Writing An Alouette

I’ve found it funny how songs about death can be sung within children’s songs… London Bridge Is Falling Down, Humpty Dumpty… what have our children been singing?!

Alouette is one of those songs. A popular children’s tune made popular in the late 1700s, it is a sweet song about a little skylark bird that sings the higher it goes. The lyrics also insinuate killing, cleaning and eating the bird as well. So much for happy little singing birds! 

Observe these lyrics!!

Alouette 

Little skylark, lovely little skylark, 

Little skylark, I'll pluck your feathers off.

I'll pluck the feathers off your back.

I'll pluck the feathers off your back.

Off your back!

Off your back! 

Off your tail!

Off your tail! 

Off your legs!

Off your legs!

Off your wings!

Off your wings!

Off your neck!

Off your neck!

Off your eyes!

Off your eyes!

Off your beak!

Off your beak! 

Off your head!

Off your head!

Little lark!

Little lark!

O-o-o-oh

Little skylark, lovely little skylark, 

Little skylark, I'll pluck your feathers off.

Wow! Talk about heavy!!  Opposites really do make the world go around. The singing.quality of this song allowed for a fine rhythm for French canoeists trapping beaver in the new world. Also, cleaning birds was no strange thing before processed meats of today. The song was also brought back from soldiers serving in France during World War I, and no doubt provided a fine cadence to march to.

An alouette is also considered a poem form made popular by a poet named Jan Turner. The form is simple… It consists of two or more stanzas, six lines each, with a syllable meter of 5-5-7-5-5-7  and a rhyme scheme of a-a-b-c-c-b. A rather simple form, it carries a succinct rhyme that can mellifluous in its flow as well as potent in its brevity.

Consider this poem in the alouette form:

mon petite alouette

skip with me daddy!

we play hopscotch see?

I want you to lift me up!

now you put me down!

I chase the dog round!

oww… I fell and hurt my foot!

is it okay? swing…!

let’s swing on the swing!

you promised you’d play with me…

the suns going down!

you’re never around…

you promised you’d sing daddy!

now put me to bed

worn out and well fed

now aren’t I the cutest sight…?

read me a story 

of bears and porridge

kiss me then whisper goodnight 

©️penned by: m.e.

all rights reserved

Note the proper syllable structure, as well as the simple yet catchy rhyme scheme. When properly applied, this form can be both profound and song like, especially when written with a good hook, like the parental angle I attempted above.

It’s always fun to learn different forms, and the quality potential of this music friendly form makes writing in the allotted style delightful… as long as you are not a skylark not wanting to get plucked!

I hope this article was helpful and thank you for reading!

Matt Elmore

Image from: Wikipedia 

References: 

https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-the-murderous-french-lullaby-alouette/

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/alouette.html

Read Me A Song!

 Read me a song and I’ll sing you a poem! 

Some folks tend to get confused when I refer to my poems as my songs. What’s the big diff? A bigger nose… smaller toes? All upon the same beautiful body…?

The lines between poetry, literature, and music tend to share the same fabric, only to create different colored clothing for what seems to be the same purpose… expression and entertainment.

Ray Charles was once asked what he liked about country music. He said, “The stories man, the stories!” Isn’t that what poets do? Don’t we write stories as well? Our poems are not linear in terms of chronology, plot, and character development…. yet they do share story characteristics. 

Stories, song lyrics, poems… there’s some bouncy correlations there, are there not?

Then there’s the music itself… expressions of light and shade… crescendos and quiet movements…. communicating emotions with notes that move our spirit and fire our imaginations. Piano concertos, blazing guitar solos, roaring horn sections, ukuleles (yes… ukuleles!!!) … they ALL evoke emotions of some sort! They soothe, excite, dance, reflect cultures… Is that not what poems do?

So why are poems not as popular as pop music or the latest on big time best seller lists? Why are there not coffee houses and auditoriums bursting at the seams with poets singing their songs? Websites and merchandise going into orbit with success and renown poets of golden recognition being knighted and decorated by governments around the world? Is poetry really that underground?

Yes it is.

Then why are you reading this?! 

I have a feeling it’s because you care. You care about words like expression, perspective, and emotion. You long to fire your imagination and stimulate senses beyond the physicality world. You want to be a part of something bigger than most of the drivel you hear on popular radio or read in magazines rife with nonsense about this and nonsense about that. 

You want focus. You want quality. You want diversity. You want POETRY!!!!

Now there is quality music and books out there... There are beautiful manifestations of art in so many forms… sculpture, architecture, even murals extemporaneously spray painted on box cars or on the walls of inner city building…  even to the commissioned immaculate variety. But is poetry? No! 

Poetry represents a valued medium that has every right to be right up there with the popular celebrations of the works of Michelangelo, Mozart, or the Beatles. Bob Dylan’s songs were poetry in themselves, which brings us right back to where we started… what’s the big diff?

For me… there is none.

Please feel free to share your ideas in the comments below. I would LOVE to hear some of your thoughts on this subject! 

More to come…

Matthew Elmore