P. K. Page: Four Lines, a New Glosa

A form described through a selected critical record

Lecker traces Page’s encounter with the glosa through Robin Skelton and Marilyn Bowering and identifies Hologram: A Book of Glosas as a 1994 publication.

The foreword passage he quotes specifies four seed lines followed by four ten-line stanzas. Each stanza ends with the next seed line; lines six and nine rhyme with that tenth line.

We have read the quoted foreword passage and critical context, not the whole collection. The rule is enough to start a new exercise, but it is not a substitute for reading how an actual poem develops its meanings.

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Use replacement lines that are entirely ours

For this task the four original seed lines are: “The rain has left a silver seam”; “A window holds the evening sky”; “Our careful plans survive a dream”; and “We let the last bus rumble by.” They are not quotations from Page or another poet. Draft one ten-line stanza that ends with the first line. Let lines six and nine rhyme with seam; do not fill the intervening lines merely to reach the count.

A complete four-stanza response would contain 40 stanza lines, including the 4 repeated seed endings and 36 other stanza lines. If the opening four-line seed is printed separately too, the page contains 44 line occurrences. That accounting counts repetitions, not 40 newly invented lines beyond the seed.

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Reference stanza: an original route to the ending

1. We mark the hour beside the gate.

2. The shops are folding up their light.

3. A child is balancing a stone.

4. The last warm patch escapes the night.

5. We count the reasons we might stay.

6. The gutter draws a narrow stream.

7. A sparrow shakes the water loose.

8. Our talk grows slower at the curb.

9. The lamps begin their yellow gleam.

10. The rain has left a silver seam.

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Test the constraint and then the poem

The supplied stanza has ten numbered lines. Stream and gleam rhyme with seam at the required positions 6, 9 and 10, and the final line repeats the first seed. These checks establish compliance with the stated formal constraints, not the quality of the writing.

A stronger revision might make the ending change the sense of an earlier detail, rather than arrive as a detachable slogan. Try a different first line and notice which earlier lines need rewriting. In a real glosa using another poet’s work, accurate attribution and permission where required remain distinct from meeting the pattern. No protected poem or translation is reproduced in this exercise.

Sources for this section: [1] · [2]