Friday, October 24, 2003
Week 3 Rhythm and Meter
Last week we moved from the first week's look at how to start writing (writing more often, regularly, in many places, at many different times of day-- reading a lot of poetry too) into a look at some of the sonic elements of our poems with special emphasis on sounds that are similar and repeated with an ear to enhancing those repititions so that the language could become more imaginative and thus a better vehicle for the darkness and blood within us. Tonight we'll continue looking at sonics but with an ear to the more formal aspects of rhyme and meter with further comments about line length, which we alluded to briefly last week.
Why care about meter?
You may not write much metrical poetry but the knowledge of it, the ability to recognize what you see/hear when you see/hear it will not only enable heightened appreciation of it but will enable you to employ parts of it in your own poetry, thus improving your imaginative language and making that language a better vehicle for your passionate ideas. This will help you recognize the architecture of the vision that brought you to the page. Sometimes that architecture may include metrical, stanzaic verse, sometimes not. Broadening your range of understanding will also broaden the available range of experssion.
What a poem says or means is the result of how it is said, a fact that poets are often at pains to emphasise. James Knapp
"All my life," said W. H. Auden,"I have been more interested in technique than anything else".
T. S. Eliot claimed that "the conscious problems with one is concerned in the actual writing are more those of a quasi-musical nature, in the arrangement of metric and pattern, than of a conscious exposition of ideas."
As with events, so is it with thoughts. When I watch that flowing river, which, out of regions I see not, pours for a season its streams into me, I see that I am a pensioner; not a cause, but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water; that I desire and look up, and put myself in the attitude of reception, but from some alien energy the visions come.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Over-Soul"
“It is not meters, but a meter-making argument, that makes a poem-a thought so passionate and alive that, like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Poet”
This does not mean that you are a technician, but it does mean that if you get the craft right (the study of the architecture of your vision) then the ideas will find their exposition. No artist in any medium is able to create her art without learning the basics. Additionally, the occasional line of metered verse can be a wonderful asset to an otherwise apparently unmetered poem. Furthermore, to paraphrase Eliot: Attention to the technique, the arrangement, the tools (all the sonic elements), the craft will enable the unconscious exposition of ideas, or rather, the unconcious exposition of your compelling idea or vision. When you are aware of metrical feet you will know as you write whether to end the line on a stressed or unstressed syllable, when to change the sound patterns for better effect, for heightened language. Remember, it is the nature of poetic language that makes poetry what it is.
**********************************
Types of Meter
Iambic...........u / ......... the Foot
Trochee ....... / u ........ Foot ing
Anapest........ u u /........on the Foot
Dactyl........../ u u ........Foot fall ing
Spondee....... / / ........ In Sensed
Pyrric ..........u u........ be gin
Units of Rhythm
Monometer
Each line is only one foot
It is a wonderful way to convey strength and meaning with its brevity and sense of isolation.
Step back!
Step back!
Step back!
I say.
No pain!
No pain!
No pain!
I pray
"Loves retreat"
In these two stanzas I think you can feel her pushing away her lover, step BACK and his anguish, no PAIN.
Dimeter (Two Feet).
Step back, step back
step back you say.
No pain, no pain
no pain I pray
Using exactly the same words this way, almost makes it as though he is taking it too lightly. So we can see how important choosing the right meter can be.
Perhaps one of the finest examples of Trimeter (Three Feet), is by Sir Walter Raleigh's.
The Lie
Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Sir Walter also give a fine example of Tetrameter (Four Feet) as well with:
The Nymph's Reply
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
The most popular poetic form of all has to be Pentameter (Five Feet) and the master of Iambic Pentameter in my opinion has to be Shakespeare and his Sonnet XVIII the most well known.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Hexameter (Six Feet).Also known as an Alexandrine.
A single Alexandrine is often used to present a resonant termination to a stanza as in Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain". In which the shape of the stanza suggests the Iceberg that is the subject of the poet. "The last oracle" by Swinburne is an example of trochaic hexameter.
Blank Verse
Blank Verse is constructed with unrhymed (therefore blank) Iambic Pentameters. No other verse form is able to convey the natural rhythm of spoken English or able to used for the various levels of speech. It is often used in dramatic monologues:
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
from "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Blank Verse was first used in English in Surrey's translation of Virgil's Aeneid. The most famous uses of Blank Verse (aside from that used by Shakespeare in his plays) were in Milton's Paradise Lost and Wordsworth's The Prelude.
Blank Verse is usually divided into verse paragraphs of varying length, though it can be used in stanzas of equal length, as in the following example:
Tears, Idle Tears
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise up in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
Regardless of how the Blank Verse is divided, the poems are of no set length. Any poet should read Paradise Lost. Also, to see an example of how perfectly Blank Verse can capture the rhythms of spoken English, read Shakespeare.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heroic Couplet
Two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter, so called for its use in the composition of epic poetry in the 17th and 18th centuries. In neo-classical usage the two lines were required to express a complete thought, thus a closed couplet, with a subordinate pause at the end of the first line. Heroic couplets are also often used for epigrams, such as Pope's:
You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come.
Knock as you please--there's nobody at home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ottava Rima
Originally Italian, a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse, rhyming abababcc. This verse form was used in Don Juan, by George Gordon, Lord Byron.
I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan,
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ode
An ode is a poem that is written for an occasion or on a particular subject. Originally they were a serious and dignified form but with modern societies irreverence, it has been the tool for comedians with a distinct low respect for propriety, morality, and dignity.
There are three distinct forms:
The first is the Pindaric Ode and is written in accentual-syllabic verse, the stanza length and rhyme scheme are determined by the poet. The poem is divided into three sections, first section the strophe, the second section the anti-strophe and the final section the stand or epode.
The second form of Ode is the English or Keatsian Ode and consists of three ten line Iambic Pentameter stanzas rhyming a. b. a. b. c. d. e. c. d. e..
Stanzas two and three have the same scheme but their own rhyme. Although Keats is credited for this form, he did not follow this form exactly and varied the rhyme forms.
The third form is the Horatian Odeand consists of number of nonce stanzas. An example of this form of Ode I found would be:
Ode to Myself
Just as Walt Whitman would say,
if he were with me today.....
