Poetry

1
Poetry
23-24

• Fixed and Open Forms

2
Poetic Form

• Whether poems are defined as fixed or open, all
  poems have form, i.e., an overall shape and
  structure. Structures that have long been
  established and have been used often will have a
  name.
• Fixed forms and open forms refer to the structure
  of the poem, not its content or ideas.

3
Fixed Form

• Fixed forms (sometimes called closed forms)
  follow a long established pattern of line and
  stanza.
• Fixed forms developed within the oral tradition
  and made memorization easier.
• Shakespeares plays are written in blank verse
  (unrhymed iambic pentameter), which helped the
  actors remember their lines.
• Poets converse with past poets through fixed
  forms, which will inspire not stifle poetic
  imaginations. Poets feels challenged to
  contribute to poetic tradition and be innovative
  within a somewhat defined form although fixed
  forms are more versatile than sometimes supposed.
  
• Robert Frost could not conceive of writing in
  free verse. He explained that writing free verse
  was "like playing tennis without a net."

4
Fixed Forms continued

• In Chapter 23 of Literature Craft and Voice,
  Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse explain
  poetrys most popular fixed forms
• Sonnet Villanelle
• Sestina Pantoum
• Haiku Epigram
• Limerick Elegy
• Ode
• We will explore a few of these forms on the
  following slides.

5
Sonnet

• A form like the sonnet exists in poetry not
  just because
• some people like me like to write them. It
  must be
• serving some kind of function. Otherwise it
  would die out.
• Edward Hirsch
• A sonnet is a moment's monument, Memorial from
  the Soul's eternity To one dead deathless hour.
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• I love sonnets. I loved them since I first
  discovered them in middle school, maybe. I
  didnt realize that I loved them because they
  have a limit. But when you write a sonnet you
  discover that having an end in sight forces you
  into a kind of compression that I love in art.
• Molly Peacock

6
Sonnet

• One of the most enduring and popular forms of
  poetry has been the sonnet, a fourteen-line poem
  usually, but not always, written in iambic
  pentameter.
• The sonnet originated in Italian. Sonnetto means
  little song.
• There are two basic kinds of sonnets the Italian
  or Petrarchan and the English or Shakespearean.
  Petrarch (1304-1374) was the master of the
  Italian form, and Shakespeare (1564-1616) the
  master of the English form.
• The Italian form is divided into an octave (eight
  lines) and a sestet (six lines).
• The English form is divided into three quatrains
  (four lines each) and a couplet.
• The forms are easily recognizable by their rhyme
  schemes. The Italian sonnet will use a rhyme
  scheme of abbaabba in the octave and cdecde or
  cdcdcd in the sestet though variations exist,
  usually there are no more than 5 rhymes.
• The English form typically uses abab cdcd efef gg
  again, though variations exist, usually there
  are 7 rhymes.
• Poets will experiment with these structures. In
  The Silken Tent, for instance, Robert Frost
  follows a Shakespearean rhyme scheme, but the
  structure is more Petrarchan as the poem turns in
  the ninth line.

7
The Italian Sonnet

• In Italian or Petrarchan sonnets, the octave
  commonly introduces a situation, a problem, a
  question, or a claim that is resolved, answered,
  or elucidated in the sestet.
• There are several Italian sonnets in the text
  Wordsworths The World Is Too Much with Us and
  London, 1802, Keatss On First Looking into
  Chapmans Homer, Brownings How Do I Love Thee?
  Let Me Count the Ways, Hopkinss Gods
  Grandeur, Frosts Design, and Hackers
  Elektra on Third Avenue, among others.
• In the octave of Gods Grandeur, Hopkins
  celebrates the manifestation of God in the world
  but is angry at humankinds abuse of nature. In
  the sestet, his anger subsides and he finds hope
  through God in natures regenerative powers.
• In the octave of Design, Frost describes a
  natural scene in which a spider is devouring a
  white moth on a white flower. In the sestet, he
  ponders the significance of the event and the
  design of the world.

