bugarstice
is the name of a verse form sung

by Dalmatian shepherds to their sheep

as an instrument of forced conversion

or to calm them during the rigours

of drenching and cleansing. It is a formal

measure characterised by the obligatory

caesura after the seventh syllable

that echoes the halt at nightfall

of combats against Turk or Bulgarian

or the exhaustion of sated troubadours

after their “doux combats” with well-muscled

milkmaids. It is not to be confused

with the “bucolic diaeresis” that resulted

from excessive consumption of fermented

sour apples, the “Barnstaple tarantella”

of the famous passage from Chaucer.