For I have true love inside
Any egotisms have surely died.
The beautiful song that strives to be heard
this song is clearer than any songbird.
There is no reason to feel pity
for my God and his love is always with me.
And I will try to learn as much as I should,
knowing that there are no problems,
just oppurtunities to be good.
ITALIAN SONNET FORMS
Of the more precisely defined variations of the form that we have today, the oldest is the Italian Sonnet, also known as the Petrarchan Sonnet, after its creator, Francesco Petrarca. It had no set structure originally and it was only after it's adoption by the English that defined the Italian Sonnet to be of Iambic pentameter and consist of an octave, or 8-line stanza, followed by a sestet, or 6-line stanza.
The octave sets up a situation upon which the sestet comments. Alternatively, the octave makes a statement, the sestet a counter statement as in the following example by John Milton:
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."
There are three basic Italian Sonnet Forms;
Italian.
Sicilian and
Sonetto Rispetto.
The difference is in the octave.The octave is constructed of two quatrains.
The Italian has a rhyming scheme of, a.b.b.a....a.b.b.a.
The Sicilian has a rhyming scheme of, a.b.b.a....c.d.d.c.
The Sonetto Rispetto (or Ottava Rima Octave) is very different and has a rhyming scheme of a.b.a.b.a.b.c.c.
Each of these forms can also have a choice of two sestets, Italian and Sicilian:
The Italian sestet consists of two tercets (of 3 lines) with the rhyme scheme.. .1.2.3....1.2.3.
The Sicilian Sestet, has a rhyme scheme of .1.2.1.2.1.2.
This gives a permutation of six poetry forms. "Reflections in an Attic Room" by Wesley Court, gives excellent examples of the variations of these forms.
back to list
ENGLISH (SHAKESPEARIAN) SONNET
Gradually the Italian sonnet pattern was changed and since Shakespeare attained fame for the greatest poems of this modified type his name has often been given to the English form.
Instead of an octave and a sestet, a Shakespearian sonnet has three quatrains a.b.a.b....c.d.c.d....e.f.e.f. and a rhymed couplet. g.g.
Sonnet LXV
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! Where alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Times chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
back to list
SPENSERIAN SONNET
As a variation to the Shakespearean Sonnet, the Spenserian Sonnet combines both the Italian and the English forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, a.b.a.b....b.c.b.c....c.d.c.d....ee.
Twilight III
Twilight glimmers with unclaimed hopes and dreams
It is the dawn of night promising things to come
What love of day is not bettered by the moons beams
And reluctant newfound love easier to be won?
Often loves words are smothered by the light and sun
Yet freely given and warmly received at night.
Shyness is a curse, and words at night are easier won
So speak, your heart will guide your tongue what's right.
There you'll find your words will with love ignite
And come the dawn side by side you will lay
Your words of love no longer fearful of the light
And smile together still as united you greet the day.
Welcome the Sun, but be not afraid to watch it go
Be thankful knowing somewhere a love will grow.
Teagan De Danaan
back to list
KEATS SONNET
Another interesting variation to the English Sonnet form is the Keats sonnet. Here the meter is not specified and different type of feet other than Iambic are permitted, ie: Trochee, Spondee and Pyrrhic.
The rhyme scheme is .a.b.c..a.b.d..c.a.b..c.d.e..d.e.
VooDoo
The Witch of black magic, they think she's a fool
Wearing her black beads, and magical chimes
While chanting in her robe, and practicing voodoo
Inside of a circle, are candles and toodstools
Chanting and chanting, voodoo rhymes
You will fall in love, because of puppet and pins
Mixing her potions, with a dash of bamboo
Mixing into your tea, as she stands there and drools
Turning you into a zombie, in a matter of time
Dancing and playing, the tomboula drum too
She will put you in a trance, and will have you spin
You will be stalking the cemetery, in the dark of the night
While under black magic, you will smile and grin
Because you know it is better, then a vampires bite
Pat Bibbs
**********************************
Let's look at our own poems now. These poems are from the first two weeks, rewritten without a lot of guidance but hopefully reflective of some of the sonic devices we've discussed thus far and hopefully with some movement toward a clearer exposition of the powerful impulse in which the poem was conceived. Now, we'll look at each other's poems and look for a couple of specific things:
First; where are the sonic strengths in the poems? What sounds do we like the best? Why?
Second; Are there any extra words in the poems? This comes from the handout from session one on how to revise:
Let's play a couple of what-if games: What if this is re-written so that each line had four stresses? What if this is re-written so that each line had eight syllables? Do it right here, right now. Then read the new version. What changed? How is the poem/stanza/line improved? How is it hurt?
When you compress, you demand more of the sonic elements because there are fewer. If the poem is enamored of its own sonic devices at the expense of compression it loses its impetus. The metrical elements will be more recognizable in the compressed poem. Their impact will be more readily understood.
*************************************
Last week we moved from the first week's look at how to start writing (writing more often, regularly, in many places, at many different times of day-- reading a lot of poetry too) into a look at some of the sonic elements of our poems with special emphasis on sounds that are similar and repeated with an ear to enhancing those repititions so that the language could become more imaginative and thus a better vehicle for the darkness and blood within us. Tonight we'll continue looking at sonics but with an ear to the more formal aspects of rhyme and meter with further comments about line length, which we alluded to briefly last week.
Why care about meter?
You may not write much metrical poetry but the knowledge of it, the ability to recognize what you see/hear when you see/hear it will not only enable heightened appreciation of it but will enable you to employ parts of it in your own poetry, thus improving your imaginative language and making that language a better vehicle for your passionate ideas. This will help you recognize the architecture of the vision that brought you to the page. Sometimes that architecture may include metrical, stanzaic verse, sometimes not. Broadening your range of understanding will also broaden the available range of experssion.
What a poem says or means is the result of how it is said, a fact that poets are often at pains to emphasise. James Knapp
"All my life," said W. H. Auden,"I have been more interested in technique than anything else".
T. S. Eliot claimed that "the conscious problems with one is concerned in the actual writing are more those of a quasi-musical nature, in the arrangement of metric and pattern, than of a conscious exposition of ideas."
