Month: May 2013

Poetry Annoys

richinaword Other words on poetry Leave a comment

Poetry is annoying

Well what do we mean by poetry … many answers to this question … what do we mean by beauty … a similar problem … but perhaps it is easier to know when we recognise beauty … but do we know when we recognise poetry …

If there is a formalised definition – for example, we could say poetry must have within it some sort of poetic structure and then define poetic structure ( such as rhyme, rhythm …), so in this way we could filter work according to our agreed definition (I still meet people who say a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes)

But of course what happens then is that a defined poem may not be ‘poetic’ in the eyes of the beholder … just as beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder … so perhaps individual taste has a lot to say on what is poetry and what is not poetry (or at least what is worthy of the name, what is ‘good’)

… today conformity to some form of rigour in the nature of poetic expression is somewhat lacking … an almost anything goes attitude and if the author defines the work as a poem then it is a poem (at least to her or him) … so given this wide approach to what is accepted perhaps individual taste is much more important in defining the nature of poetry and poetic expression

… and perhaps those poems that have ‘agreed common poetic respect’ will survive the ravages of time and like splendid historic homes be frequented by many visitors.

But what does a poem do for you? … what differentiates poetry from other reading? … an elderly lady was asked to give her view … her reply was simple …

… a poem annoys

… elaborating … I have to stop and think and spend time looking at the text … in short I am arrested … and furthermore I might not be rewarded after using time and energy

I like this response … poetry makes you think

… whether you – see an experience in a new light, see life in a different perspective to the extent of changing behaviour – or whether your awareness is stimulated to the extent of widening your understanding and appreciation of life by understanding another – is, of course, another matter.

Please enjoy those annoying times when poetry may arrest you out of the blue – but you are always free to go afterwards.

Do not go gentle into that good night – Dylan Thomas

richinaword My Poems, Poetry analysis 1 Comment

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

The above poem by Dylan Thomas is perhaps the most well-known villanelle.  A villanelle has 19 lines and comprises 5 stanzas of 3 lines and a closing quatrain of 4 lines.

Like the sonnet the last two lines are arguably the most important lines of the villanelle. These not only form the closing rhyming couplet but these lines appear repeatedly through-out the first 5 stanzas.

Looking at the above poem the closing lines are –

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

If we label these lines A and B then these lines must appear in the five 3 line stanzas as follows in order to conform to the format of the villanelle.

S1 … A / l2 / B
S2 … a / l2 / A
S3 … a / l2 / B
S4 … a / l2 / A
S5 … a / l2 / B

So after defining the ending two lines 6 lines are automatically defined in the three-line stanzas. Furthermore the rhyming scheme is such that all the first lines, (labelled a) must rhyme with A. In the case of Dylan Thomas’ poem each of these lines must rhyme with night. And all the second lines of the above stanzas (labelled l2) must rhyme. In the case of this poem the six rhyming words chosen by Thomas are – day, they, way, bay, gay and pray.

The first and second line of the closing quatrain must use the rhyming of A and l2 … in this case height and pray.

So looking at the rhyming through-out the poem the 19 end words are –

Night, day, light / right, they night / bright, bay, light / flight, way, night / sight, gay, light
Height, pray, light, night

My advice is to create the rhyming couplet first. This is the key to the poem. You have then created 8 lines of the 19 line poem.

You will then need 5 lines that rhyme with the first line of the couplet and six lines where you are quite at liberty to choose the rhyme.

Below is my attempt at reversing the theme and also the two streams of rhyming words … basing the poem on the couplet …

Go gentle and enjoy your last day
Give a smile as you pass quietly away

Go gentle and enjoy your last day

go gentle and enjoy your last day
don’t focus on loss of your sight
give a smile as you pass quietly away

a wise man knows how to play
knows exactly the way that is right
go gentle and enjoy your last day

and a good man accepts the path-way
as he enters the door of the night
give a smile as you pass quietly away

now a wild man in wild disarray
thinks again his disorganised plight
go gentle and enjoy your last day

while a grave man will rise up to say
‘the end is indeed turning bright’
give a smile as you pass quietly away

so to all I respectfully pray
just savour those last rays of light
go gentle and enjoy your last day
give a smile as you pass quietly away

Richard Scutter 15 May 2013

The official website dedicated to Dylan Thomas – http://www.dylanthomas.com/

Here is an audio of the Radio National program ‘Poetica’ on 11 May in which Villanelles were featured.

International Poetry Studies Institute – Canberra University

richinaword Poetry Announcements 5 Comments

An International Poetry Studies Institute has been created at Canberra University.

From Sally Pryor’s article in the Canberra Times (11/5/13) …

… the country’s first research institute dedicated to poetry is now right here in the capital. The International Poetry Studies Institute has just been launched at the University of Canberra, as part of the newly established Donald Horne Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design. For an institute with such a grand title, its ambitions are suitably lofty – to conduct research into poetry and poets, and publish its findings internationally, as a way of “furthering the appreciation and understanding of poetry, poetic language and the cultural and social significance of poetry”.

