Midweek poeticals......

Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and continues into the 21st century.

What never ceases to fascinate me is what initially appears humourous, on subsequent reading, often contains deft shades of many other emotions, darkness and light.

Do you have a favourite quatrain?

CELIA CELIA
Adrian Mitchell

When I am sad and weary,

When I think all hope has gone,

When I walk along High Holborn

I think of you with nothing on.

EPIGRAM
Alexander Pope

When other ladies to the shades go down,

Still Flavia, Chloris, Celia stay in town;

Those ghosts of beauty lingering there abide,

And haunt the places where their honour died.

LOSS
Wendy Cope

The day he moved out was terrible--

That evening she went through hell.

His absence wasn't a problem

But the corkscrew had gone as well.

MEMOIR
R.G. Howarth

We loved:

We vowed our love would never die.

Who was she?

For that matter, who was I?

MISS TYE
Gavin Ewart

Miss Tye was soaping her breasts in the bath

When she heard behind her a meaningful laugh.

And to her amazement she discovered

A wicked man in the airing cupboard.