As with events, so is it with thoughts. When I watch that flowing river, which, out of regions I see not, pours for a season its streams into me, I see that I am a pensioner; not a cause, but a surprised spectator of this ethereal water; that I desire and look up, and put myself in the attitude of reception, but from some alien energy the visions come.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Over-Soul"
“It is not meters, but a meter-making argument, that makes a poem-a thought so passionate and alive that, like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Poet”
This does not mean that you are a technician, but it does mean that if you get the craft right (the study of the architecture of your vision) then the ideas will find their exposition. No artist in any medium is able to create her art without learning the basics. Additionally, the occasional line of metered verse can be a wonderful asset to an otherwise apparently unmetered poem. Furthermore, to paraphrase Eliot: Attention to the technique, the arrangement, the tools (all the sonic elements), the craft will enable the unconscious exposition of ideas, or rather, the unconcious exposition of your compelling idea or vision. When you are aware of metrical feet you will know as you write whether to end the line on a stressed or unstressed syllable, when to change the sound patterns for better effect, for heightened language. Remember, it is the nature of poetic language that makes poetry what it is.
**********************************
Types of Meter
Iambic...........u / ......... the Foot
Trochee ....... / u ........ Foot ing
Anapest........ u u /........on the Foot
Dactyl........../ u u ........Foot fall ing
Spondee....... / / ........ In Sensed
Pyrric ..........u u........ be gin
Units of Rhythm
Monometer
Each line is only one foot
It is a wonderful way to convey strength and meaning with its brevity and sense of isolation.
Step back!
Step back!
Step back!
I say.
No pain!
No pain!
No pain!
I pray
"Loves retreat"
In these two stanzas I think you can feel her pushing away her lover, step BACK and his anguish, no PAIN.
Dimeter (Two Feet).
Step back, step back
step back you say.
No pain, no pain
no pain I pray
Using exactly the same words this way, almost makes it as though he is taking it too lightly. So we can see how important choosing the right meter can be.
Perhaps one of the finest examples of Trimeter (Three Feet), is by Sir Walter Raleigh's.
The Lie
Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
Say to the court, it glows
And shines like rotten wood;
Say to the church, it shows
What's good, and doth no good:
If church and court reply,
Then give them both the lie.
Sir Walter also give a fine example of Tetrameter (Four Feet) as well with:
The Nymph's Reply
If all the world and love were young,
And truth in every shepherd's tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me move
To live with thee and be thy love.
Time drives the flocks from field to fold,
When rivers rage and rocks grow cold,
And Philomel becometh dumb;
The rest complains of cares to come.
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields
To wayward winter reckoning yields;
A honey tongue, a heart of gall,
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall.
The most popular poetic form of all has to be Pentameter (Five Feet) and the master of Iambic Pentameter in my opinion has to be Shakespeare and his Sonnet XVIII the most well known.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Hexameter (Six Feet).Also known as an Alexandrine.
A single Alexandrine is often used to present a resonant termination to a stanza as in Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain". In which the shape of the stanza suggests the Iceberg that is the subject of the poet. "The last oracle" by Swinburne is an example of trochaic hexameter.
Blank Verse
Blank Verse is constructed with unrhymed (therefore blank) Iambic Pentameters. No other verse form is able to convey the natural rhythm of spoken English or able to used for the various levels of speech. It is often used in dramatic monologues:
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
from "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Blank Verse was first used in English in Surrey's translation of Virgil's Aeneid. The most famous uses of Blank Verse (aside from that used by Shakespeare in his plays) were in Milton's Paradise Lost and Wordsworth's The Prelude.
Blank Verse is usually divided into verse paragraphs of varying length, though it can be used in stanzas of equal length, as in the following example:
Tears, Idle Tears
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise up in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!
Regardless of how the Blank Verse is divided, the poems are of no set length. Any poet should read Paradise Lost. Also, to see an example of how perfectly Blank Verse can capture the rhythms of spoken English, read Shakespeare.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heroic Couplet
Two successive lines of rhymed poetry in iambic pentameter, so called for its use in the composition of epic poetry in the 17th and 18th centuries. In neo-classical usage the two lines were required to express a complete thought, thus a closed couplet, with a subordinate pause at the end of the first line. Heroic couplets are also often used for epigrams, such as Pope's:
You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come.
Knock as you please--there's nobody at home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ottava Rima
Originally Italian, a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse, rhyming abababcc. This verse form was used in Don Juan, by George Gordon, Lord Byron.
I want a hero: an uncommon want,
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one;
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan,
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ode
An ode is a poem that is written for an occasion or on a particular subject. Originally they were a serious and dignified form but with modern societies irreverence, it has been the tool for comedians with a distinct low respect for propriety, morality, and dignity.
There are three distinct forms:
The first is the Pindaric Ode and is written in accentual-syllabic verse, the stanza length and rhyme scheme are determined by the poet. The poem is divided into three sections, first section the strophe, the second section the anti-strophe and the final section the stand or epode.
The second form of Ode is the English or Keatsian Ode and consists of three ten line Iambic Pentameter stanzas rhyming a. b. a. b. c. d. e. c. d. e..
Stanzas two and three have the same scheme but their own rhyme. Although Keats is credited for this form, he did not follow this form exactly and varied the rhyme forms.
The third form is the Horatian Odeand consists of number of nonce stanzas. An example of this form of Ode I found would be:
Ode to Myself
Just as Walt Whitman would say,
if he were with me today.....
For I have true love inside
Any egotisms have surely died.
The beautiful song that strives to be heard
this song is clearer than any songbird.
There is no reason to feel pity
for my God and his love is always with me.
And I will try to learn as much as I should,
knowing that there are no problems,
just oppurtunities to be good.
ITALIAN SONNET FORMS
Of the more precisely defined variations of the form that we have today, the oldest is the Italian Sonnet, also known as the Petrarchan Sonnet, after its creator, Francesco Petrarca. It had no set structure originally and it was only after it's adoption by the English that defined the Italian Sonnet to be of Iambic pentameter and consist of an octave, or 8-line stanza, followed by a sestet, or 6-line stanza.
