"Proverb I" by Pieter Bruegel I‘Pearls or Swine?’: A Rondeau Redoublé and a Villanelle by Susan Jarvis Bryant The Society January 17, 2025 Beauty, Poetry, Rondeau Redoublé, Satire, Villanelle 22 Comments . Pearls or Swine? Pray show me how to tell a pearl from swine. I have a thirst for sanity to slake. I seek a clue—a firm not fluid sign To steer me from the sway of all that’s fake. While Einsteins whine and eggheads bellyache, As boundaries blur and boffins redefine The truth until its luster is opaque— Pray show me how to tell a pearl from swine. Bold souls of granite gut and diamond spine Have warned the world’s too woke to be awake. Now science has been hacked by Frankenstein I have a thirst for sanity to slake. My trust in all that was is now at stake. My faith in all that is is far from fine. I don’t know how much more my brain can take. I seek a clue—a firm not fluid sign. I crave a nice, precise, defining line Between the true and screwy. How I ache For sense to guide me through this pantomime And steer me from the sway of all that’s fake. I’ve seen the pearls fly jets to take the cake At summits where they gorge and guzzle wine. I’ve witnessed pigs of wisdom choke a snake, Yet still I cannot tell a pearl from swine— Pray show me how. Poet’s Note: Called a swine and feeling hurt? Know that pearls have hearts of dirt. . . A Glitzy Villanelle I skirt the edge of sunless pits To catch the dazzle of the day. I blitz my bleakest hours with glitz. I sidestep snits and hissy fits From pissy posses in dismay. I skirt the edge of sunless pits. I seek the spangled, star-lit hits Of sparkle on my moon-kissed way. I blitz my bleakest hours with glitz. When life is getting on my tits And frazzled nerves begin to fray I skirt the edge of sunless pits. I tiptoe past the bitter twits To glittered glades where fireflies play. I blitz my bleakest hours with glitz. While fussers suffer shattered wits And gassy asses beef and bray I skirt the edge of sunless pits. I blitz my bleakest hours with glitz. first published in Snakeskin . . Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 22 Responses Roy E. Peterson January 17, 2025 Susan, “Pearls or Swine” is perfected by your Poet Note! For me, the greatest line was: “Now science has been hacked by Frankenstein.” I loved it. Your impressive villanelle with your signature alliteration took me to surprising places in my mind with how you brought together “sunless pits” and “glades where fireflies play. I am still contemplating this one with pleasurable thoughts juxtaposed with avoidance of depressed depths and pending disasters. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Roy, thank you for always reading my poems closely and putting so much thought into your comments. I listen to all you have to say with a tuned ear and your words spur me on. I am most grateful. Reply Mark Stellinga January 17, 2025 Dear Mrs. Bryant, To blitz ones ‘bleakest hours with glitz’ – By wisely doing as you say: Skirting ‘the edge of sunless pits’ – I agree, as one who gits The snarky theme your words convey: (a ‘Truth’ that give us both the shits), Is, indeed, a means that fits The bill for driving gloom away, So… bless you for this ‘blitz’! Another gem, young lady. I know how difficult poems of these sorts & caliber are to compose. You got MY blue ribbon a long time ago. “Hi” to Michael. 🙂 Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Mark, thank you for joining in with my sentiments with gusto – you have made me smile. I enjoyed writing the villanelle and I am glad some of that joy rubbed off. Reply Joseph S. Salemi January 17, 2025 I’m always delighted by rondeaux of this sort, where the poet has to compose several quatrains with only two rhymes. It’s difficult, but when done well it is exquisite. The limitation of two rhymes forces the poet to ransack the language for fitting words, and as a consequence she must use her inventive power to come up with connective discourse to make use of those words. Susan is very good at this. The same is true for the villanelle, which is also rhyme-limited. Making a coherent poem with the key words fits, glitz, pits, hits, tits, twits and wits is a true triumph. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Joe, I am thoroughly grateful for your appreciation of the effort that goes into these forms… although, I will admit that I never consider it an effort. I am always at play when I’m writing poetry and the harder the challenge the more fun I have. Is that normal? I have often thought myself a tad crazy, bearing in mind one is meant to suffer for one’s art. I’ve never suffered… I only ever suffer when those who read it are offended by the subject matter and overlook the craft because they’re so butthurt, they’re blind to the art. I’m working on that one. As ever, thank you very much for your fine eye and your encouragement – it means a lot. Reply Daniel Tuton January 17, 2025 Beautiful work as always, Susan. You turn the dilemma of oversaturated attention into a very entertaining lament! I especially liked “Bold souls of granite gut and diamond spine Have warned the world’s too woke to be awake.” Hemingway was reputed to have said, “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, $#it detector.” Would that we all owned one of these; life would be easier! I also loved your villanelle, which eloquently captures one of my own strategies I occasionally engage in order to survive a too-often depressing age. