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Explore the Craft of Writing German Verse The Minnesang (Middle High German - minne = love) is the German courtly love poem of the 12th to 14th century. The German equivalent to the Provencal troubadors, the minnesingers were the writers and performers of the Minnesang. The verse was cultivated by the nobility, and often built around the theme of a brave knight's attempt to court a lady who doesn't return his favor. This stanzaic form was influenced by the Canzone and other poetic works that these poet-performers picked up in their travels. The Minnesang was meant to be sung but the melodies were not well documented and mostly only lyrics are left. The elements of the Minnesang are: stanzaic, written in uniform stanzas although the number of lines in the stanza per poem is variable, sixains were popular. metric, often iambic tetrameter with the last line of each stanza a longer Germanic line, iambic heptameter or octameter. rhymed, variable rhyme schemes were used, ababcc was common another was abbcaa dxd x being unrhymed. Here is the 1st 2 stanzas of a Minnesang written by Albrecht von Johansdorf and translated into English which I found at a website for Emory College. Ich vant âne huote die vil minneclîchen stân sâ dô sprach diu guote "waz welt ir sô eine her gegân?" "frouwe, ez ist alsô geschehen." "saget, war umbe sît ir her? des sult ir mir verjehen." I found my lady all alone, standing without a chaperone. She said, so only I could hear, "What do you think you're doing here?" "Dear Lady, I just happened by." "Don't lie to me, and don't hold back, but tell me why!" "Mînen senden kumber klage ich iu, vil liebe frouwe mîn." "wê, waz saget ir tumber? ir mugt iuwer klage wol lâzen sîn." "frouwe, ichn mac ir niht enbern." "sô wil ich in tûsent jâren niemer iuch gewern." "My pain and longing come from you; complain is all I ever do." "Alas, you stupid man, you'd best leave off complaining; let it rest." "Without you, Lady, I can't live." "My favors in a thousand years I'll never give." German and Austrian Poetic Forms: Bar Form Dinggedicht Golliardic Verse Knittelvers Minnesang Nibelungen Shuttelreim