The octave sets up a situation upon which the sestet comments. Alternatively, the octave makes a statement, the sestet a counter statement as in the following example by John Milton:
When I Consider How My Light Is Spent
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."
There are three basic Italian Sonnet Forms;
Italian.
Sicilian and
Sonetto Rispetto.
The difference is in the octave.The octave is constructed of two quatrains.
The Italian has a rhyming scheme of, a.b.b.a....a.b.b.a.
The Sicilian has a rhyming scheme of, a.b.b.a....c.d.d.c.
The Sonetto Rispetto (or Ottava Rima Octave) is very different and has a rhyming scheme of a.b.a.b.a.b.c.c.
Each of these forms can also have a choice of two sestets, Italian and Sicilian:
The Italian sestet consists of two tercets (of 3 lines) with the rhyme scheme.. .1.2.3....1.2.3.
The Sicilian Sestet, has a rhyme scheme of .1.2.1.2.1.2.
This gives a permutation of six poetry forms. "Reflections in an Attic Room" by Wesley Court, gives excellent examples of the variations of these forms.
back to list
ENGLISH (SHAKESPEARIAN) SONNET
Gradually the Italian sonnet pattern was changed and since Shakespeare attained fame for the greatest poems of this modified type his name has often been given to the English form.
Instead of an octave and a sestet, a Shakespearian sonnet has three quatrains a.b.a.b....c.d.c.d....e.f.e.f. and a rhymed couplet. g.g.
Sonnet LXV
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
But sad mortality o'er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
Against the wreckful siege of battering days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! Where alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Times chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.
back to list
SPENSERIAN SONNET
As a variation to the Shakespearean Sonnet, the Spenserian Sonnet combines both the Italian and the English forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, a.b.a.b....b.c.b.c....c.d.c.d....ee.
Twilight III
Twilight glimmers with unclaimed hopes and dreams
It is the dawn of night promising things to come
What love of day is not bettered by the moons beams
And reluctant newfound love easier to be won?
Often loves words are smothered by the light and sun
Yet freely given and warmly received at night.
Shyness is a curse, and words at night are easier won
So speak, your heart will guide your tongue what's right.
There you'll find your words will with love ignite
And come the dawn side by side you will lay
Your words of love no longer fearful of the light
And smile together still as united you greet the day.
Welcome the Sun, but be not afraid to watch it go
Be thankful knowing somewhere a love will grow.
Teagan De Danaan
back to list
KEATS SONNET
Another interesting variation to the English Sonnet form is the Keats sonnet. Here the meter is not specified and different type of feet other than Iambic are permitted, ie: Trochee, Spondee and Pyrrhic.
The rhyme scheme is .a.b.c..a.b.d..c.a.b..c.d.e..d.e.
VooDoo
The Witch of black magic, they think she's a fool
Wearing her black beads, and magical chimes
While chanting in her robe, and practicing voodoo
Inside of a circle, are candles and toodstools
Chanting and chanting, voodoo rhymes
You will fall in love, because of puppet and pins
Mixing her potions, with a dash of bamboo
Mixing into your tea, as she stands there and drools
Turning you into a zombie, in a matter of time
Dancing and playing, the tomboula drum too
She will put you in a trance, and will have you spin
You will be stalking the cemetery, in the dark of the night
While under black magic, you will smile and grin
Because you know it is better, then a vampires bite
Pat Bibbs
**********************************
Let's look at our own poems now. These poems are from the first two weeks, rewritten without a lot of guidance but hopefully reflective of some of the sonic devices we've discussed thus far and hopefully with some movement toward a clearer exposition of the powerful impulse in which the poem was conceived. Now, we'll look at each other's poems and look for a couple of specific things:
First; where are the sonic strengths in the poems? What sounds do we like the best? Why?
Second; Are there any extra words in the poems? This comes from the handout from session one on how to revise:
Let's play a couple of what-if games: What if this is re-written so that each line had four stresses? What if this is re-written so that each line had eight syllables? Do it right here, right now. Then read the new version. What changed? How is the poem/stanza/line improved? How is it hurt?
When you compress, you demand more of the sonic elements because there are fewer. If the poem is enamored of its own sonic devices at the expense of compression it loses its impetus. The metrical elements will be more recognizable in the compressed poem. Their impact will be more readily understood.
*************************************
Week 2, Sonics
Sit in different seats
We didn't take a break last time. Would you like to break for 5 mins or is it okay to continue straight from beginning to end?
Have you been writing? Have you been reading?
Sound is what makes the poem physical. We here it, we speak it, we feel it as we speak it.
We speak now of the lyric textures of the poem as opposed to the narrative textures.
What are the tests we give our poems on order to discern where the lyric textures need strengthening, clarification?
Copies of Thomas, Lux, Hopkins, Dickinson (with and without hyphens), Frost,
What question is this the answer to?
Next time bring copies of your poem for everybody.
***********************************
Last meeting we looked at how to get started:
Write often and regularly
Learn to write in many circumstances-- Dr's office, at work, at home with others around
Steal language
Learn to accelerate the mental ramp-up into the creative zone
Read a lot of poetry
Find your way into the "darkness and blood"
This week we will examine sonics, the sounds of poetry and how to manipulate them and how they relate to our writing process as we began examining it last week
Writing often and regularly makes it easier to access the zone.
***************************************
Look at the poems just read for references during this lecture
Sonics. How do they advance the poem?
Language becomes physical when it is spoken. It is sensible when it is heard. Sound is characteristic of music which communicates without being encoded into words. Language has sound that communicates before and without being understood, that conveys a feeling without being understood.
"Oh as I was young and easy under the apple boughs/about the lilting house and happy as the grass was green/the night above the dingle starry"
Notice the repeated sounds: Oh, bough, house-- young, un(der),above--boughs, about, house--as, and, app(le),and, happy, as, grass-- (liltin)g, grass,green, (din)gle
Now look at the stresses:
Nearly iambic, definitely rhythmic.
Hopkins: "I saw this morning morning's minion/dapple-drawn fawn..."
