Glosa

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A glosa (sometimes written glose or gloss in English) is a 15th-century Spanish poetic form popularized in the 21st century by Canadian poet P.K. Page.

Form
The glosa was originally a verse form, but now is written in free verse as well.

The glosa has two parts. The first part, called the text, texte, or cabeza, consists of lines (usually four) or a stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem. The poet does not write these lines, and is not free to alter them: he adds them, similarly to an epigraph, but as part of the poem's text. Also unlike an epigraph, (since the poem is purportedly well-known), the original poet and poem are not normally credited.

The second part of the poem is the gloss, or glosa proper. "The formal rule describes the glosa as consisting of four ten-line stanzas, with the consecutive lines of the texte being used as the tenth line (called the glossing) of each stanza. Furthermore, lines six and nine must rhyme with the borrowed tenth."

Poets have varied the form considerably over the years. A reader of glosas "will find 4-, 5- and 8-line [stanzas]. They will be found written in free verse, with meter, and with rhyme."

Variations include the placing of the lines of the text. "It can be the first line, the last line, or one inserted into the body of the stanza." One interesting variation is to use the lines of the text as both the first and last lines of each stanza in the gloss. "When the first line is repeated as the refrain at the end of a poem the stanza form is referred to as an Envelope."

History
The Glosa dates back to the late 14th or early 15th centuries, when it was composed at the Spanish court.