8
The English Sonnet

• In English or Shakespearean sonnets, each
  quatrain will express a single thought or
  emotion, or develop a central idea or problem.
  The concluding couplet provides the climax or
  resolution.
• There are several sonnets of Shakespeare in the
  text and several written in the English form
  Keatss Bright Star Would I Were As Steadfast
  as Thou Art, Millays Not in a Silver Casket
  Cool with Pearl, Nelsons Chopin, and Molly
  Peacocks Desire, among others.
• In the three quatrains of Shakespeares That
  Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold, the
  speaker bemoans his aging state and compares
  himself to late fall, the twilight of the day,
  and to a fire burning out. However, in the
  couplet, his self-pity wanes as he expresses
  gratefulness to his apostrophized lover.
• In the quatrains of Desire, Molly Peacock works
  out a definition of desire through metaphor. She
  brings her definition to a climax in the
  directness of the couplet, which privileges
  desire as the drive for what is real the drive
  to feel.

9
Villanelle

• The villanelle evolved from the Middle Ages and
  simple Italian peasant songs with no fixed form.
  The term was adapted by the French, and, in time,
  strict rules were imposed on its form. The
  villanelle made its first appearance in English
  in the second half of the nineteenth century and
  was generally used for lighthearted verse.
• The villanelle is nineteen lines long (5 tercets
  and a concluding quatrain) and has only two
  rhymes. The first and third lines of the first
  stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the
  third line in each successive stanza and end the
  quatrain.
• While the form remains consistent,
  twentieth-century poets have adopted the form for
  different kinds of expression other than the
  light fare of earlier English villanelles.
  Consider villanelles like Plaths Mad Girls
  Love Song, Roethkes The Waking, or Bishops
  One Art.
• Many consider Dylan Thomass Do Not Go Gentle
  into That Good Night the greatest villanelle
  ever composed. Thomas uses the rhyme refrain to
  create a powerful plea, a chant, to rally his
  father to fight for his life.

10
Elegies

• Today, an elegy is a somber poem, a lamentation
  memorializing the dead or contemplating some
  nuance of lifes melancholy. The expression
  requires no fixed line or stanzaic form.
• In ancient Greece, an elegy was defined as a
  meditation on a serious subject (death, love, or
  war) written in dactylic hexameter and iambic
  pentameter couplets. Elizabethan poets applied
  the term to love poems, particularly complaints.
  It was not until the eighteenth century that an
  elegy came to define a poem about death, one
  usually occasioned by the death of a particular
  person.
• Elegies are generally moving and dramatic
  personal statements.
• There are several elegies in the text Housmans
  To an Athlete Dying Young, Audens Funeral
  Blues and In Memory of W. B. Yeats, Roethkes
  Elegy for Jane, Osherows Song for the Music
  in the Warsaw Ghetto, Lowells The Quaker
  Graveyard, Hudginss Elegy for My Father, and
  Lauxs The Shipfltters Wife.
• The elegy is much more flexible than most fixed
  forms. Consider how the above elegies use tone,
  rhythm, imagery, and other strategies to express
  grief and to attempt to come to terms with loss.

11
Elegies continued

• In Funeral Blues, an urgent expression of
  grief, the speaker calls on the world to stop, to
  mourn, and to pay tribute to his friend. Now is
  the time for mourning, the poem proclaims. It is
  not yet time to move on.
• The speaker of To An Athlete Dying Young
  laments the death of his towns champion athlete.
  Using the communal we, the speaker apostrophizes
  and pays tribute to the still-crowned champion.
  He tries to alleviate his own grief by telling
  the athlete that he may have been fortunate to
  have died before he saw his records broken and
  the joys of his triumph diminished.
• Other elegies, like The Shipfitters Wife,
  focus on a routine moment to express love and
  loss. In the poem, the speaker remembers her
  husband at the moment when he would arrive home
  from work. The tone is tender and more quietly
  intense than Funeral Blues, for instance, as
  the speakers husband is not so recently
  deceased. The pain does not seem as raw.
• In Song for the Music in the Warsaw Ghetto,
  Jacqueline Osherow laments the brutality and loss
  of life in the Jewish community during the Nazi
  occupation. The poem struggles to find a way to
  grieve an entire community, for whom music was so
  inspiring and life sustaining that they
  maintained a symphony orchestra while starving
  and until carried off to concentration camps.

