The Desert-Lime of Questioning

The Desert-lime of Questioning is a poetic riddle, originating in The Writ of Prodigies. The rules of the form are applied by poets to produce individual poems which can be recited. The poem is divided into three to four quintains and two septets. Use of metaphor is characteristic of the form. A form of parallelism is common throughout the poem, in that certain lines often contrast underlying meaning.

• The first part is intended to describe the past. Certain lines use the same placement of allusions and present different views of the same subject. It has lines with five syllables. The rhyme scheme repeating in each stanza is aabac.
• The second part is intended to develop the previous idea concerning current events. Certain lines present different views of the same subject. The third line of each septet uses the same placement of allusions as the second line. It has lines with five syllables. The rhyme scheme within each stanza is aaabcac.

Events