28 words, almost as many connections
Now look at the meanings: young, easy, lilting, happy, green--
but: was, apple (Eden, both good and bad) and starry night (awe)
These connections were not accidental. Dylan Thomas labored for hours over a single semicolon, not simply because of the grammar but because of the length of pause it called for and whether it was right as opposed to a hyphen, a period, a colon or no punctuation whatever. Emily Dickenson placed her hyphens with such care that, short as her poems were, she labored decades over single poems. Her poems were first published without the hyphens, the editor e.iminating them. Oddly, if you remove the hyphens, many of the poems are perfectly iambic, something contemporary readers are unaware of. The hyphens change the sonic texture of the poems completely and the meaning and emphasis change just as much by way of this manipulation. So too with rhyme, slant rhyme, near rhyme, alliteration, consonnance, internal rhyme-- all the sounds in the poem.
There is a great deal of sound natural to the language. English is neatly and naturally basically iambic. Winston Churchill's speeches exemplify this-- "Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old." June 4, 1940, address to the House of Commons.
With only twenty-six letters to the alphabet and surprisingly few true rhyming sounds we naturally repeat sounds all the time. The poet, however, heightens language by manipulating sounds in support of imaginative expression.
{FROM HERE READ THE BEGINNING POEMS AND EXAMINE THEIR SONIC CONNECTIONS. BRING COPIES. HAVE EACH STUDENT READ THEIR OWN POEMS, THEN SWAP AND EACH LOOK FOR CONNECTIONS IN THE POEM SHE/HE HAS. NEXT TIME, BRING COPIES FOR ALL OF US. EACH CLASS, PLEASE BRING ALL THE STUDENTS' POEMS FROM THE PRIOR CLASSES.}
As you heighten your awareness of these aspects, and any others, of the craft you will naturally come to use them as you write your drafts and as you revise your poems. They will become part of the subconscious knowledge pool which informs your creativity. They will also become part of the conscious knowledge pool informing your creativity. You will find yourself making better word choices, extending your imaginative reach more quickly and getting the true poem onto the paper with less dross.
The other half of the sonic texturing of your poem comes from what happens when you enter your creative zone. Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay "The Poet" speaks of meter-making argument. “It is not meters, but a meter-making argument, that makes a poem-a thought so passionate and alive that, like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Poet”
This is why we write, as Sharon indicated last week. The poet is charged with revealing this architecture. Shirley's poem last week left its architecture in Shirley, as evidenced by her body language which was far more emphatic than the poem. Amy's poem asserted a sense of being lost but did not invite us to be lost with her. How to do this? Engage the architecture of your loss, the real stuff of it. In the particular is the universal. Give us the particulars of it as they are located in the architecture of your passion. This architecture is unique to you. What you gave us is the fact of loss without inviting us to discover our own sense of loss within your expression of it. A sense of loss relies upon a whole lot of information about what it is to be found. What will you gain by being found? How will it change the way you open the refrigerator door, what you will find there, how you will eat, the kind of dog you'll buy next, the life of the doll you cannot find? What have you lost by being lost? It's the same question for Sharon, Sam and Shirley. Detailed as Shirley's poem was, the specifics paled next to the anguish evident in her reading.
{It is not magical-- there is no magic bullet. It is readier access to one of the basic tools of the art.}
This architecture comes able to make use of all the writing tools we own, consciously or subconsciously, so that when we set about our poems we can write to the extent that we are ready to. Learning the sonics of the craft, being aware of them, will support us when we're in the zone, yielding better original drafts, getting us more quickly into the truth we know we felt in that impulse to write.
{THE REVISION IS PART OF DISCOVERING THAT WE ARE NOT THE SAME ANY MORE AND SO THE VISION OF THE POEM IS CHANGED AND DISCOVERING THAT THE VISION WE HAD OF THE POEM IS NOT THE POEM'S VISION OF ITSELF. THEREFORE, REVISION IS POSSIBLE SINCE, ALTHOUGH WE SEE IT ANEW, WE ARE IN SERVICE TO ITS VISION OF ITSELF.}
Another aspect of sonics is layout, not only in the grammatical specifics as referenced earlier in the poems of Emily Dickenson and Dylan Thomas, but as in whether the poem is left justified, centered, etc. Dot's poems are always centered. This is not an accident.
{Don't forget to look at rhyme and metrical schemes as sonic devices. Rhyme and meter traditionally used to make poetry memorable because their sonic impact is unforgettable.}
{Look too at enjambment as a sonic device, end stopped lines as a sonic device, all punctuation as a sonic device, line length, breath.)
************************************
As you become aware of and practice using the sonic intelligence available to you you will discover yourself choosing words not just for their denotations and connotations but also for their sonic meaning. This sonic intelligence adds to the native intelligence and helps bring into focus the architecture within the impetus that compels you to write the poem. Another way to put this is that using the tools you can write the poem that rocks within you. It takes practice. If you want to write you must write. If you want to write you must read.
Some software for writers:
Text-to-speech. It's good to hear your own words, even in electronic voice because the electronic voices are without bias. The glaring things will come out. Also have another person read your poem aloud so you know what it sounds like. The poem is not complete until it reaches its audience. If your reader trips, the poem probably trips.
Sit in different seats
We didn't take a break last time. Would you like to break for 5 mins or is it okay to continue straight from beginning to end?
Have you been writing? Have you been reading?
Sound is what makes the poem physical. We here it, we speak it, we feel it as we speak it.
We speak now of the lyric textures of the poem as opposed to the narrative textures.
What are the tests we give our poems on order to discern where the lyric textures need strengthening, clarification?
Copies of Thomas, Lux, Hopkins, Dickinson (with and without hyphens), Frost,
What question is this the answer to?
Next time bring copies of your poem for everybody.
***********************************
Last meeting we looked at how to get started:
Write often and regularly
Learn to write in many circumstances-- Dr's office, at work, at home with others around
Steal language
Learn to accelerate the mental ramp-up into the creative zone
Read a lot of poetry
Find your way into the "darkness and blood"
This week we will examine sonics, the sounds of poetry and how to manipulate them and how they relate to our writing process as we began examining it last week
Writing often and regularly makes it easier to access the zone.
***************************************
Look at the poems just read for references during this lecture
Sonics. How do they advance the poem?
Language becomes physical when it is spoken. It is sensible when it is heard. Sound is characteristic of music which communicates without being encoded into words. Language has sound that communicates before and without being understood, that conveys a feeling without being understood.
