GLOSS

      The form we have come to call the “Gloss” comes from the Spanish “Glosa,” which dates back five or six centuries. 
     The first part is called the text (texta or cabeza), and consists of a few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a famous poem. In more recent times, it has become permissible to use lines from the works of lesser known poets, even one’s own verse.

     The second part is called the “glose” or “glosa proper,” and is an expansion, interpretation, or explanation of the quoted text. The formal “glosa” consisted of four 10-line stanzas with one line from the text being used as the 10^th line.  This is called “the glossing.”  Also, in the formal version, lines 6 and 9 must rhyme with the borrowed 10^th.  Internal details (such as line length, meter, and rhyme) are at the discretion of the poet.   

       As with most poetic forms, poets have taken the liberty of varying from the classical form.  Thus, a student of poetry will find 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, or 8-line stanzas.  The example below uses 6-line stanzas.  Today we find examples of the gloss (glosa) done in free verse, or with rhythm, or with both rhythm and rhyme.   

       Bearing all of the above in mind, the examples shown here must be considered variations on the classical form.  Here's an example of the gloss, done by Dr. Emory Jones of Iuka, MS, which is found acceptable now. The format shown here is what we're following today.  Below that, I have added an outline of the form worked out by Michael R. (Mick) Denington, which you might find helpful. 

Heavenly Peace

(A gloss on the following lines:

 “O soft embalmer of the still midnight

Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,

Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower’d from the light,

            Enshaded in forgetfulness divine . . . . ”

                                    “’To Sleep" by John Keats) 

O soft embalmer of the still midnight,

How peacefully we lie beneath your white

And gentle hands.  You work your magic now,

We know, with soothing whispers and endow

With strength to take the approaching day’s delight,

O soft embalmer of the still midnight.

Shutting, with careful fingers and benign

The eyes too full of beauty to decline

Your old companion, the maker of pleasant dreams

Who shows each thing much better than it seems

By glaring day.  Soft hands, almost divine,

Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,

Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower’d from the light.

Within a pleasant garden of delight

We find ourselves enfolded in a pure

Fragrance of musky rose, a nightly cure

For heartaches we endure to stand upright.

Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower’d from the light,

Enshaded in forgetfulness divine,

Float inward.  There, our spirits find

A citadel secure from every foe

And we are made a part of the heavenly flow

That gently runs inside the heart sublime,

Enshaded in forgetfulness divine.

OUTLINE OF GLOSS FORMAT
     by Michael R. Denington

Title 

by

 (A Gloss on the following lines:
A¹

B¹

A²

B²

 “Title of Quoted Text” by [Author of Quoted Text]) 

A¹

a

c

c

a

A¹

B¹

b

d

d

b

B¹

a²

a

e

e

a

A²

B²

b

f

f

b

B²

Notes:

1) Rhymes c, d, and e are rhymes of the poet’s choice.

2) The Gloss should expound on theme and maintain meter of the quoted text.