Paul Hetherington, an associate professor and a Canberra poet, is on the institute’s management team, along with Professor Jen Webb, another published poet.

Hetherington comments … “We think that in Australia in particular, there’s this burgeoning interest in research into creativity, and also there’s a kind of resurgence in poetry all round the world” … and …

“It’s interesting that although poetry may not be a meal ticket for most poets, there’s a great proliferation of people who are interested in writing it and who are writing it. And in Australia … the national and international standing of Australian poetry at the moment is very high. We’ve got a great number of very skilled and important poets in this country, and at the moment it’s an area that’s been under-researched.”

The institute also has an online journal, Axon: Creative Explorations, established in 2011 as the faculty was testing the poetic waters. It now produces two themed editions a year containing poetry, interviews and articles from around the world.

Hetherington states …

“So far, people we’ve talked to have been very enthusiastic about this nationally, but also internationally there’s recognition of the importance of research into creativity and the way poetry exemplifies the creative process”

“Poetry presents such interesting and diverse ways of using language, it’s an interesting take and way to just look at language and how we express ourselves, how we understand ourselves.”

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/an-ode-to-verse-20130509-2jabb.html#ixzz2T4HCXgNe

Rugby – A Mysterious Lass : Matt Laffan

richinaword Poetry analysis Leave a comment

Old men dream of her,
her soft touch, her goading eyes that challenged them to
deeds that the men’s wives and women despised.
They remember their youth,
youthful lives with youthful mates
that now are old not young
with old men’s bones and old men’s fates.
Yet she is young, even now,
touching younger men, arousing souls
to burn, a raging fire –
old men’s still glow, with embers and coal.

They see glories gone,
eyelids closed, cobwebs clearing
of crowds and team mates
slapping backs, winks and smiles, and cheering.

They hear comments,
they’re proud to love her
and they see her fondness –
deep in the soul emotion stirs.
Old eyes grow misty,
throats are dry, hearts do ache
they look at hands, once skilled
and then sadly the old men’s heads shake.
Comradeship and pride,
is what she’d taught so well,
and that she still does
as more she enthrals with her spell.

Young men, new men
to be trained and told
how to be a good man, a better man
and learn as did the old.
Some she breaks,
their hearts, their lives and they cry
for she can be brutal, harsh –
for the better she loves the more they’ll try.

Some are her champs,
their names chanted in stadiums, loud
while others are just followers
and held silently proud.
Smell of sweat,
Feelings of ache and strain
on bodies brutally thumped
and jumpers soaked with blood and stains.
Hands passing,
flesh on leather, fluent moves
moving forward for the goal
with boots pounding the sound of thundering hooves.
They play her game,
they win, they lose for many years
and time passes on
as men do laugh and shed some tears.

Rivals meet,
they play hard against each other
to be the best in her eyes
and always try to beat their brother.
But in the end,
the men are all as one,
they are all lovers of the woman,
like thousands under the sun.
Many she’s caressed
in her endless global walk
and young men grow old
and of her and their love they talk.

Lovely woman,
A mystical ghost touching deep
within, her men –
to her side they’ll keep.

Matt Laffan 24 September 1985

My comments follow …

S1 … Do men love sport more than woman? … what a silly question – however, sport does take men away from women or attending other activities. But this poem is clearly about rugby being a woman … and of course an eternally young lass that will continue to arouse men. Rugby is remembered as an old man remembering a young woman. An interesting last line – old men’s still glow, with embers and coal – not old men still glow … I quess because the old men are still now.

S2 … old men have to close their eyes to see things … well things from the past – the glory days when they were involved.

S3 … the deep emotional attachment to the game … and the lament that they can no longer play the game looking at hands that no longer can perfom. But they are proud that they once loved the game (the young woman) and what the game gave in  comradeship and what the game continues to give as woman will continue to entrall men with their spell.

S4 … and now a reflection on what the game gives to young men taking up rugby … rugby teaches man to be better … likewise woman of course … the last line has a nice pun play on the last word … rugby is all about trying.

S5 … looking at the game from the game’s point of view … or the view of the game as personified by the young lass … some are her champs and some are just followers … and there is a lot of blood sweat and tears in the foundation of the relationship … and here we have the very physical aspects … to play her game it must be boots and all … and of course there are laughs and tears, winners and losers.

S6 … well, of course there are rivals and competition … but it is all clean fun … they are all lovers of the game and respectful of the game … thousands world wide lovers of this woman

S7 … I rather like the closing stanza … men only part of the game … they’ll keep … woman (and rugby of course) must always put men in proper perspective.

A wonderful poem about rugby the irony of the situation in that he could never play the game. He had a serious disability and was confined to a wheelchair for most of his life and died aged 38. He had a brilliant interlect … a link to some personal details.