Generation gaps
by cricketjeff on November 12, 2009. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
All children know each parent is a fool;
When I was young mine hardly knew a thing.
And now my own are certain of the rule,
“The Autumn can know nothing of the spring.”
But now I know my parents saw the same,
They saw me learn how much I did not know.
Each generation has to play the game,
It’s all a part of life’s eternal flow.
My time will come to sit and watch the show.
I’ll sit and watch my children’s children show
Contempt for all their parents know is right,
They’ll offer me a hint “their folk are slow”,
“There’s no-one home despite the burning light”.
I never understood my Grandad’s face,
The way he smiled when we returned from school.
I loved the days when he was round the place,
He loved to watch his little treasures duel;
I guess he knew my Dad was not a fool.
Author notes
A relatively new form created by Sarah Rayburn, the novelinee is a 9 line
stanza derived from the Spencerian stanza but written in iambic pentameter or
decasyllabic lines. If used as part of a sequence a variation of the closing
line should be used as lead line for the next stanza. In the case of a closed
novelinee the last stanza should end with a variation of the first line of the
first stanza.
Stanza Rhyme Scheme: a. b. a. b. c. d. c..d. d.
4 We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will
think us so. — Alexander Pope
English