just some thoughts (revisiting poetry)

OK, two distinctive elements of poetry are sound and form. There is much to be said about both; however, unless you are going to be a full-on English major or a poet/songwriter, you can generally appreciate them without knowing the many, many terms and choices. I am going to, therefore, cop out and give you a few general thoughts on both, and if you are really interested, I will point out the chapters in your textbook where you can get much more information. NOTE, though, that even the chapters in Kirszner and Mandell just barely touch a few highlights of the technical possibilities (tools?) poets select from when they craft their poems.

sound

Poetry is musical (much of the time). In fact, much of what you might sing along to when you listen to music is lyric poetry (we get the word lyrics from this). Once again, this might seem counter-intuitive. Aren't the sounds from the musical instruments the "musical" parts? Aren't the lyrics something else? The reading parts, maybe?

Yes. Sort of. Let's look at a bit of one of my favorite songs from the 21st century--"Airplanes":

[Chorus: Hayley Williams]

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now
Wish right now
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now
Wish right now

[Verse 1: B.o.B]

Yeah, I could use a dream or a genie or a wish
To go back to a place much simpler than this
'Cause after all the partyin' and smashin' and crashin'
And all the glitz and the glam and the fashion
And all the pandemonium and all the madness
There comes a time where you fade to the blackness
And when you starin' at that phone in your lap
And you're hopin' but them people never call you back
But that's just how the story unfolds
You get another hand soon after you fold
And when your plans unravel in the sand
What would you wish for if you had one chance?
So airplane, airplane, sorry I'm late
I'm on my way so don't close that gate
If I don't make that then I'll switch my flight
And I'll be right back at it by the end of the night

No, I am not forgetting or dissing Eminem's part (he adds a lot to the song), but this gives us a lot to work with already.

Even from a distance, you can see (this has to do with FORM below) that the chorus looks different from the verse(s). The lines are shorter in the chorus; they are relatively uniform in length in the verse. Interesting. Back to sound.

One sound effect often used in music is rhyme. It may be quibbling to say that "now" rhymes with "now" rhymes with "now"--these are just repeated lines. Then again, repetition is another sound effect. Another sound effect is created with all of the sibilant S's in the chorus; it makes one line flow smoothly into the next, and thst is at odds with the more jarring, staccato lines of the Eminem section (not included here). Why is that important? Well, the rough-sounding parts describe the harships following "making it" and the difficulty holding on to the original dreams; with success comes a grind, an increasing battle to be relevant, jealous rivalries, an unrelenting schedule. The chorus is soft and dreamy and gentle; B.o.B. wants to pretend that the airplanes are shooting stars (you can wish on a falling star). He's dreaming of "yesterday ... was just a dream / But those days are gone."

The choral section not only has rhyme (a sound effect): "wish/this," "crashin'/fashion," "madness/blackness," but it also has a fairly regular "TE-tum" sound (rhythm) from accented and un-accented syllables that comprise a relatively consistent line length (meter). Pauses, accents, repeated sounds, rhyme, that "Te-tum" and so on all add sound effects that make listenters (of sung or read poetry) nod heads and tap toes.

form

Some break poetry into two large categories: closed (fixed, formal) and open (free verse...but not blank verse; blank verse is actually a closed form often associated with Shakespeare). It's a pretty convenient way to break things down, but it is overly-simple and a bit deceptive. It often makes non-poets imagine that just tossing words on the fridge (like Magnetic Poetry) is freeeeeeeee verse. Free=no rules. Wrong. Go back to the "l(a" poem; there is nothing random about that poem; e e cummings thought hard and made a lot of choices. The difference is that the line and/or stanza patterns are not regular (closed/fixed/formal).

The chorus from "Airplanes" (above) is pretty free. Yes, there are repetitions and such, but line lengths vary; there is no clear rhyme scheme, and so on. The B.o.B. verse is more formal, wich a fairly regular line length, and sound patterns (rhyme, rhythm, meter). It's not completely rule-bound, but it still follows a fairly consistent pattern.

There are tons of specific forms that poets may choose to write in (some not necessarily ruled by line structure or end sounds). Some of the more popular English teacher like to point out and trot out are the sonnet, the villanelle, the sestina, terza rima, and the haiku. We will look closely at this last one in a moment. This is just a small sample of closed forms, but if you'd like to see several samples of both closed and open form...

There's plenty more on FORM in Chpater 21 of your textbook.

haiku

First watch Beavis and Butthead in "For Better of Verse" (this has the controversial "light it dude" segment, by the way

Well, there you have it. A haiku is an ancient Japanese form (still quite popular; there are majore competitions in Japan) with a fixed form. The form is based on syllabics. Each (very short) poem has three lines. The first line is five-syllables (not five words; the word television, for example, is four syllables: tel-e-vi-sion), so if you used that word in the first line, you would have only one syllable left; you might produce something like

Television shows

"Tel-e-vi-sion shows" is five syllables; that's it for line one. Line two is seven syllables long, and line three is, again, five syllables long. If we expand on what we started:

Television shows
Such as Beavis and Butthead,
Are guilty pleasures

Count it out; I recommend using your fingers (really): "Tel-e-vi-sion shows" (5) / "Such as Bea-vis and Butt-head" (7) / "Are guil-ty plea-sures" (5).

There is no need to rhyme; there is not regular rhythm/meter; there isn't much. The form is very specific, and the limitations do have effct. For example, I think the last line might be better if it read "Are my guilty pleasures" (not it's about me), but "my" gives me a sixth syllable, so I had to decide what to keep and what to cut. The poems may have unexpected twists, thoughtful saying, or simple "ah" moments (like looking at a lovely snapshot and responding, "Ahhhhh...."

Often writers (this is what you will be doing on the discusson board this week) will create a haiku suite--a number of haiku on a related topic (space travel, bugs, dating, sunsets, whatever). Here is a quick haiku suite on the six animals who have lived with us since we moved into this house (three, alas, are no longer living with us, but they are alive in our memories):

Gentle Tippi cat
Once wore a sombrero
And never complained

Chutney cat was fierce,
was a Kitler cat, who scared
my mother-in-law

Vinny: red-zone dog
Betty White at the shelter
said, "He's great with kids!"

Suki-Suki's sweet
Often eats from the dog's dish,
but she licks his face

Jamhal's a feral cat.
Graceful, skinny, curious
His world's always new.

With the saddest face,
Sounding like a motor boat:
Lily bluh, bluh, bluh.

sometimes it does not seem to work

Look up sample haiku in your textbook (use the index or look in the chapter on Form) and on the internet (and elsewhere).

On occassion, you will find some that do not work; that is, they do not exactly fit the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. In most cases, these are poems that have been translated. Syllables often do not translate exactly from Japanese (or other languages) to English, so translators try to retain the feel of the original which may require one syllable more or less here or there. Here are a few sample haiku from, arguably, the master of all time, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694):

On a withered branch
A crow has alighted:
Nightfall in autumn.

None is travelling
Here along this way but I,
This autumn evening.

Won't you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.

Hmm.... What poem might that last haiku have inspired?