Puzzle song

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A song of conundrum is a song based on a poem whose rhyme scheme makes the listener expect words that ultimately do not appear because their use could have unpleasant consequences for the poet or singer, such as prosecution. The name comes from the Latin word vexare "to plague, shake". A similar, albeit mostly less political, issue is picture puzzle .

Songs of deception were particularly popular in Germany at the time of censorship and the Carlsbad Decisions in the first half of the 19th century (see also Cross-Reading ).

The refusal to rhyme can also serve humorous purposes, such as Rudi Carrell's song Goethe was good or works by Robert Gernhardt show.

example

The song of the good subject
Adolf Glaßbrenner (1810-1876)

I am a good subject, there is
no doubt about that,
my lord, that is a pious man,
oh if he were always with the dear people,
it would never get worse.

We have often saddened him,
but never lied to him,
he said that he loved us,
but he often affected us on actions that
he did not advise us to do.

The civil servants did right,
they safeguarded his rights,
and he was his dearest servant,
who leaned toward us very
happily and showed us pity.

The oath that he has taken, the
fulfillment of everything
that his duty in God's stead,
he wanted to keep in vain,
it should not have succeeded.

You police, who are there
to curb the wild people,
I would just like to
examine you once, yes, really from the heart and ask you
who can complain about you.

You knights of the Philistine,
and you learned ravens,
at the ancient peace court,
let yourselves be made to understand
how closely we guard you.

You monks, noble, black and white,
the happiness of the people, which evaporated,
will be the price of your constant effort,
for you are great teachers who are
suitable for schools and zealous converts.

You proud, you in Germany,
from the Rhine to Poland,
you are known to me through and through
, the cuckoo should announce old age to
you, wise heroes of peace.

The first three verses of each stanza follow in meter and rhyme scheme the common pattern of a Chevy Chase stanza, which is very often used in popular songs . In the fourth verse, however, this expectation is disappointed every time: According to the Chevy Chase pattern, it would only have to have three lifts and rhyme with the second verse . Instead, it is extended to five (or four) accents and introduces a whole new rhyming word that only rhymes with an appended fifth verse. The second verse is left as an orphan .

This unusual structure draws attention to verses 2 and 4 of each stanza. It turns out that the Chevy Chase pattern could be easily fulfilled. Even the right rhyming word has already begun in the third elevation of verse 4, but is not ended, but denied and bent into the new pattern. In verse 1, for example: Oh, he would be at the devil.

Individual evidence

  1. z. B. in Gernhardt's anthology Reim und Zeit, the refusal to rhyme in the poem "The Summer in Montaione " or in the "Confession":

    I suffer from fear of failure,
    especially when I write poetry.
    The fear that has already put
    many beautiful rhymes to shame for me .