12
Open Form

• In the middle of the nineteenth century, poets
  began to reject fixed forms in favor of forms
  that were less rigid, more spontaneous, and free.
  
• Open forms (sometimes called "free verse) do not
  conform to established patterns of meter, rhyme,
  and stanza. Such poetry derives its rhythmic
  qualities from perhaps the repetition of words
  and phrases, sound devices like alliteration and
  assonance, grammatical structures, the
  arrangement of words on the printed page, and
  many other means. In Al Youngs Doo Wop The
  Moves, for instance, the rhythm reflects the
  music of a doo-wop song.
• Open-form poets create order and structure in a
  new way, one which fits the poem. The term
  organic is often applied to open-form structures
  as the structure develops from the content.
  Sylvia Plaths Metaphor, for instance, contains
  nine lines of nine syllables each, reflective of
  the length of the human gestation period which
  is the topic of the poem.
• As Cleanth Brooks said, The parts of a poem are
  related as are the parts of a growing plant.

13

• Poetry without form is a fiction. But that
  there is a freedom in words is the larger fact,
  and in poetry, where formal restriction can bear
  down heavily, it is important to remember the
  cage is never locked.
• C. D. Wright

14

• You know, free verse for me is nothing less
  than a discovery, and we havent even got to
  the bottom of it yet. Were only scratching the
  surface, because ultimately free verse is a form
  of writing in which the poem is completely
  organized by instances of coincidence stanzas
  are units of coincidence and lines become units
  of coincidence, and the whole poem becomes
  organized with that in mind. It sounds simple,
  but its a lot harder to do than one would
  think.
• Li-Young Lee

15
Walt Whitman

• Walt Whitman was a leading force in the
  widespread use of free verse in modern and
  contemporary poetry. His volume of poems, Leaves
  of Grass, first published in 1855, took
  imaginative liberties with line length, rhyme,
  repetition, and diction.
• No one had ever heard poems quite like Whitmans
  before. Most critics and poets did not
  appreciate his frank and revolutionary verse.
  Renowned editor and critic Rufis Griswold called
  it a mass of stupid filth, and popular poet
  John Greenleaf Whittier reportedly burned his
  copy. One London magazine said that Leaves of
  Grass proves that the fields of American
  literature need weeding, and a London newspaper
  said Whitman should be publicly flogged. Emily
  Dickinsons father did not allow her to read
  Whitman, whom he thought indecent and
  disgraceful.
• Of course, not all reviews were negative. The
  influential literary magazine Putnams considered
  Leaves of Grass a mixture of Yankee
  transcendentalism and New York rowdyism which
  fuse and combine with the most perfect harmony.
  In July 1855, Ralph Waldo Emerson famously wrote
  to Whitman I give you joy of your free brave
  thought. I find incomparable things said
  incomparably well, as they must be. I find the
  courage of treatment, which so delights me, and
  which large perception only can inspire. I greet
  you at the beginning of a great career.

16
Whitman continued

• Whitmans long lines burst forth on the page with
  boldness and proclamation. His form suggests a
  large and expansive voice, one not only
  reflective of an immodest and daring self but
  also of an energetic and resourceful nation.
  Consider a few lines from Song of Myself
• I Celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what
  I assume you shall assume, For every atom
  belonging to me as good belongs to you. (sec. 1)
• Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the
  doors themselves from their jambs!
• I do not press my fingers across my mouth, I
  keep as delicate around the bowels as around the
  head and heart, Copulation is no more rank to
  me than death is.
• The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than
  prayer. (sec. 24)
• Do I contradict myself? Very well then I
  contradict myself, (I am large, I contain
  multitudes.) (sec. 51)
• I too am not a bit tamed, I too am
  untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over
  the roofs of the world. (sec. 52)