"Oh as I was young and easy under the apple boughs/about the lilting house and happy as the grass was green/the night above the dingle starry"
Notice the repeated sounds: Oh, bough, house-- young, un(der),above--boughs, about, house--as, and, app(le),and, happy, as, grass-- (liltin)g, grass,green, (din)gle
Now look at the stresses:
Nearly iambic, definitely rhythmic.
Hopkins: "I saw this morning morning's minion/dapple-drawn fawn..."
28 words, almost as many connections
Now look at the meanings: young, easy, lilting, happy, green--
but: was, apple (Eden, both good and bad) and starry night (awe)
These connections were not accidental. Dylan Thomas labored for hours over a single semicolon, not simply because of the grammar but because of the length of pause it called for and whether it was right as opposed to a hyphen, a period, a colon or no punctuation whatever. Emily Dickenson placed her hyphens with such care that, short as her poems were, she labored decades over single poems. Her poems were first published without the hyphens, the editor e.iminating them. Oddly, if you remove the hyphens, many of the poems are perfectly iambic, something contemporary readers are unaware of. The hyphens change the sonic texture of the poems completely and the meaning and emphasis change just as much by way of this manipulation. So too with rhyme, slant rhyme, near rhyme, alliteration, consonnance, internal rhyme-- all the sounds in the poem.
There is a great deal of sound natural to the language. English is neatly and naturally basically iambic. Winston Churchill's speeches exemplify this-- "Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old." June 4, 1940, address to the House of Commons.
With only twenty-six letters to the alphabet and surprisingly few true rhyming sounds we naturally repeat sounds all the time. The poet, however, heightens language by manipulating sounds in support of imaginative expression.
{FROM HERE READ THE BEGINNING POEMS AND EXAMINE THEIR SONIC CONNECTIONS. BRING COPIES. HAVE EACH STUDENT READ THEIR OWN POEMS, THEN SWAP AND EACH LOOK FOR CONNECTIONS IN THE POEM SHE/HE HAS. NEXT TIME, BRING COPIES FOR ALL OF US. EACH CLASS, PLEASE BRING ALL THE STUDENTS' POEMS FROM THE PRIOR CLASSES.}
As you heighten your awareness of these aspects, and any others, of the craft you will naturally come to use them as you write your drafts and as you revise your poems. They will become part of the subconscious knowledge pool which informs your creativity. They will also become part of the conscious knowledge pool informing your creativity. You will find yourself making better word choices, extending your imaginative reach more quickly and getting the true poem onto the paper with less dross.
The other half of the sonic texturing of your poem comes from what happens when you enter your creative zone. Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay "The Poet" speaks of meter-making argument. “It is not meters, but a meter-making argument, that makes a poem-a thought so passionate and alive that, like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Poet”
This is why we write, as Sharon indicated last week. The poet is charged with revealing this architecture. Shirley's poem last week left its architecture in Shirley, as evidenced by her body language which was far more emphatic than the poem. Amy's poem asserted a sense of being lost but did not invite us to be lost with her. How to do this? Engage the architecture of your loss, the real stuff of it. In the particular is the universal. Give us the particulars of it as they are located in the architecture of your passion. This architecture is unique to you. What you gave us is the fact of loss without inviting us to discover our own sense of loss within your expression of it. A sense of loss relies upon a whole lot of information about what it is to be found. What will you gain by being found? How will it change the way you open the refrigerator door, what you will find there, how you will eat, the kind of dog you'll buy next, the life of the doll you cannot find? What have you lost by being lost? It's the same question for Sharon, Sam and Shirley. Detailed as Shirley's poem was, the specifics paled next to the anguish evident in her reading.
{It is not magical-- there is no magic bullet. It is readier access to one of the basic tools of the art.}
This architecture comes able to make use of all the writing tools we own, consciously or subconsciously, so that when we set about our poems we can write to the extent that we are ready to. Learning the sonics of the craft, being aware of them, will support us when we're in the zone, yielding better original drafts, getting us more quickly into the truth we know we felt in that impulse to write.
{THE REVISION IS PART OF DISCOVERING THAT WE ARE NOT THE SAME ANY MORE AND SO THE VISION OF THE POEM IS CHANGED AND DISCOVERING THAT THE VISION WE HAD OF THE POEM IS NOT THE POEM'S VISION OF ITSELF. THEREFORE, REVISION IS POSSIBLE SINCE, ALTHOUGH WE SEE IT ANEW, WE ARE IN SERVICE TO ITS VISION OF ITSELF.}
Another aspect of sonics is layout, not only in the grammatical specifics as referenced earlier in the poems of Emily Dickenson and Dylan Thomas, but as in whether the poem is left justified, centered, etc. Dot's poems are always centered. This is not an accident.
{Don't forget to look at rhyme and metrical schemes as sonic devices. Rhyme and meter traditionally used to make poetry memorable because their sonic impact is unforgettable.}
{Look too at enjambment as a sonic device, end stopped lines as a sonic device, all punctuation as a sonic device, line length, breath.)
************************************
As you become aware of and practice using the sonic intelligence available to you you will discover yourself choosing words not just for their denotations and connotations but also for their sonic meaning. This sonic intelligence adds to the native intelligence and helps bring into focus the architecture within the impetus that compels you to write the poem. Another way to put this is that using the tools you can write the poem that rocks within you. It takes practice. If you want to write you must write. If you want to write you must read.
Some software for writers:
Text-to-speech. It's good to hear your own words, even in electronic voice because the electronic voices are without bias. The glaring things will come out. Also have another person read your poem aloud so you know what it sounds like. The poem is not complete until it reaches its audience. If your reader trips, the poem probably trips.
Week 1, Getting Started
I don’t really have any advice, other than to say it’s the most appallingly difficult thing I’ve ever tried to do and I wish I had a better idea of how to do it. In my experience what you end up with is the by-product of your failure to achieve what you set out to do. It may turn out OK, but it wasn’t what you meant and you’ve no idea how you got there. -Douglas Adams, on writing
Write hard and clear about what hurts. -Ernest Hemingway
Poetry begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. -Robert Frost
Use these last two in the MCC course
While reading the poems in the books, make note of 5 moments you felt a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, homesickness, loneliness or were prompted to think of such things. Write down what in you responded to that moment in the poem.
