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Here in the UK we have had day after rainy day since the end of June whilst much of the rest of Europe has burned and baked. Yet there too it will rain again and since it falls on all of us all over the world at some time, it is, unsurprisingly, a frequent topic of poetry. Not least in Spain where it has a cultural significance:

“Spanish poets and writers capture the beauty of rain in the language itself, using vivid imagery and metaphors to compare it to silver threads, tears of the sky, or a gentle caress. These poetic expressions not only evoke the physical sensations of rain but also reflect the emotions and moods associated with it, such as nostalgia, longing, or tranquillity.” [source]

Here the Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges ruminates nostalgically on moments that the falling rain triggers:

“The afternoon grows light because at last
Abruptly a minutely shredded rain
Is falling, or it fell. For once again
Rain is something happening in the past.
Whoever hears it fall has brought to mind
Time when by a sudden lucky chance
A flower called “rose” was open to his glance…”

….[read full text &/or alternative translation ]

Whilst Jorge Carrera Andreas literally draws upon ‘Transfiguration of the Rain’

“Rain with hair gilded by the sun
Reaches my hands with its wet wings
It covers me with its great kiss of a lifeless girl
Rain, gliding with your transparent body
Let fall your successive tunics
And stretch out on the ground like a crystal virgin.
Let your tears fall on windows
…Move terrestrial puppets with your liquids strings.
Sower, come from the sky
Scatter your seeds and disappearing flowers
Enclose man in your immense glass cage
Your vertical ocean which buries everything
In memory of your passing….”

So today being the 10th day our poetry is to be crafted in the style of the Spanish Ovillejo which comprises 10 lines broken into two sub stanzas thus:

  • first stanza is composed of six lines
  • three rhyming couplets
  • the rhyme scheme is aabbcc
  • 8/3 syllables per couplet
  • each couplet is a question/answer or echo
  • –
  • second stanza is composed of four lines
  • rhyme scheme cddc
  • 6-8 syllables for the three lines* (I’ve seen a range of syllables used).
  • the final line combines lines 2, 4, and 6 together.

Since the Ovillejo was first constructed by Cervantes in Don Quixote his is the exemplar:

“And since What undermines all I attempt?
Contempt!
What heaps sorrow onto me?
Jealousy!
And what gnaws me through and through?
Missing you!

That’s why nothing will do
to make my distress less –
I’m killed by hopelessness,
contempt, jealousy and missing you!”
[see full text and translation here]

Not since January 2016 have we at dVerse tackled this form when De gave us her prompt here

So for todays prompt we write an ovillejo on the theme of rain.
Try seeing it through Spanish eyes as per the above two poets, with emphasis on vivid imagery filled with nostalgia or longing or tranquillity.

When you have published your poem according to the guidelines above, add it to the Mr Linky below and go visiting other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.