My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond – Madrigal
This week Bastet has treated us to a mini history of Italian poetry and introduced us to the Italian madrigal, a pastoral or love song written in lines of seven or eleven syllables and consisting of two or three tercets followed by one or two rhyming couplets. Often these poems present fantastic images of animals or birds, symbolic of men or women in pursuit of love and, according to the Italian texts, sometimes the poems were put to music or sung. Bastet has given us an image to inspire us to write our own madrigale.
Mother and Kittens in a Garden, attributed to Mao 1, Chinese, 12th century
Early morning dewdrops shine
On scented rose and grapevine
(Innocence of kitten’s play)
Scratching under hedge and tree
Flinging bits of twig and leaves
(Fledgeling birds greet a new day)
Mother cat and bird close by
Keep watch with a careful eye
Mothers give their love for free
Protect their children fiercely
© Kim M. Russell, 2016
The form and tone fits the subject and illustration. I love the image of both the momma cat and the momma bird watching out for their babies.
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Thank you 🙂
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Brava! A lovely madrigal … I like how you wove the two different natures of the mothers into your tale here – uniting them with your last line!
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