or final four lines, often summarizes or amplifies the preceding couplets, and its last line combines the shorter lines from the couplets.
Here's a breakdown of the ovillejo's structure:
- Stanza 1 (Sestet):Three rhyming couplets.
- Lines 1, 3, and 5: 8 syllables, often posing a question.
- Lines 2, 4, and 6: 3-4 syllables, providing a response or echo to the preceding line.
- Stanza 2 (Quatrain):
- Lines 7, 8, and 9: 8 syllables, often reflecting on or expanding the first stanza.
- Line 10: Combines lines 2, 4, and 6, creating a "redondilla".
