March 09, 2004

Curious George: What do you call this kind of verse? Is there a general term for songs like "The 12 Days of Christmas" and poems like "The House That Jack Built", where each verse builds on the last? It seems like there should be some obvious answer, but I've asked a wide range of people (including a Ph.D. musicology student) and nobody seems to know.
posted by jacobw 20 years ago
  • I've heard it called "cumulative verse" but this may just be an informal term.
  • Repetitive verse is the term storytellers usually use, and I've also heard it clarified as Cumulative Repetative Verse. On preview, what verstegan said.
  • if that doesn't help you, we can always put our monkey brains together and develop a word for you. like, "songalingus." no, wait, that would be for a kinky song...
  • Trevor.
  • The 12 Days of Christmas would be called a comptine, or a "counting song" in French. Nearest English translation would be "nursery rhyme", which unfortunately doesn't really give the flavour of the thing.
  • In English we would call The 12 Days of Christmas free verse -- this is a neat link. In structure This Is the House That Jack Built is a series of rhymed couplets, with the exception of the introductory line, "This is the house that Jack built", which is also the final line of each repetition/stanza. And it's an instance of accumulative rhyme according to The Annotated Mother Goose.
  • Pox. ..."link"
  • In English we would call The 12 Days of Christmas free verse Even though it comes with music?