17
Whitmans Rhythm

• The lack of meter and rhyme in Whitman is a major
  technical innovation. By throwing off the
  restrictions of the iamb with its regular rising
  and falling pattern, Whitman liberated himself
  and created a more personal rhythm, something
  that corresponded with the ebb and flow of his
  own emotional vibrancy.
• Whitmans diction is often rough and robust.
  Whitman uses words that previous poets would have
  thought ill-befitting the altar of poetry
  barbaric yawp, arm-pits, bowels, for
  example. While he did not eliminate outworn
  poetic diction, he did invigorate the old with
  colloquialisms and frankness.
• Each of Whitmans long, rolling lines is a
  rhythmic unit and is usually end-stopped. Their
  long, flowing rhythms have their source in the
  King James Bible. Compare to Song of Solomon
  41-7 Behold thou art fair, my love.
• To create rhythm, Whitman often relies on
  parallelism, anaphora, alliteration, assonance,
  and other poetic devices.
• Whitmans cataloging seems tedious to some
  readers, but this strategy creates not only
  rhythm but also a sense of Americas abundant
  resources. See, for instance, I Hear American
  Singing.

18
Whitmans Influence

• Whitmans influence cannot be overstated.
• As a result of Whitmans poetics, American poets
  were emancipated from the iamb and challenged to
  define their own poetic rhythms. Because of
  Whitman, William Carlos Williams said that
  American poets who write in iambs have to show
  cause why it is the proper form for them.
• Consider the influence of Whitman on Allen
  Ginsbergs A Supermarket in California and
  Sherman Alexies Defending Walt Whitman. Note
  how Whitman has influenced their poetics and
  vision of America.
• Compare and contrast Whitmans use of open forms
  with those of others in the text, particularly
  Hasss Dragonflies Mating, Cisneross Pumpkin
  Eater, Lawrences Snake, Stevenss Sunday
  Morning, and Algarins HIV, among many others.
  Is Whitmans influence apparent?

19
Visual Poetry

• The visual appearance of a poem is an often
  overlooked element of poetry. The neatness of a
  sonnets appearance, for example, can be very
  appealing. The poems of Emily Dickinson with
  their unorthodox presentation featuring extensive
  use of the dash and unusual capitalization can be
  tantalizing, as can the robust appearance of the
  long lines of Whitman and Ginsberg.
• However, visual poetry (sometimes concrete poetry
  or shaped verse) goes a step further and
  organizes lines in a recognizable shape usually
  the shape of something the poem describes.
• Among the visual poems in the text are George
  Herberts Easter Wings, John Hollanders Swan
  and the Shadow, Chen Lis War Symphony, and
  Dylan Thomass Vision and Prayer.
• Hollander published some 25 shaped poems in his
  collection Types of Shape. In Swan and the
  Shadow, he creates the image of the swan and his
  shadow to suggest the fleetingness of life. The
  swan signals his appearance, swims before the
  speaker, and then disappears. The brief scene,
  which unfolds in the same space of time as it
  takes to read the poem, suggests much about human
  consciousness, perception, memory, and
  contemplation.

20
Easter Wings

• Easter Wings is probably the most famous visual
  poem. Shaped like wings, possibly an angels or
  a birds, the poem is a prayer in which the
  desperate speaker asks God for salvation.
• The poem is organized into four movements an
  emotional reference to the Fall of Adam and Eve,
  the speakers first request for personal
  salvation (O let me rise), the speakers
  personal fall, and his second plea for
  redemption.
• The poem references skylarks and falcons (through
  imp, which refers to the reparation of a falcons
  wing or tail). The speaker would like to rise to
  heaven in victory with the help of Easter
  wings. For Christians, Easter celebrates
  Christs resurrection and the acknowledgement
  that Christ died so that others could gain
  salvation.
• Note too that if you turn the poem sideways, its
  shape resembles a Communion chalice, which is
  consistent with a plea for salvation.

