Glose/ Glosa

          Glosa is originally from the Spanish literature . It consists of two sections :

 1.Texte or Cabezo a Quatrain, that is a part of a well known poem of any poet. 

2. Gloss or Glossa which consists of four stanzas of ten lines each . The tenth line 

being a line from the Texte and the sixth and ninth line rhyme to the picked up tenth line . In  the first stanza of the glose the tenth line is the first line of the Texte and in the second stanza it is the second  line of the texte and so on. 

How to write a Glosa :

               1. Choose a perfect poem and the perfect part of that poem. Choosing lines that inspire you the most and the lines to which you can connect the most is important.  And the four lines you choose must be within the same poem and those four lines must be continuous and not randomly picked. Those four lines could also be an individual poem. That finishes the Texte part.

              2.  The gloss like it literally means , must add beauty to the Texte. 

              3. Follow the same style of the original Texte so there's no break in the flow.

              4.  The tenth line of  the four Gloss stanzas are the lines chosen from the corresponding lines from the Texte. 

              5. Sixth and ninth lines of every gloss poem must rhyme with the tenth line. is the . 

             6. Being quite a long  structure. It's important to make the lines sweet and interesting. Try rephrasing and improvising your draft.

An example of Glosa:

Irish Pride and Prejudice

(Glosa verse by Darren Anderson)

In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start,

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise.

W.H. Auden

In memory of W.B. Yeats

A putrid scene of civil conflict

returns without regret,

festering in dead hearts,

lacking the fortitude to forgive.

Waiting, we long for a successor

to match Yeats' intuitive art.

A Celtic hero able

to play with hostile minds

and brave the poisoned part

in the deserts of the heart.

His whirling intellect sliced

through disaster and distress.

Fervor enough to bend reality,

and imagination to create it.

Yet, now he lives within his page

Unable to take part

in the drama unfolding

on that great Irish stage.

We need an actor with his heart.

Let the healing fountain start.

Sectarian riots grow

a blistering boil of religious identity.

Deep scars riddle

faces of Catholic and Protestant alike.

“Unity of Being”, an Irish serenity,

forgotten nationalist ways

buried by bludgeoning stones,

thrown by the hands of hatred.

A feat that would not amaze,

In the prison of his days.

The tall, young man

with lanky cloak and hat,

no longer strolls the streets of Dublin.

His stunning tone no longer heard,

only imagined by the reader.

Ireland must revive his ways,

for brutality never pays.

Let Oisin and Patrick speak his words,

inspire beyond the grave

teach the free man how to praise. 

In the above poem you can see that the Texte is from the work of Yeats. The first line , ie. "In the deserts of the heart" is the tenth line of the first gloss stanza and you  can see every other line  of the texte forms the tenth lines of the corresponding stanzas. The sixth and ninth lines rhyme with the tenth line. 

So that's how you craft a Glose . 

So what are you waiting for go give some exercise to your pen.

Note: None of the poems we present belong to us. We present an organized record and analysis of them. All copyrights are reserved to the original author and we are not using plagiarized work. The originality of the writes is verified to the fullest extent we can. 

- Radhuga . S.G. , member , Team PoeTreeFoRest