Thanks for this. Our favorite city. Honeymooned there. Relatives there and in Graz. My wife is a German speaker and I am an aspiring one. Much planning underway for us to spend a great deal of our retirement in Austria when the day comes!
I saw your Easter sestina on Instagram but haven’t read it yet. But intend to. I’ve written several and enjoyed the process. I enjoyed the ardor of writing these two double sestinas even more, even though I still don’t understand the algorithm for the pattern. This one doesn’t follow Swinburne’s format but “Montreal” does more or less. Anyway I say go for it -- but it helps to have a grand subject.
"Karl Lueger (24 October 1844 – 10 March 1910) was an Austrian lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Vienna from 1897 until his death in 1910. He is credited with the transformation of Vienna into a modern city at the turn of the 20th century, although the populist and antisemitic politics of the Austrian Christian Social Party (CS), which he founded and led until his death, remain controversial, as they are sometimes viewed as a model for Adolf Hitler's Nazism... He established his own lawyer's office in Vienna in 1874 and soon became known as a 'little people's' (,kleine Leute') advocate. In this position, his role model and mentor was the popular Jewish physician and local politician Ignaz Mandl, known as 'God of the Little People' in Lueger's district of Landstraße (Third District), whom he followed into political life. The association ended when Lueger became identified with antisemitism.... Der schöne Karl ("handsome Karl") achieved tremendous popularity among the citizens.... " (Wikipedia)
When I visited Vienna in March of 2023, I saw a statue of Lueger that had been embellished with a variety of graffiti, including "Schande" (shame), which was apparently allowed or even officially sanctioned by city authorities.
Lovely walk down memory lane of my visit to Vienna!
Is this poem in Villanelle rhyme scheme?
Love this passage:
In kata, stretching, partner training, talk
Of bodhisattvas, angels, astral travel,
The auras and the energies of light
Emitted from the punches and the kicks,
The blocks and throws and self-defensive tricks—
Vienna’s sleeves so full of vintage tricks.
Thank you for reading it! There's no rhyme scheme per se, but the end words repeat in different patterns across all the stanzas.
It worked well with this story :)
Thanks for this. Our favorite city. Honeymooned there. Relatives there and in Graz. My wife is a German speaker and I am an aspiring one. Much planning underway for us to spend a great deal of our retirement in Austria when the day comes!
The Sestina is one of my favorite forms. I have yet to try the Double Sestina.
I saw your Easter sestina on Instagram but haven’t read it yet. But intend to. I’ve written several and enjoyed the process. I enjoyed the ardor of writing these two double sestinas even more, even though I still don’t understand the algorithm for the pattern. This one doesn’t follow Swinburne’s format but “Montreal” does more or less. Anyway I say go for it -- but it helps to have a grand subject.
And some time on your hands.
Notes on the seventh stanza:
"Karl Lueger (24 October 1844 – 10 March 1910) was an Austrian lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Vienna from 1897 until his death in 1910. He is credited with the transformation of Vienna into a modern city at the turn of the 20th century, although the populist and antisemitic politics of the Austrian Christian Social Party (CS), which he founded and led until his death, remain controversial, as they are sometimes viewed as a model for Adolf Hitler's Nazism... He established his own lawyer's office in Vienna in 1874 and soon became known as a 'little people's' (,kleine Leute') advocate. In this position, his role model and mentor was the popular Jewish physician and local politician Ignaz Mandl, known as 'God of the Little People' in Lueger's district of Landstraße (Third District), whom he followed into political life. The association ended when Lueger became identified with antisemitism.... Der schöne Karl ("handsome Karl") achieved tremendous popularity among the citizens.... " (Wikipedia)
When I visited Vienna in March of 2023, I saw a statue of Lueger that had been embellished with a variety of graffiti, including "Schande" (shame), which was apparently allowed or even officially sanctioned by city authorities.