The song thất lục bát (雙七六八, literally "double seven, six eight") is a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

poetic form Poetry (from the Greek word '' poiesis'', "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particul ...

, which consists of a

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...

comprising a couplet of two seven-

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

lines followed by a

Lục bát Lục bát (, ) is a traditional Vietnamese verse form – historically first recorded in Chữ Nôm script. "Lục bát" is Sino-Vietnamese for "six-eight", referring to the alternating lines of six and eight syllables. It will always begin with ...

couplet (a six-syllable line and an eight-syllable line). Each line requires certain syllables to exhibit a "flat" or "sharp" pitch. Lines and stanzas are linked in a complex rhyme scheme. :: ::• = any syllable; = trắc (sharp) syllable; = bằng (flat) syllable; A = bằng (flat) syllable with "A" rhyme. ::'' and are used only as handy mnemonic symbols; no connection with music should be inferred.'' Examples in Vietnamese include: * Chinh phụ ngâm (The Complaint of the Warrior's Wife ) by

Đặng Trần Côn Đặng Trần Côn (chữ Hán: ; born Trần Côn; c. 1705–1745) was the author of the ''Chinh phụ ngâm'' a masterpiece of chữ Hán literature of Vietnam. Đặng Trần Côn was born in Nhân Mục village (or Nhân Mọc), Thanh Trì d ...

* Cung oán ngâm khúc (Sadness of the Palace ) by Nguyễn Gia Thiều Although the Song Thất Lục Bát stanza is the most common way of incorporating the secondary ''song thất'' form into the primary ''lục bát'' form, two other methods have also been used: ''song thất'' couplets may be randomly interspersed within a long ''lục bát'' poem; and the two types may alternate in an odd number of couplets, in which case the series both begins and ends with a ''lục bát'' couplet.

References

External links

Culture of Vietnam encyclopedia
* ttp://www.thepoetsgarret.com/orient.html#luc Oriental Poetry: Song That Luc Bat(found under "Luc Bat") Vietnamese literary genres Poetic forms Vietnamese words and phrases {{poetry-stub