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Daniel, thank you for this beautiful comment. I love those “bold souls of granite gut and diamond spine” – there’s too few of them and they needed a shout out. As for my glitzy villanelle, it’s wonderful to hear you engage in such strategies yourself – essential for survival in a world that is often off kilter. With much appreciation. Reply Joseph S. Salemi January 17, 2025 Susan, the image of the suffering, accursed artist (le poete maudit) is merely a stereotype with little empirical value. Artists don’t suffer any more or less than other people, and many of them go through life perfectly at ease with and happy about their creative activity. You are not alone in being completely content with your work. As for other parties being offended or butt-hurt by what you write, don’t let it bother you at all. Their reactions are their own, and you are not responsible for them in the slightest. A poem is a fictive artifact, just like a beautiful vase or a piece of jewelry. Being “offended” by a poem is sort of like being offended by a coal seam or a picket fence. When people raise non-aesthetic objections to a poem they are most likely pissed off about the three miseries (“meaning, message, and moral”). Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Joe, I thank you wholeheartedly for this. I am smiling – I now understand completely the significance of “the three miseries”. The reasoning has always been a little vague… not anymore. I’m a very happy poet. Reply Russel Winick January 17, 2025 Susan – Before hooking up with SCP several years ago, I didn’t know a Rondeau Redouble from a double-play, or a Villanelle from Cruella Deville. Your poems, like these two, have taught me to love those difficult forms. And who can resist lines like “While Einsteins whine and eggheads bellyache”? As someone who has spent many an hour trying to find just one rhyming word that fits, your ability to string together so many rhymes in such a short space with logical “connective discourse” as Professor Salemi said is just mesmerizing. Well done again, Poet Laureate! Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Russel, what a beautiful and highly amusing comment. It’s wonderful to hear of your passion for poetry. I believe it’s the love and respect we have for the art that inspires us to try new things. I’ve enjoyed watching your journey and very much look forward to reading more of your work – a villanelle on Cruella Deville, perhaps. Russel, thank you for your continued support of my passion. Reply Warren Bonham January 18, 2025 Like Russel, I had never heard of either of these poetic forms until recently and I haven’t had the courage to try using either one. You make it seem easy and effortless, but I know that isn’t the case at all. Keep casting your pearls, even though as it says in Matthew 7:6, the swine will often turn on and then trample the one casting the pearls. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Warren, thank you very much for your kind comment. I have every faith in your ability to pull off a villanelle. Your voice is always spirited and strong, which tells me it would be difficult for a chosen form to overshadow your intent. I think it’s time for you to branch out… I thoroughly look forward to the results! Reply Brian A. Yapko January 18, 2025 I love both of these poems, Susan – but especially “Pearls or Swine.” You’re an unquestioned master of both the rondeau and the rondeau redouble and this one is particularly skillful and biting. As has been your wont of late, this does not present satire. It presents truth masquerading as satire. I find not one phrase or image here to be an exaggeration. Your plaint is 100% valid: “I seek a clue—a firm not fluid sign/To steer me from the sway of all that’s fake.” And how is a soul to do this, pray, when the experts are for hire and somehow always present the findings preferred by whoever is paying their salary? How is a soul to do this when the news and the politicians lie through their teeth and we are forced into Sherlock-Holmes-like feats of investigation and insight to peer through the obfuscation? Your work is both amusing and disquieting because the situation it presents is intolerable and the dilemma a real one. And if someone as intelligent and insightful as your speaker has trouble discerning the truth, what hope is there for the rest of us? Your “Glitzy Villanelle” made me laugh out loud. When Susan gets cheeky, watch out! Your “its” rhymes are stellar if unexpected. But I especially like the imagery of “I tiptoe past the bitter twits/To glittered glades where fireflies play.” I agree with you. Those bitter twits are so annoying. They could use a little blast of glitz themselves and chill. Oh, and the consonant reversal and assonance of “fussers suffer” (almost an anagram!) is particularly delightful. As always, Susan, your technique dazzles even as the ideas you present offer much food for thought. So much here to appreciate. Thank you! Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Brian, I always look forward to your comments. I am most grateful for a close reading that is spot on with the analysis – you have a gift for getting it right! I am particularly taken with this observation on “Pearls or Swine?”: “It presents truth masquerading as satire. I find not one phrase or image here to be an exaggeration.” I am thrilled with your words. I wanted readers to see the evil at play in today’s post-truth society. When the Truth is dead, so is justice… it’s every good person’s duty to keep it alive, which is why I’m so grateful to you and all those poets here who know the power of words and draw upon them during times of danger. I have never seen our right to freedom of speech as threatened as it has been in the last few years. I’m over the moon you enjoyed my bit of linguistic glitz – a giggle after the grim. I had huge fun writing it and I’m glad that joy came across. Brian, I thoroughly appreciate your fine eye, encouragement, and inspiration. Thank you very much indeed. Reply Yael January 18, 2025 Two shining gems of poetry on a grey Sabbath morning, thank you Susan! Both of these are thoroughly enjoyable and fun to read and contemplate. As a small cattle waste removal specialist and a permanent dweller in glades where fireflies play, I whole-heartedly approve of your message. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Yael, I love this glowing endorsement and will cherish it like the badge of honor it is. What more could a poet ask for – your credentials shine brighter than a feisty firefly on a fevered mission! Thank you very much indeed! Reply Cheryl A Corey January 18, 2025 Susan, you continue to be an inspiration. I didn’t know what a rondeau redouble was before. I want to make this the year that I raise the bar – to list the many poetic forms that I’ve never attempted, and the redouble will be added to that list! Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Cheryl, thank you so much for your kind comment. I thoroughly look forward to reading more of your works this year and as a fan of the rondeau redouble, I’m most eager to see what you do with it. Great news. Reply Julian D. Woodruff January 20, 2025 Thank you, Susan. If I get the 1st, confusion is the plight of everyone. Thank God, you and some others are also capable of providing much needed clarity. The 2nd is a delight. The comic substitution of “tits” for “nerves” is a surprise full of punch, virtually an answer to the q of why read, or try to write, poetry. The line “To glittered glades …” is pure Susan, unmatchable by any imitator. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Julian, what a lovely comment. Thank you! I am especially pleased you’ve homed in on my “tits” – “getting on my tits” is pure British English and means (as you quite rightly point out) getting on one’s nerves. I wrote the poem for a British poetry e-zine, and Mike thought it wouldn’t work here. I usually take his advice, but I loved the line so much, I didn’t listen. You have made my day! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy E. Peterson January 17, 2025 Susan, “Pearls or Swine” is perfected by your Poet Note! For me, the greatest line was: “Now science has been hacked by Frankenstein.” I loved it. Your impressive villanelle with your signature alliteration took me to surprising places in my mind with how you brought together “sunless pits” and “glades where fireflies play. I am still contemplating this one with pleasurable thoughts juxtaposed with avoidance of depressed depths and pending disasters. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Roy, thank you for always reading my poems closely and putting so much thought into your comments. I listen to all you have to say with a tuned ear and your words spur me on. I am most grateful. Reply
