Palinode
A palinode is a poem that retracts, recants, reverses, or corrects something said in an earlier poem. It is a counter-song: a poem written against the poet’s own previous statement. A palinode may apologize, confess error, revise judgment, soften blame, reject praise, admit complexity, or show that time has changed the speaker’s understanding.

A palinode often includes: reversal, self-correction, apology, reconsideration, contradiction, moral humility, new evidence, changed feeling, or a second look at an earlier subject. It may be serious, comic, bitter, tender, philosophical, or satirical. The key feature is that the poem answers or undoes a prior poem or claim.

Here is an example of the first poem:

No-good Rooster

Tyrant of the yard,
red-throated bell of broken sleep.
I curse crown, claw, and guard,
your habit of waking the deep.

You, chasing my small son,
your beak, your spur, your wicked eye.
I wish your noisy reign was done,
your sunrise trumpet silenced dry.

You let no one cross the field,
low-bellied, red, and slick with fright.
You beat your wings, like weapons wield,
A foolish king, his masters fight.

To write a palinode, begin with something already said. The earlier statement may be real or invented. Decide what must now be taken back. Do not merely say “I was wrong.” Show how the speaker has changed. Let the poem carry both the old belief and the new understanding.

Palinode for the Rooster

I called you tyrant of the yard,
red-throated bell of broken sleep.
I cursed your crown, your claw, your guard,
your strut among the hens you keep.

But now the fox has crossed the field,
and half the hens are pressed in fright.
You stood your ground and would not yield,
a foolish trumpet turned to knight.

So take it back: my angry rhyme,
my muttered wish to see you gone.
Some noisy souls are right on time.
Some warnings have to come at dawn.

“Palinode for the Rooster” follows the palinode form by retracting an earlier judgment. The speaker first admits having mocked and cursed the rooster, then reverses that view after the rooster protects the yard. The poem becomes a correction of the speaker’s earlier complaint.

Palinode is a traditional poetic mode of recantation. A stricter palinode directly names or answers an earlier poem. A looser WoPoLian palinode may retract an attitude, childhood belief, accusation, love poem, complaint, political certainty, or praise that the speaker no longer trusts.