Tutorial: Concept and Compliment.
A 'lover's chain' of poems is a purely Victorian concept, originally used as part of the process of conducting a courtship founded on the principles of courtly love and adoration. A young lover would write poetry announcing the virtues of their beloved, and deliver them, usually anonymously, to their intended.
A full lover's chain would be conducted by both sides -- each member of the loop would write a poem for each step in the chain, building upon the imagery already used in the chain. Because there's only one of me, and I'm not quite that masochistic, I didn't do a full chain. Instead I did a half-chain, or a 'simple' lover's chain. This is a one-sided poetry chain, in which the imagery can be completely different from poem to poem, providing they all express some form of love for your intended.
There are several different styles of lover's chain poetry. My favourite style includes fourteen steps, and is structured as follows:
Step one: compliment, one line.
Step two: couplet, two lines.
Step three: triplet, three lines.
Step four: quatrain, four lines.
Step five: paradine, five lines.
Step six: triat, six lines.
Step seven: hexadine, seven lines.
Step eight: triolet, eight lines.
Step nine: novet, nine lines.
Step ten: decalet, ten lines.
Step eleven: baroline, eleven lines.
Step twelve: pantoum, twelve lines.
Step thirteen: Welsh chain, thirteen lines.
Step fourteen: sonnet, fourteen lines.
Over the next two weeks, I will explain the poetic steps of the lover's chain. Because I am very, very bored, and because I figure I've been babbling about this for long enough that I ought to explain before someone kills me.
Our compliment, to start things off on the right foot, will be:
Given choice of love or roses, all I'd want is you.
Sweet, shy, a little bit indirect -- these are all attributes we're going to build on in the entries to come. I'll explain foundational images and rhyme in the next tutorial. Carry on!