Mark Stellinga January 17, 2025 Dear Mrs. Bryant, To blitz ones ‘bleakest hours with glitz’ – By wisely doing as you say: Skirting ‘the edge of sunless pits’ – I agree, as one who gits The snarky theme your words convey: (a ‘Truth’ that give us both the shits), Is, indeed, a means that fits The bill for driving gloom away, So… bless you for this ‘blitz’! Another gem, young lady. I know how difficult poems of these sorts & caliber are to compose. You got MY blue ribbon a long time ago. “Hi” to Michael. 🙂 Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Mark, thank you for joining in with my sentiments with gusto – you have made me smile. I enjoyed writing the villanelle and I am glad some of that joy rubbed off. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi January 17, 2025 I’m always delighted by rondeaux of this sort, where the poet has to compose several quatrains with only two rhymes. It’s difficult, but when done well it is exquisite. The limitation of two rhymes forces the poet to ransack the language for fitting words, and as a consequence she must use her inventive power to come up with connective discourse to make use of those words. Susan is very good at this. The same is true for the villanelle, which is also rhyme-limited. Making a coherent poem with the key words fits, glitz, pits, hits, tits, twits and wits is a true triumph. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Joe, I am thoroughly grateful for your appreciation of the effort that goes into these forms… although, I will admit that I never consider it an effort. I am always at play when I’m writing poetry and the harder the challenge the more fun I have. Is that normal? I have often thought myself a tad crazy, bearing in mind one is meant to suffer for one’s art. I’ve never suffered… I only ever suffer when those who read it are offended by the subject matter and overlook the craft because they’re so butthurt, they’re blind to the art. I’m working on that one. As ever, thank you very much for your fine eye and your encouragement – it means a lot. Reply
Daniel Tuton January 17, 2025 Beautiful work as always, Susan. You turn the dilemma of oversaturated attention into a very entertaining lament! I especially liked “Bold souls of granite gut and diamond spine Have warned the world’s too woke to be awake.” Hemingway was reputed to have said, “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, $#it detector.” Would that we all owned one of these; life would be easier! I also loved your villanelle, which eloquently captures one of my own strategies I occasionally engage in order to survive a too-often depressing age. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 17, 2025 Daniel, thank you for this beautiful comment. I love those “bold souls of granite gut and diamond spine” – there’s too few of them and they needed a shout out. As for my glitzy villanelle, it’s wonderful to hear you engage in such strategies yourself – essential for survival in a world that is often off kilter. With much appreciation. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi January 17, 2025 Susan, the image of the suffering, accursed artist (le poete maudit) is merely a stereotype with little empirical value. Artists don’t suffer any more or less than other people, and many of them go through life perfectly at ease with and happy about their creative activity. You are not alone in being completely content with your work. As for other parties being offended or butt-hurt by what you write, don’t let it bother you at all. Their reactions are their own, and you are not responsible for them in the slightest. A poem is a fictive artifact, just like a beautiful vase or a piece of jewelry. Being “offended” by a poem is sort of like being offended by a coal seam or a picket fence. When people raise non-aesthetic objections to a poem they are most likely pissed off about the three miseries (“meaning, message, and moral”). Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Joe, I thank you wholeheartedly for this. I am smiling – I now understand completely the significance of “the three miseries”. The reasoning has always been a little vague… not anymore. I’m a very happy poet. Reply
Russel Winick January 17, 2025 Susan – Before hooking up with SCP several years ago, I didn’t know a Rondeau Redouble from a double-play, or a Villanelle from Cruella Deville. Your poems, like these two, have taught me to love those difficult forms. And who can resist lines like “While Einsteins whine and eggheads bellyache”? As someone who has spent many an hour trying to find just one rhyming word that fits, your ability to string together so many rhymes in such a short space with logical “connective discourse” as Professor Salemi said is just mesmerizing. Well done again, Poet Laureate! Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Russel, what a beautiful and highly amusing comment. It’s wonderful to hear of your passion for poetry. I believe it’s the love and respect we have for the art that inspires us to try new things. I’ve enjoyed watching your journey and very much look forward to reading more of your work – a villanelle on Cruella Deville, perhaps. Russel, thank you for your continued support of my passion. Reply
Warren Bonham January 18, 2025 Like Russel, I had never heard of either of these poetic forms until recently and I haven’t had the courage to try using either one. You make it seem easy and effortless, but I know that isn’t the case at all. Keep casting your pearls, even though as it says in Matthew 7:6, the swine will often turn on and then trample the one casting the pearls. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Warren, thank you very much for your kind comment. I have every faith in your ability to pull off a villanelle. Your voice is always spirited and strong, which tells me it would be difficult for a chosen form to overshadow your intent. I think it’s time for you to branch out… I thoroughly look forward to the results! Reply
