Poetic Form

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Poetic Form

• Gwendolin Brooks First Fight, Then Fiddle (898)
• Shuttleworth, Ciara. Sestina (881) 
• Cummings, E. E. l(a (883)

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Poetic Forms
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First Fight. Then Fiddle.

• First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string
  A
• With feathery sorcery muzzle the note B
• With hurting love the music that they wrote B
• Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing A
• Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing A
• For the dear instrument to bear. Devote B
• The bow to silks and honey. Be remote B
• A while from malice and from murdering. A
• But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate C
• In front of you and harmony behind. D
• Be deaf to music and to beauty blind. D
• Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late C
• For having first to civilize a space E
• Wherein to play your violin with grace. E

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Muzzle Thread/Hemp

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The music that they wrote?

Image source
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First Fight, Then Fiddle Questions

• Overall Meaning Structure What do it mean
  first fight, then fiddle? What does fight
  fiddle mean respectively? Why does the poem do
  it the other way around (reversing the order)?
  Is either completely rejected?
• Form Petrarchan sonnet effects (turn?)
• Rhyme masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme
• Rhythm meter iambic pentameter
• Sound alliteration
• Enjambment vs. short lines

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 2000 Chicago) Poem
published in 1949
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First Fight, Then Fiddle Fiddle

• sense plays the music which is sweet, melodious
  and mesmerizing (feathery sorcery, bewitch,
  bewilder),
• filled with repressed emotions,
• detached from cruel reality (malice and
  murdering)
• but not sharp-sounding, coarse but lively tunes.
  
• sound repetition of melodious nasal sounds
  such as m, ing, ind, sl
• use of enjambment

Why not? Others music.
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First Fight, Then Fiddle Fight

• sense But
• One must go to war (arms and armorto fight and
  protect oneself), carrying hate in front and
  harmony behind (as support)
• purpose -- to civilize a space where playing
  music is possible
• sound short one-syllable words
• use of short imperatives win war. Rise bloody.
  

Why not? Others music.
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You Used To Love Me well. Well, you me Used Lov
e to . . . to . . . well . . . love. You Used me.

Me, too, used . . . well. . . you. Love, love me.
You, Too Well used, used Love well. Me, too. You
!
You Used to Love me well.
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2 speakers
A You Used To Love Me well. B. Used Love to .
A.You Used me. B. Me, too, used you. . .
A. Love me. B. Used Love well. Me, too. You!
A. You Used to Love me well.
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Sestina
Sestina a fixed verse form consisting of
six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed
by a three-line envoi. (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia
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Sestina Questions

• 1. How many speakers are there in this poem? When
  does one stop speaking and another begin?
• 2. What is the role of punctuation in Sestina?
  Can you describe the tones of each stanza?

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l(a

• l(a
• le
• af
• fa
• ll
• s)
• one
• l
• iness

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l(a Questions

• What does the poem mean and how are the meanings
  conveyed through the image, the words and the
  shape of the poem?
• A leaf falls. Loneliness. Why is this one not a
  poem, but l(a is? Is there meter or rhythm in
  the poem?

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l(a lonelinesssingleness

• the image a leaf
• the words la, le, fa, af, ll (words falling and
  reversing), i-ness, I
• the shape of the poem l
• Regularity (meter) in the falling and multiple
  meanings of the characters.

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References

• Owens, Clarke W. Brooks's First Fight. Then
  Fiddle. The Explicator 52.4 (Summer 1994) 240.