Class Notes for Week Four and Chapter 7, "The Form of Poetry."

This week concludes our formal work with poetry, and you will have a couple weeks to complete your poetry projects discussed in the assignment section.

The notes discuss the chapter in the context of what your final project requires of you. You can link to the final project in the preceding paragraph to check items as you read these notes.

In many respects, this particular chapter serves as a wrapping up, for everything in this chapter--and in the poetry and the interviews of Charles Fort and Ted Kooser--bears on what you have read and discussed these past three weeks.

The chapter opens with two poems by the late Gwendolyn Brooks, long the State Poet of Illinois. Most of you may well have heard of the muted rhymed couplets that make up "We Real Cool" (You can hear Brooks recite at the preceding link)--note what happens when you take away "We" in the poem. Otherwise, the poem has end-stopped lines and a very ringing rhyme. The taking away of the "We," however, at the poem's conclusion has a profound impact on the poem, tolling hard on "soon."

And to suggest the serious nature of this simple-looking poem, take a look at these various discussions, including one with the author.

The other poem, "What shall I Give my Children," has a different and less obviously structured look--we might call it "Free Verse."

This chapter discusses in some detail the dominant forms of modern poetry, noting correctly that most contemporary poetry is of the Free Verse variety. But do not think either that free verse means anything goes or that free verse means contemporary.

Look at the "Song of Songs" in the Bible--free verse. And all poetry, as discussed in previous notes, has form.

As you will see in the poetry of Fort and Kooser, free verse has a specific and demanding rigor; you have from last week, for example, "Fern Hill," and you discussed how the images work to unify this poem of controlled syllabics. As with Brooks, Dylan Thomas is a master of Free Verse and the more Traditional Forms, as his beautiful "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" (You can hear Thomas recite at the preceding link) underscores.

As your text suggests, "Free verse is not measured in metrical feet or syllables, but is created using other patterns, including line patterns, stanza patterns, or even patterns of images." In other words, the poetry must have structure.

And both "Fern Hill" and "What Shall I Give My Children" have structure. Without structure, one has only words of little impact. And simply jamming words against one another does not result in the sophisticated verse you want to attempt.

So when you write a poem of free verse to fulfill the requirement for your Poetry Project, read carefully the poetry in the anthology and consider the ways in which the poets order their thoughts and images.

In all your poetry, moreover, put into practice the rhetorical tools with which you have experimented these past three weeks, from figural language to sound devices.

And if you write about images, make sure that the images speak, as it were, like Kooser's barn, in a unified manner-- anything does not go. As you have done these past weeks, make sure that the poems put to use the various techniques with which you have experimented.

And, of course, use your imagination.

The poetry project gives you a choice between writing of connected images, that you in fact consolidate into a poem, and composing five Haiku. You experimented with Haiku early in the term; but see the note: write the Tanka only if you do not write these related Haiku.

This form of Free Verse, as you have learned, is not free. For one thing, you have a pattern to follow: 5-7-5 syllables for this nature-bound poetry. For a review, look at the masters of the genre, Basho, Buson, Issa, or Shiki--this link provides you with some examples.

As Charles Fort notes, Richard Wright, the great novelist, wrote thousands of haiku--they helped him focus on images. You can read a few at this link.

Haiku, of course, have structure. And you can do a series of linked Haiku. As the assignment indicates, you want to capture subtle differences in, say, a tree at different times of the day or of the more traditional seasons. Focus, focus.

You in effect seek to capture a moment.

A Haiku: "one image, consisting of one slide or one photograph of significance" (123).

If you like, use the photographs that I provided for the haiku and the snap shots.

Fort and Kooser both talk about their work in some interesting visual terms, Fort with photographs and Kooser with water colors. Recall the William Carlos Williams image poem, painted with words.

At any rate, consider the images and the significance you attribute to them that you seek to share with your readers in the class.

If you choose to write an extended "Tanka" for your project--you can either utilize one of the more traditional forms or compose three Tonka--you have more latitude regarding "morals" or "themes," for this form, an old drinking pastime, provides more room to move.

This site provides a look into the Tonka form--you can learn here a bit of the form's history. You will find plenty of other sites, such as this one, to add to your knowledge base. Your poetry project alternative calls for your writing three Tonka. Each need not be on the identical theme.

Before talking briefly about the Traditional Forms of poetry, for which you will find a tremendous amount of information, I want to talk about a form Charles Fort mentions that our text does not discuss, the Prose Poem, a form of Free Verse.

You will talk about prose poems in the first discussion thread for the week. Use your imagination and give the genre a try.

Another kind of Free Verse that requires a concrete form takes form very literally: concrete poetry. You can, if you like, experiment with this form of Free Verse.

The great practitioner is George Herbert. And his poem "The Altar" tops the list always when people talk about concrete poetry. You will find other examples here and other places. You are welcome to experiment with this challenging type of poem, whose shape poses obstacles as difficult to overcome as the more formal structure of Traditional Forms.

Read Frost's poem "Mending Well" for a nice example of Verse Paragraphs, which, with a wonderful flow from Blank Verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, offer a form that mimics well general discussion.

To write with this form requires an ear to the modulation of words and sentence structure. And as you read Frost's poem, pay attention to the manner in which he manipulates caesuras, end- stopped ones, run-on lines, and masterful repetition.

Frost is a master of all the preceding poetic techniques. And you will see them in place in the poems of Fort and Kooser, the topic of the second Discussion Thread.

I invite you to experiment with a Sestina and other of the formal forms your text introduces, including the Villanelle and the Sonnet.

Indeed, these forms become more and more popular. So if you want to experiment with one of these forms, study the poems in the text and give your imagination a ride.

Please take chances.

The Sestina is a fun and rather demanding form. Here you will find a "how to" write a Sestina page; click here to read a famous poem of Dante's. Our text also includes a Rich sestina. You can also have a lot of fun with this poetic form.

Villanelle challenges you not to sound repetitive. And the Dylan Thomas poem previously linked presents perhaps the greatest achievement in English. This page offers a "how to" write a Villanelle discussion--this sort of poem usually describes rather a haunting form, as the tone of Dylan Thomas's voice indicates. And here you will find some serious discussion, a breakdown of the form, and some excellent examples.

Sonnets sound complex, but you can always, as with the preceding kinds of poems, manipulate the requirements a bit. This link will take you to a discussion of how to write a Sonnet; you will find many, many such pages of helpful information to help you along.

If you choose to vary the traditional form, note what you do when you submit the poem.

Begin early and play with language for this project. You have two weeks and the later opportunity for some revisions. And, of course, sharing your work with your fellow writers will provide you with ideas for revisions, as will reading what others in the class have to write.

So do not rush this assignment; give yourself an opportunity to rework ideas and images.

This page has been visited 308 times since 11/11/2007

http://www.hpcnet.org/peru/schoolartsandsciences/language/clemente/fall2006/creative/4/forms

Last Modified: 09/13/2009