P is for Paradelle and Pail

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

My word and watercolor today is Pail, and has a poem form called a Paradelle.  According to Shadow Poetry:

"The Paradelle is a modern poetic form invented by Billy Collins as a parody of the villanelle. Billy Collins claimed that the paradelle was a difficult, fixed form consisting of four six-line stanzas with a repetitive pattern invented in eleventh century France, and the press believed the story and ran with it. Due to the extensive publicity, the Paradelle has made its rounds in the poetic community. Even though the form was invented as a hoax, the Paradelle has taken on a life of its own. It is still a difficult form, nonetheless, to practice which can be fun and rewarding even though the inventor may not have intended it to be."

It is only 4 stanzas of 4 lines, of which 4 lines are repeated verbatim... easy enough so far... now for the complications...

For the first three stanzas:

The first two lines and the third and fourth lines must be the same (repeat). But now when reaching fifth and sixth lines... these lines must contain all the words from the preceding four lines in the stanza using them only once to form completely new lines.

And then the last (fourth) stanza:

This final stanza does not repeat lines like the preceding stanzas. The final six lines must contain every word from the first three stanzas, and only those words, again using them only once to form completely new lines.

So simple, right?  

It goes like this:

Stanza 1: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4
Stanza 2: 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8
Stanza 3: 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 12
Stanza 4: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (using all the words in lines 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12 in another order)

Examples I've seen often mix the words up more, and may rhyme.  But nothing in the description says you have to... so I didn't.

 

Pail

In a pail for the parched,

In a pail for the parched,

We carry water from the well,

We carry water from the well

For the parched we carry water

From a well in the pail.

Let it sink into the water,

Let it sink into the water.

Drop the pail, draw it up,

Drop the pail, draw it up.

Drop the pail into the water;

Let it sink, draw it up.

Do not spill it everywhere,

Do not spill it everywhere.

For the thirsty, we will need it.

For the thirsty, we will need it.

Do not spill it; we will need it

For the thirsty everywhere.

Drop the pail in the well;

Let it sink down into water.

Draw it up, do not spill it!

For the parched, for the thirsty

We carry water everywhere;

We will need it, from a pail. 

 

by Donna JT Smith ©2025