Brian A. Yapko January 18, 2025 I love both of these poems, Susan – but especially “Pearls or Swine.” You’re an unquestioned master of both the rondeau and the rondeau redouble and this one is particularly skillful and biting. As has been your wont of late, this does not present satire. It presents truth masquerading as satire. I find not one phrase or image here to be an exaggeration. Your plaint is 100% valid: “I seek a clue—a firm not fluid sign/To steer me from the sway of all that’s fake.” And how is a soul to do this, pray, when the experts are for hire and somehow always present the findings preferred by whoever is paying their salary? How is a soul to do this when the news and the politicians lie through their teeth and we are forced into Sherlock-Holmes-like feats of investigation and insight to peer through the obfuscation? Your work is both amusing and disquieting because the situation it presents is intolerable and the dilemma a real one. And if someone as intelligent and insightful as your speaker has trouble discerning the truth, what hope is there for the rest of us? Your “Glitzy Villanelle” made me laugh out loud. When Susan gets cheeky, watch out! Your “its” rhymes are stellar if unexpected. But I especially like the imagery of “I tiptoe past the bitter twits/To glittered glades where fireflies play.” I agree with you. Those bitter twits are so annoying. They could use a little blast of glitz themselves and chill. Oh, and the consonant reversal and assonance of “fussers suffer” (almost an anagram!) is particularly delightful. As always, Susan, your technique dazzles even as the ideas you present offer much food for thought. So much here to appreciate. Thank you! Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Brian, I always look forward to your comments. I am most grateful for a close reading that is spot on with the analysis – you have a gift for getting it right! I am particularly taken with this observation on “Pearls or Swine?”: “It presents truth masquerading as satire. I find not one phrase or image here to be an exaggeration.” I am thrilled with your words. I wanted readers to see the evil at play in today’s post-truth society. When the Truth is dead, so is justice… it’s every good person’s duty to keep it alive, which is why I’m so grateful to you and all those poets here who know the power of words and draw upon them during times of danger. I have never seen our right to freedom of speech as threatened as it has been in the last few years. I’m over the moon you enjoyed my bit of linguistic glitz – a giggle after the grim. I had huge fun writing it and I’m glad that joy came across. Brian, I thoroughly appreciate your fine eye, encouragement, and inspiration. Thank you very much indeed. Reply
Yael January 18, 2025 Two shining gems of poetry on a grey Sabbath morning, thank you Susan! Both of these are thoroughly enjoyable and fun to read and contemplate. As a small cattle waste removal specialist and a permanent dweller in glades where fireflies play, I whole-heartedly approve of your message. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Yael, I love this glowing endorsement and will cherish it like the badge of honor it is. What more could a poet ask for – your credentials shine brighter than a feisty firefly on a fevered mission! Thank you very much indeed! Reply
Cheryl A Corey January 18, 2025 Susan, you continue to be an inspiration. I didn’t know what a rondeau redouble was before. I want to make this the year that I raise the bar – to list the many poetic forms that I’ve never attempted, and the redouble will be added to that list! Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Cheryl, thank you so much for your kind comment. I thoroughly look forward to reading more of your works this year and as a fan of the rondeau redouble, I’m most eager to see what you do with it. Great news. Reply
Julian D. Woodruff January 20, 2025 Thank you, Susan. If I get the 1st, confusion is the plight of everyone. Thank God, you and some others are also capable of providing much needed clarity. The 2nd is a delight. The comic substitution of “tits” for “nerves” is a surprise full of punch, virtually an answer to the q of why read, or try to write, poetry. The line “To glittered glades …” is pure Susan, unmatchable by any imitator. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant January 23, 2025 Julian, what a lovely comment. Thank you! I am especially pleased you’ve homed in on my “tits” – “getting on my tits” is pure British English and means (as you quite rightly point out) getting on one’s nerves. I wrote the poem for a British poetry e-zine, and Mike thought it wouldn’t work here. I usually take his advice, but I loved the line so much, I didn’t listen. You have made my day! Reply
