It is J, Day 10 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Today, I am honored to have my partner on Team Damyanti, Jemima Pett. a writer from England who is blogging from A to Z for the Challenge.
Jemima writes the Princelings of the East fantasy series for 12 year olds and up, and is currently working on a scifi book that has emerged from the Flash Fiction she blogs on Fridays. Please follow Jemima’s haikus and other posts at her blog http://jemimapett.com. She’s running a Giveaway on her blog all through the A to Z Challenge to celebrate the release of her latest book, Bravo Victor.
Follow Jemima on Twitter @jemima_pett and like her Facebook page http://facebook.com/princelings. She is on Goodreads, Google+ and Pinterest as Jemima Pett.
Welcome, Jemima! So happy to have you here today!
A Haiku for Juliet
by Jemima Pett
Ten days into the challenge and I expect you’ve met some haikus already. A verse form with 5 syllables, 7 syllables, then 5 again, it’s very strict. I expect a pure haiku should be more poetic, but many bloggers use them for anything. I do topical ones on Tuesdays. I know two bloggers who start each book review with a haiku, either the review itself or as a summary then their review in narrative. Here’s my offering for today’s J – Juliet.
Juli’s pa says “No!
Romeo’s a Montague!”
It all ends in tears.
Juliet, of course, is a Capulet; she sees Romeo, falls in love and the two of them have to fight off the prejudice against each other’s families. Prejudice was obviously rife in Shakespeare’s day. Class wars and xenophobia, mainly, but the theme has been used evermore – scholars may advise me it was in use before. In Shakespeare’s time it was common to have girls of good families betrothed as young as six.
What I didn’t realise until I read Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies recently, that betrothal was as good as marriage, even if they lived in their own family homes still. There is a long passage where Thomas Cromwell has to ensure that Anne Boleyn was never married to her suitor even though they were betrothed when she was eight. When actresses play Juliet as a twelve year-old, maybe we are being naive, yet the issue is more about the girl’s choice, a young girl falling in love for the first time – with the wrong boy.
My favourite Romeo and Juliet interpretation is West Side Story. Young love. Sigh! Does it always end it tears?
♥
Thank you Jemima!
Let’s visit my dear friends and TeamDamyanti mates today!
Csenge Zalka – The Multicolored Diary
Anna Tan – Deeply Shallow
Mary Wallace – Homeless Chronicles in Tampa
This was awesome, Jemima! *waves to Vidya* One of my favorite reimaginings of this tragic tale is Stacey Jay’s “Juliet Immortal” and “Romeo Redeemed”!
WriterlySam
Echoes of Olympus
A to Z #TeamDamyanti
Thanks, Sam! I liked Romanoff and Juliet too, which I’d forgotten about till I researched this post!
Jemima Pett visited my page today and I have started following her.
Thanks for the wonderful post with the introductions and the haikus..
Thank you so much Jayanta! I look forward to reading more of your blog posts 🙂
That was a nice haiku, Jemima!
“Does it always end it tears?” Most of the classic romances from all over the world have ended in tears. I wonder why.
Good question. I expect someone more learned than me has studied it. Maybe they realised that ‘happy ever after’ isn’t true?
Wow Jemina this so captivating!!
Thank you, Usha!
I enjoyed this, Jemima.
I think the same betrothal idea held true for Joseph and Mary – the parents of Jesus. 🙂
You’re probably right, Corinne. Thanks for commenting 🙂
This was an enjoyable read! And informative too with regard to some of the customs/practices in Shakespeare’s time. Thanks Jemima. There have been many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in Hindi cinema too, in fact there was one as recent as few months ago, which I haven’t seen and probably will not. But yes, West Side Story was a good one!
Thanks, Beloo. It’s a story that will never fail to be recognised, I suspect.
I am catching up with all your post today and I am glad to read this first.. A haiku… something I adore!!
Thank you Sri! You, of course, are keeping us engaged with your serial story! 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed in S(t)ri. I love haikus too. Usually do them on Tuesdays 🙂
I have never attempted any haiku but after this challenge I’m seriously considering trying…And loved this one on Romeo and Juliet…Sadly in India many love stories end tragically and are constant reminders, infact sad reminders of Shakespeare’s classic…
Naba, I think you’ll be very good at writing haiku! :)Loved your post for J today!
Oh, do try, Naba. I wrote one in 2005, then a couple more in 2007… and now I do them at least weekly! It’s so easy to miscount the syllables, though 5-7-5.
I started with one,
but now I do them weekly.
You must just practice! 🙂
I am in awe of people who can convey so much in so few a words in their Haikus! Really hats of them. And thank you, Jemima for sharing that wonderful one on Juliet! 🙂
It’s definitely a matter of practice, Shilpa. Somtimes they come easily, sometimes I throw many first lines away. Quite often I get a good first line that ends up as the last one 🙂
Superb Haiku!
Short. Sweet. Says it all!
xx
Thanks!
Vidya and Jemima, two ladies I love, and a stunning haiku. What’s not to like? 🙂
We hear and obey, oh leader 😀
Aha !! An ode to the bard’s story 🙂 What the bard told in a 1000 words, you’ve squeezed beautifully into a haiku 🙂 lovely Jemima 🙂 🙂
Thank you, Sreeja 🙂
Isn’t it strange that we tend to remember every detail of a good tragedy more than a good romance? I think it is because of the variety in it and the penmanship of the writer counts, of course. Your haiku was beautiful, Jemima!
Thanks for visiting, Shailaja! There’s always so much more to a tragedy than the perfectly happy ending!
Yes, the one leaves as a cream cake – the other leaves us wanting more!
I think young love is meant to end in tears because we’re so fragile and naive. It’s impossible to have a broken heart at any age and not shed a tear.
Your haiku, Jemima, is brilliant!
Isn’t it! Thank you Chrys! 🙂
Spot on, Chrys – and broken hearts take longer to recover when you’re older, I find – just like other broken things.
Thanks for commenting!
Romeo and Juliet’s will always remain the ultimate love story
I think you’re right there!
Ah, Romeo and Juliet… I love this Shakespeare story… and always think of the balcony scene…
I haven’t written a haiku in ages, yet I love this poetry form! Succinct.
I must pop over to say hello to Jemima as soon as I get a chance…