Bring a book of poems for each student. Have each student read his/her own poem. Then have each student read a poem selected from the book.
Reading will give the feel, the physicality of the poems, will bring them into the readers.
While listening to the poems, make mental notes of what stands out, what is memorable.
After the poems are read, then take a moment to write down those things you found memorable. We'll come back to them later.
What are the differences between the poems?
How do we get to those poems from our poems?
The process begins with the first drafts.
Now go into the lecture.
BH Fairchild
Ellen Bryant Voight
John Berryman
Dianne Lockward
Baron Wormser
Galway Kinnell
Laure-anne Boeselaar
Wesley McNair
Cynthia Huntington
William Matthews
**************************************
The goal of this course is to make you a better poet. We will discuss aspects of craft and art. More importantly, we'll discuss the process of writing. What goes on and how do we do it? How do we get more efficient at it? How do we let the poem go to become what it wants rather than what we think it ought to be. We'll look at our individual ways and try to streamline them. Why do we choose particular forms? What are the rules? What are the rules of free verse? During the course of the course we'll meet a lot of poets and poems since to write poetry is to read poetry.
How do you begin to write?
Journal
Notes
Location, surroundings
Mental exercises a la Marilyn Nelson
Learn to write everywhere
Steal language
Drs office
Optometrist's office
Jiffy Lube
Other writers
I write usually early in the morning. William Stafford was an advocate of this. I also try to write at various times of the day just to prove that I can. Also, if writing at unusual locations you might be able to steal vocabulary-- optometrist's office, ear nose and throat guy, garage, emissions stations-- How about "the orbit of the eye" or "fugitive dust" or "purchaseable illnesses"?
To start I simply let my mind wander blankly like a scavenging fish. Sometimes it spots something that went on in life, overnight in a dream, a truck that goes by with a dog hanging out the back and barking, the lady across the street getting the paper. Once the mind is at rest with a piece of interest it will deliver connections if you let it. The goal is to let the mind go and then receive all that it will give without censoring. This part is like falling in love and the product should be treated as you would treat a lover. Let reality come later, as in love.
Molly Peacock-- write a poem a week for a year then pick the half-dozen good ones and work them.
James Tate-- Write 3 hrs three times a week. If you can't get a good draft in two sittings throw it away and start a new one. Did you ever know of a pianist who didn't practice? This is a job. Work at it.
"Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. .. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better." John Updike
COPIES OF THIS SECTION
1. Cliché
Eliminate clichés, which are the vermin of imaginative writing. Initially fresh images, clichés have been taken over and made mundane by too frequent usage. They have lost their original authority, power, and beauty. They raise their predictable heads (aaah, a cliché!) in the early drafts of even the most experienced writers. Turning a cliché against itself by intentionally using it in an inverted form can revive it. Puns can give a cliché a renewed life. However, if a poem is merely going to repeat a cliché, cut it.
2. Abstract
Identify all abstract or general nouns and replace them with concrete or specific ones. Words like "love," "freedom," "pain," "sadness," "anger," and other emotions and ideas need to be channeled through the physical imagery of the five senses: Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste (SSSTT). Creating original metaphors is the most difficult part of poetry writing, not just for beginners, but for those who have been working with words for years. This, however, is what makes a poem distinctive and interesting.
3. Verbs
Fortify the physical character of the poem by using strong action verbs instead of linking verbs in the passive voice. Because active verbs and concrete nouns are more visceral, dynamic, and persuasive, they reduce the need for modifiers. Avoid overusing the "-ing" form of verbs because it dilutes and reduces their strength. It is like driving a speedboat without raising the anchor.
4. Compress
Cut, compress, and condense! Imagine that you must pay your reader a dollar a word to read your prose. Naturally, you will want to use few words to say as much as possible. Then, imagine that you must pay your reader five dollars a word to read your poetry. Compress, especially when the progress of the poem is impeded by imprecise or indecisive language. Try the following experiment. Put a gob of frozen orange juice on your tongue. This pure, concentrated slush, without any liquid to dilute its sweet potency, is so pungent it stings. Make your poem like that. Cut everything that can be cut until what's left penetrates the flesh with its sweet, burning flavor.
5. Risk
Be daring in your writing. Experiment and take chances. Risk-taking adds originality and spontaneity to the poem, which leads to imaginative and linguistic breakthroughs. Read a wide variety of contemporary poets so that you will begin to understand the breadth of poetry's language and modern imagination. You will also become more conscious of its many voices. You cannot mature as a poet unless you read widely. If you refuse to read, you refuse to grow.
*************************************
In this part we'll read our poems (giving me a copy) and set the course for how we'll look at one another's work.
First we want to know where the poem rocks. Then we want to know where the poem promises to rock us further but lets us down a bit.
Let's start the editing process now although we'll be discussing it further later on in the course. Editing begins with the next word you write.
Every extra word in a poem is worth $5 to be paid by the author to each of the readers. I want to know how much you think each reader owes us. Weigh each word carefully.
Rules: Be precise and do not bore me.
***************************************
We've gotten a good start at how to begin a poem and looked at our new poems for the rocking parts that are and that can be. Next time we'll look at how to rock by adding sonic texture to these same poems, that is how to apply the craft to the raw material to make it become real poetry.
Books to look for:
The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo
Go to Borders and read books of poems there. Find several you may like, take them to the coffee shop and read for half an hour. Make notes about one or two poems you like, copy them, memorize them, buy the book, see if you actually spent more time than you thought. Steal something from the poems you read. Steal a line from a poem, a title, a phrase that triggers something in you.
For the next time, begin a poem of your own by reflecting on the notes you made about what was memorable in the opening poems. Make it a genuine personal reflection, not a commentary on the poem. We want to hear the voice in you that responded.
Keep your notes, journal, etc....
