{"id":1194,"date":"2020-09-23T07:46:29","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T11:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2020-09-23T07:46:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T11:46:29","slug":"poetic-considerations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/23\/poetic-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetic Considerations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On January 1, 2020, Alyce wrote, How do you write songs and poetry? I\u2019ve tried, and if it\u2019s not a haiku I can\u2019t manage. I just can\u2019t seem to get more than a couple rhyming lines out, usually not even that. I can memorize poetry just fine, and make any rhymes I want (one of my characters blurts out anything that rhymes with the word she\u2019s actually thinking of). I just can\u2019t make those rhymes make sense most of the time. Or if I can, they don\u2019t come out the way I want, and they don\u2019t pass the message I want (or anything, really, they\u2019re just a lot of impressive-sounding nonsense). Does anyone have any suggestions?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erica wrote back, Why do you find a haiku easier than other poetry? If you can write haikus fairly easily, then I would recommend trying either limericks or free verse next, depending on what your precise difficulties are. If your problem is just that your rhymes don\u2019t make sense, try either blank verse or free verse for your poems.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m with Erica on trying poetry that doesn\u2019t rhyme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Songs are a different matter. They should use meter, and, usually, rhymes. I say they should be metrical because meter provides rhythm. And rhyme helps with rhythm too. There is no law. If a song or poem works, it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meter means a regular sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. I just looked online for a link that lays out kinds of meter in a straightforward way, but the subject is complicated, and I couldn\u2019t find a site that I thought is perfect, but please google poetic meter and see what you get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll take a short stab at it, though, using iambic meter as an example. In iambic meter, an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable. In this line from Shakespeare, I\u2019m capitalizing the stressed syllables:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a HORSE, a HORSE, my KINGdom FOR a HORSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another term you should know is poetic foot. A foot is the unit of stressed and unstressed syllables. So in the sentence above, a HORSE<\/em> is a foot. The second a HORSE<\/em> is the second foot. Notice that a foot can end in the middle of a word, as in the third foot above, my KING<\/em>. dom is in the next foot. There are five feet in this Shakespearean line. A five-foot iambic line is said to be written in iambic pentameter, pentameter for the five feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballad form may be something Alyce and others will take to. Each stanza has four lines. The first and third lines have four iambic feet, second and fourth three iambic feet. The second and fourth lines rhyme; the other two don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trochaic meter uses a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. Feet aren\u2019t always two syllables long, either. An anapestic foot, for example, is three syllables long, two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you come up with your song\u2019s melody first, you can figure out the beats and find the words to go with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way to get rhythm is to take a poem or song that already has a rhythm you like. Analyze the sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables and follow them in your own poem or song with different words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thesaurus is great for finding words with the stresses we\u2019re looking for. For example, suppose in our poem somebody goes crazy, but the first syllable of CRAzy is stressed and we need the second syllable to be the stressed one. The thesaurus will offer us inSANE as an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For rhyme, there are rhyming dictionaries. I use RhymeZone online: https:\/\/www.rhymezone.com\/<\/a>, which offers near rhymes too, like rhyming street<\/em> with free<\/em>. Near rhymes, also called slant rhymes, are often just as good or even better than exact rhymes. Better because there are more words to choose from. The ear will pick up the similarity in sound even though the match isn\u2019t exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, simple rhymes work best even in sophisticates songs and poems. Complicated rhymes can seem forced. And simple ones make the poet\u2019s life easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, returning to the beginning, in poetry one does not have to rhyme! Most contemporary poems don\u2019t. There are other ways to achieve poem-iness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image is a tool of poetry. Doesn\u2019t have to be a beautiful image either. For example, someone stretching to reach a high shelf can add a poetic note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonic elements also contribute. Alliteration\u2013the repetition of initial letters, like blue bowl\u2013makes a sound pattern that pleases the ear. Same for assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds. This also works for internal perfect rhyme or near rhyme, rhyming words that aren\u2019t at the end of the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repetition is a poetic device too: words or phrases that keep coming up. Some poetic forms add structure without rhyme, generally by using repetition. I love pantoums (they don\u2019t have to rhyme but can), which repeat specific lines in stanzas. Triolets operate similarly. Wickedly hard is the sestina, which repeats the last word in a line according to a sequence. The tritina is sestina-light, because it follows the same principal with many fewer lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By studying her poems I discovered (or think I have) a strategy used by one of my favorite poets, Lisel Mueller (high school and up). She\u2019ll pick a theme for a poem and explore it in different ways (reminds me of my beloved lists). For example, in her poem \u201cNecessities\u201d she considers a different necessity in each of five longish stanzas. Each necessity is italicized: A map of the world; The illusion of progress; Answers to questions; Evidence that we matter; the old things first things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can do something similar, approach the poem we\u2019re trying to write by looking at its topic in as many ways as we can think of. Let\u2019s say the topic is escape. We can ask, escape from what? And we can come up with alternatives: our house, our thoughts, a conversation, the world of cause and effect. What do we have to say about each of these? We can ask about methods of escape and apply the same process. Same for destination, what we\u2019d take with us. And so on. We don\u2019t have to use everything we come up with, but as long as whatever we come up with connects with our topic, our poem will be coherent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poetry is a big subject, so I\u2019ve only scratched the surface. A book that I use again and again to help me find forms to hold my poetic ideas is The Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms<\/em>, edited by Ron Padgett. If you check it out, look at the chapters on meter and rhyme, which are in alphabetical order: Foot, Rhyme, and Rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write a poem with escape as its theme, and try the method I propose above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write a ballad about a particular escape, because ballads usually tell a story. Here you\u2019ll be using rhyme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Write an entirely new poem that uses the same meter as William Blake\u2019s \u201cThe Tyger.\u201d You don\u2019t have to write as many stanzas as he did, or you can write more, and you can decide whether you want your poem to rhyme. (I\u2019ve always wondered how Blake pronounced symmetry.) Here\u2019s the poem, which is in the public domain:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tyger
BY WILLIAM BLAKE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 1, 2020, Alyce wrote, How do you write songs and poetry? I\u2019ve tried, and if it\u2019s not a haiku I can\u2019t manage. I just can\u2019t seem to get more than a couple rhyming lines out, usually not even that. I can memorize poetry just fine, and make any rhymes I want (one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,310],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194\/revisions\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}