Our love, equality’s blood now spills and foams
Stabbed by fantasists and dictators with loud fuss
We mourn the loss of freedom taken from us
Supporters held in thrall, dismayed as truth hits home
Democracy is murdered as those fools stand by – witless
Our love, equality’s blood now spills and foams
Stabbed by fantasists and dictators with loud fuss
We poets must respond and fight with sharp-edged poems
Not just to mourn our lost love, blazon our distress
But as a call to arms for all to rise and seek redress
Our love, equality’s blood now spills and foams
Stabbed by fantasists and dictators with loud fuss
We mourn the loss of freedom taken from us…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Grace in Poetry Forms invites us to try the English Madrigal – a complex form which was often a song and often too, referring to love. This is a somewhat different love song for the dark times we live in – not just in America but across many countries around the world that will nevertheless be made worse by what is happening there.
Key Features of the English Madrigal
Content: Often includes a theme of love
Structure of an English madrigal
*Usually written in iambic pentameter.
*Comprised of three stanzas: a tercet, quatrain, and sestet.
*All three of the lines in the opening tercet are refrains.
Form: A thirteen-line form in three stanzas:
Stanza 1] Tercet -Three lines
Stanza 2] Quatrain – Four lines
Stanza 3] Sestet – Six lines
Rhyme and Refrain of an English Madrigal
[L1] A (refrain 1)
[L2] B1 (refrain 2)
[L3] B2 (refrain 3)
[L4] a
[L5] b
[L6] A (refrain 1)
[L7] B1 (refrain 2)
[L8] a
[L9] b
[L10] b
[L11] A (refrain 1)
[L12] B1 (refrain 2)
That was amazing, Andrew! I struggled with this form. I’ll post mine a bit later (maybe tomorrow morning). I’m sitting with it a bit. Lol!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Best thing to do Yvette – you know the schedule of prompts at DVerse can put pressure on to respond quickly and sometimes things flow and sometimes not but if you miss the deadline and Mr Linky closes but you finish something and feel it’s really good, there is the Open Link Night
(followed by the OLN Zoom meeting) where you can post any one poem you want to…
Thanks for sharing that, Andrew! I’m fairly new to dVerse, and I’ve noticed it moves at a very fast pace. Lol! I tend to be both an over-achiever and a perfectionist, and with my crazy busy schedule, I find myself putting a lot of pressure on myself. That being said, I’ve learned to let go and let be if I cannot meet every challenge. My life “lifes” at a packed pace, so I fit what I can when I can and enjoy the creative space it brings me. I had hoped to make the last OLN Zoom, but it conflicted with another item on my schedule. Eventually, the stars will align. Thanks for the encouragement!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
You’re welcome Yvette…
Really enjoyed what I will call your ‘madrigal rant’ ~~~ truth and candor rolled into one great write!!!
Thank you Helen, I feel like everything I write is dark at the moment – even in my writing group (which incidentally is based in New Jersey) someone noticed that and I blamed it on the choice of poem prompts and Deborah swore she would try and find something more cheerful inspiring lol. But we do live in dark times…
100% in agreement that we need to fight back with everything we have, be it through poetry, live protests, writing elected representatives, sharing information, boycotts, etc. Strong poem, Andrew.
The administration (if that isn’t stretching a point) you now have in the US is having profound effects on the whole world so I feel we need to share the fightback Li…
A hard reality to swallow these days. Cannot stand the lies and this part just resonated with me: Stabbed by fantasists and dictators with loud fuss.
Thanks for joining in. Have a good weekend.
Thank you Grace, Madrigal form was not one I have tried before though I have some on my Spotify playlists – I really enjoyed trying it…
Nicely written Andrew.
Thanks Shaun…
hi andrew! a complex form for a complex love. 😉
Yup! You know when you pick Freedom as your love object – it’s going to get dark…
A political madrigal is hard to write, given the usual theme and the rhyme scheme, but you’ve done us proud with this one, Andrew! I love the title and, although I find political commentary difficult in poetry, these lines are so true:
‘We poets must respond and fight with sharp-edged poems
Not just to mourn our lost love, blazon our distress
But as a call to arms for all to rise and seek redress’.
Kim, I feel like a literary, reverse Midas where everything I write turns to doom but what can I do – freedom is the love that sprang to mind…
Loud and clear Andrew, what a mess we’re in. I love the fact that though it is clear it is understated and therefore quite strong. It also suggests, as i believe, we’re all in it, but also we’re to some degree, culpable as voters and bystanders.
Indeed Paul, and it’s not just the US although that is the obvious example at present – democracy is under threat everywhere – who thought we would even be saying that! But I believe people will rise and say “Enough!” – it has happened before in America (and elsewhere)…
I love this, Andrew and I wish I had written it! What a messy time to live in ! I do hope to see things take a better turn during my lifetime.
Thanks Punam – high praise indeed 💜
Democracy is murdered as those fools stand by – witless….
Yes, so much…you gave yourself a very difficult task to turn the theme into verse, but as your poem said, we must, beautifully stylisticm adament, and a call to arms through art.
Thanks Ain – I don’t need to call you to arms – you are way ahead of us,…