The 99 Poem Challenge
Fox-Trot-9

97. Virelai Nouveau — Another Chance

1

Another chance. Another day
For me to charge into the fray
   Of life. Yet like a neophyte,
I'll only wander out to play
Before I take myself away
   Into my solitude despite
Their sunny pleas to come and stay.
So now I play the castaway
   And linger as their satellite
To all their hijinks I survey,
Observing them in their horseplay.

2

I know there's something not quite right
With me, who used to take delight
   In playing tag. My sobriquet
(I now remember) was the "Knight,"
So noble, brave and so forthright
    That all my friends say in hearsay,
"You act so coy and oh-so-bright,
You'll be the teacher's favorite!
   When will you send her a bouquet?"
And blushing, I run out of sight!
   Another chance. Another day

3

To say the words that often weigh
My waiting ears with yea or nay.
    Into the classroom, I invite
Myself into my worst doomsday.
My skin turns warm and cool as clay,
   My heart's a spring wound up so tight
That when she turns, I now betray
Embarrassment to my dismay!
   She says to me, "Are you all right?"
I say to her, "I'm not okay."
For me to charge into the fray,

4

I bear it out with all my might:
"I need to have you, lovely sprite!"
    So now I play the popinjay,
As my abysmal fears ignite
Upon the altar of stage fright
   When to her eyes of shock, a ray
Of intuition starts to smite
My hopes with eyes of firelight.
    Oh, how I wish for yesterday
Before the terrors of my plight,
   Another chance, another day!

5

I'm shamed with my inept display
To court a teacher all the way
   Before I'm even dynamite
Enough to take her on midway.
I must escape before I pay
   The price of wooing her with trite
Words in this shameful interplay
Of student-teacher cabaret!
   But ere I take my lowly flight,
She stays my flight with her belay
For me to charge into the fray

6

And clarify those impolite
Words that I gave her in my fright.
   "I'm sorry for my overplay,"
I say in my self-hating spite,
"But when I'm in my bed at night . . ."
    I let my words now go astray,
Biting back yet another slight.
A silence elongates my blight,
   Until she says, "Leave me today
   For me to charge into the fray.
   Another chance. Another day."

(To be continued...)

A/N: The virelai nouveau is a difficult form to define with clarity. The definition has a core of non-negotiable requirements that ensures that the poet will find it hard work to write one - but there are some potentially confusing variations permitted, so that the poet may never be entirely sure of getting it "right."

The core requirements are that (1) only two rhymes are used throughout, (2) the main body of the poem consists of stanzas of the same length; either these all have the same rhyming scheme, or (as here) two rhyming schemes are used alternately, (3) the poem opens with a rhyming couplet, and ends with the same two lines in the opposite order, and (4) each stanza in the main body of the poem has one of these two lines as a refrain, the two lines alternating.

The optional bits are that (1) the rhyming couplet which forms the refrain can be a stanza in its own right at the beginning of the poem; the alternative is for it to form the first two lines of the first stanza of the main body of the poem (the rhyming scheme having been chosen to accommodate this), and (2a) the poem can have a final stanza, or envoi, shorter than the ordinary stanzas, and (necessarily) with a different rhyming scheme, where the final repeat of the refrain appears at the end of it, and there are an even number of ordinary stanzas; (2b) if you don't have an envoi, you must have an odd number of ordinary stanzas, and the repeat of the refrain must appear as the last two lines of the last of them (the rhyming scheme having been chosen to accommodate this).

[Note: I don't where Bob Newman got "odd number of ordinary stanzas" from in the (2b) option, since there is an even number of stanzas with the same number of lines.]

Meter: Octosyllabic
Rhyme:

"Ordinary" Stanza 1: A1
A2
b
a
a
b
a
a
b
a
a
"Ordinary" Stanza 2: b
b
a
b
b
a
b
b
a
b
A1
"Ordinary" Stanza 3: a
a
b
a
a
b
a
a
b
a
A2
"Ordinary" Stanza 4: b
b
a
b
b
a
b
b
a
b
A1...
"Ordinary" Stanza 5: a
a
b
a
a
b
a
a
b
a
A2...
"Ordinary" Stanza X: b
b
a
b
b
a
b
b
a
A2
A1