My Prize is You

With words I want you to know
There is no place that I would go
I know our love will bloom and grow

Like a fun contest I have won
You are the prize I get to keep
With words I want you to know
There is no place that I would go

With the sky clearing to show the sun
A mountain peak above a slope so steep
The feelings I have run oh so deep
With words I want you to know
There is no place that I would go
I know our love will bloom and grow

©2023 CBialczak

The madrigal originated as an Italian form, actually as a pastoral song. The Italian madrigal is written in lines of either seven or 11 syllables and is comprised of two or three tercets, followed by one or two rhyming couplets. Just as variable as the lines and line lengths is the rhyme scheme. In fact, there’s so much variability that I’m going to focus more on the “English” madrigal.

For the English-version of the madrigal (developed by Geoffrey Chaucer), the rules are much more defined. Here they are:

• Usually written in iambic pentameter.
• Comprised of three stanzas: a tercet, quatrain, and sestet.
• All three of the lines in the opening tercet are refrains.