I don’t really have any advice, other than to say it’s the most appallingly difficult thing I’ve ever tried to do and I wish I had a better idea of how to do it. In my experience what you end up with is the by-product of your failure to achieve what you set out to do. It may turn out OK, but it wasn’t what you meant and you’ve no idea how you got there. -Douglas Adams, on writing
Write hard and clear about what hurts. -Ernest Hemingway
Poetry begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a loneliness. -Robert Frost
Use these last two in the MCC course
While reading the poems in the books, make note of 5 moments you felt a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, homesickness, loneliness or were prompted to think of such things. Write down what in you responded to that moment in the poem.
Bring a book of poems for each student. Have each student read his/her own poem. Then have each student read a poem selected from the book.
Reading will give the feel, the physicality of the poems, will bring them into the readers.
While listening to the poems, make mental notes of what stands out, what is memorable.
After the poems are read, then take a moment to write down those things you found memorable. We'll come back to them later.
What are the differences between the poems?
How do we get to those poems from our poems?
The process begins with the first drafts.
Now go into the lecture.
BH Fairchild
Ellen Bryant Voight
John Berryman
Dianne Lockward
Baron Wormser
Galway Kinnell
Laure-anne Boeselaar
Wesley McNair
Cynthia Huntington
William Matthews
**************************************
The goal of this course is to make you a better poet. We will discuss aspects of craft and art. More importantly, we'll discuss the process of writing. What goes on and how do we do it? How do we get more efficient at it? How do we let the poem go to become what it wants rather than what we think it ought to be. We'll look at our individual ways and try to streamline them. Why do we choose particular forms? What are the rules? What are the rules of free verse? During the course of the course we'll meet a lot of poets and poems since to write poetry is to read poetry.
How do you begin to write?
Journal
Notes
Location, surroundings
Mental exercises a la Marilyn Nelson
Learn to write everywhere
Steal language
Drs office
Optometrist's office
Jiffy Lube
Other writers
I write usually early in the morning. William Stafford was an advocate of this. I also try to write at various times of the day just to prove that I can. Also, if writing at unusual locations you might be able to steal vocabulary-- optometrist's office, ear nose and throat guy, garage, emissions stations-- How about "the orbit of the eye" or "fugitive dust" or "purchaseable illnesses"?
To start I simply let my mind wander blankly like a scavenging fish. Sometimes it spots something that went on in life, overnight in a dream, a truck that goes by with a dog hanging out the back and barking, the lady across the street getting the paper. Once the mind is at rest with a piece of interest it will deliver connections if you let it. The goal is to let the mind go and then receive all that it will give without censoring. This part is like falling in love and the product should be treated as you would treat a lover. Let reality come later, as in love.
Molly Peacock-- write a poem a week for a year then pick the half-dozen good ones and work them.
James Tate-- Write 3 hrs three times a week. If you can't get a good draft in two sittings throw it away and start a new one. Did you ever know of a pianist who didn't practice? This is a job. Work at it.
"Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. .. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better." John Updike
COPIES OF THIS SECTION
1. Cliché
Eliminate clichés, which are the vermin of imaginative writing. Initially fresh images, clichés have been taken over and made mundane by too frequent usage. They have lost their original authority, power, and beauty. They raise their predictable heads (aaah, a cliché!) in the early drafts of even the most experienced writers. Turning a cliché against itself by intentionally using it in an inverted form can revive it. Puns can give a cliché a renewed life. However, if a poem is merely going to repeat a cliché, cut it.
2. Abstract
Identify all abstract or general nouns and replace them with concrete or specific ones. Words like "love," "freedom," "pain," "sadness," "anger," and other emotions and ideas need to be channeled through the physical imagery of the five senses: Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste (SSSTT). Creating original metaphors is the most difficult part of poetry writing, not just for beginners, but for those who have been working with words for years. This, however, is what makes a poem distinctive and interesting.
3. Verbs
Fortify the physical character of the poem by using strong action verbs instead of linking verbs in the passive voice. Because active verbs and concrete nouns are more visceral, dynamic, and persuasive, they reduce the need for modifiers. Avoid overusing the "-ing" form of verbs because it dilutes and reduces their strength. It is like driving a speedboat without raising the anchor.
4. Compress
Cut, compress, and condense! Imagine that you must pay your reader a dollar a word to read your prose. Naturally, you will want to use few words to say as much as possible. Then, imagine that you must pay your reader five dollars a word to read your poetry. Compress, especially when the progress of the poem is impeded by imprecise or indecisive language. Try the following experiment. Put a gob of frozen orange juice on your tongue. This pure, concentrated slush, without any liquid to dilute its sweet potency, is so pungent it stings. Make your poem like that. Cut everything that can be cut until what's left penetrates the flesh with its sweet, burning flavor.
5. Risk
Be daring in your writing. Experiment and take chances. Risk-taking adds originality and spontaneity to the poem, which leads to imaginative and linguistic breakthroughs. Read a wide variety of contemporary poets so that you will begin to understand the breadth of poetry's language and modern imagination. You will also become more conscious of its many voices. You cannot mature as a poet unless you read widely. If you refuse to read, you refuse to grow.
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In this part we'll read our poems (giving me a copy) and set the course for how we'll look at one another's work.
First we want to know where the poem rocks. Then we want to know where the poem promises to rock us further but lets us down a bit.
Let's start the editing process now although we'll be discussing it further later on in the course. Editing begins with the next word you write.
Every extra word in a poem is worth $5 to be paid by the author to each of the readers. I want to know how much you think each reader owes us. Weigh each word carefully.
Rules: Be precise and do not bore me.
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We've gotten a good start at how to begin a poem and looked at our new poems for the rocking parts that are and that can be. Next time we'll look at how to rock by adding sonic texture to these same poems, that is how to apply the craft to the raw material to make it become real poetry.
Books to look for:
The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo
Go to Borders and read books of poems there. Find several you may like, take them to the coffee shop and read for half an hour. Make notes about one or two poems you like, copy them, memorize them, buy the book, see if you actually spent more time than you thought. Steal something from the poems you read. Steal a line from a poem, a title, a phrase that triggers something in you.
For the next time, begin a poem of your own by reflecting on the notes you made about what was memorable in the opening poems. Make it a genuine personal reflection, not a commentary on the poem. We want to hear the voice in you that responded.
Keep your notes, journal, etc....