21
Visual Poetry continued

• Consider other less obvious examples of visual
  poetry in the text William Carlos Williamss
  Red Wheelbarrow, E. E. Cummingss Buffalo
  Bills Defunct, and l(a.
• Note the following complete poem by William
  Carlos Williams ta tuck a          ta tuck
  a                      ta tuck
  a                                ta tuck
  a                                           
  ta tuck a
• Through the arrangement of lines and
  onomatopoeia, Williams replicates a stairway and
  the energetic movement of a bellhop. Sound,
  rhythm, structure, and appearance merge for a
  playful effect.

22
Prose Poems

• Prose poems are usually compact works that look
  like prose, but sound and read like poetry.
• Prose poems rely on poetic techniques to create
  rhythm and imagery, often to produce a heightened
  emotional effect.
• Prose poetry was inaugurated in the 19th century
  in France. Practitioners included Charles
  Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane
  Mallarmé.
• Whether a short work is a prose poem, a short
  essay, or a short story depends entirely on the
  authors definition.

23
Prose Poems continued

• Poet William Stafford responded to a question
  concerning traditional poetry and the prose poem
• If it is put in prose form on the page without
  the line-breaks then you have given up some of
  the opportunities that there are for acrobatic
  swingings from line to line and emphasizing
  certain words or phrases. But you gain something
  in that the reader will feel that you are not
  trying to bamboozle him with white space. Of
  course, I like prose myself. Not just prose
  poems, but prose. So the prose poems don't worry
  me. You gain something and lose something.
• Is Stafford suggesting that poets try to deceive
  readers? And that prose poems are more honest
  than other poetic forms, including open forms?

24
The Colonel A Prose Poem

• Carolyn Forché documented human rights violations
  for Amnesty International. She worked closely
  with Monsignor Oscar Romero in El Salvador
  between 1978 and 1980, during which time she
  wrote The Colonel a documentary poem, as
  she calls it.
• The prose poem derives force from its ominous
  tone established in the first sentence and its
  ironic contrasts throughout. The speaker and her
  friend eat a sumptuous dinner in a rather
  commonplace domestic setting a daughter files
  her nails and a cop show plays on television.
  The mundane atmosphere contrasts with the violent
  actions of their host outside the home and the
  violence throughout El Salvador.
• Forché uses the rhythm of simple declarative
  sentences to create an ominous and eerie tone and
  to emphasize the stark brutality of the colonel.
  Through the repetition of some, at the end of
  the poem, the speaker sounds a voice of
  resistance, almost a rallying cry.
• Forché creates an especially jarring contrast
  through the image of the green mangoes and the
  ears like dried peach halves, which like the
  television show, indicates how external
• violence is infiltrating the home. The
  ears, in an example of metonymy,
• represent the Salvadoran people those
  mutilated and murdered by the
• death squads and those with ears pressed
  to the ground as they listen and
• resist the brutal regime of the colonel.

Through a combination of prose and poetry, Forché
has created a powerfully disturbing work.

25
For Further Consideration

• Compare and contrast Housmans To an Athlete
  Dying Young and Roethkes Elegy for Jane.
  Compare the speakers and the imagery. How do
  they define those they mourn? How do they
  express grief? How do they try to come to terms
  with their grief?
• Examine how fixed forms operate in the following
  poems Kumins Saga, Bishops Sestina,
  Funkhousers Pantoum of the Great Depression,
  Shelleys Ode to the West Wind. Do they create
  dramatic effects? Does each form seem especially
  suitable for the content of the poem?
• The following poems might be considered
  meditations C. K. Williams Tar, Oldss Sex
  without Love, Hasss Dragonflies Mating, and
  Lawrences Snake. Consider how the use of an
  open form reflects the speakers contemplative
  state? Does the form change as the meditation
  evolves?
• Compare and contrast the poetic techniques in the
  prose poems of Louis Jenkins Football and Ray
  Gonzalez Corn Face Mesilla.