  Poetry
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“ The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“ The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”
~Mark Twain |
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Dead Language
Words remain the single most important device poets have at their disposal. Without them, we have nothing. With them, we can construct anything. But, word choice is crucial, and it either builds a sturdy bridge, providing the reader with a safe crossing into your world, where they can delight their senses in a transforming poetic experience, or it’s merely scattered pieces of wood that the reader must then attempt to leap between, therefore, being unable to enjoy the ambiance and scenery along the way. If, in your attempt, you throw in what I like to call dead language, you will completely rip your reader out of the scene and into another, thus ruining the experience even further.
Allow me to explain what I mean by “dead language” (not to be confused with extinct language). As you know, each word includes denotation (the most direct or literal meaning) and connotation (the indirect, implied or associated meaning). As writers we must be aware of these as we write and realize that connotation plays an extremely large role in how readers perceive our work. Of course, I realize that you cannot write with everyone in mind; that would be impossible, but we must take into account that some wording is, in fact, so famous that it is basically now dead language. Why is it dead? Simply because when a large population of people read it, they will immediately be torn away from the scene you are creating and transported to another time and place, thus killing the moment.
This very thing happened to me just the other day while brainstorming with a friend for newsletter topics. Originally this newsletter was going to be on tough poetry forms, as a follow-up to my last newsletter question. As we discussed difficult forms, my friend sent me one of his poems to read. Right in the middle of the poem was the innocent, two-word phrase “grassy knoll.” To some, this means nothing. To a gal, living in Dallas, even though I wasn’t born until after 1963, the grassy knoll means one thing to me…the conspiracy around the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It means this to many people, not just me (just check Wikipedia). So, as I read along this lovely poem, in a fraction of a second, in my head, I was watching the footage of JFK’s motorcade and seeing him get shot – something I have seen many times in television documentaries.
So, what are some of these dead language phrases? Here are just a few:
 I have a dream (Martin Luther King Jr.)
Finest hour (Winston Churchill)
Fear itself (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
Ask not... (John F. Kennedy)
One small step (Neil Armstrong)
Tear down this wall (Ronald Reagan)
To hear recordings of some of these wonderful words go to:
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/comm201e/speech.html (a couple short clips)
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html (top 100 speeches)
Some of these you may or may not recognize. Many others exist and many are being created as we live today. I’ve stuck to historical phrases because those were most familiar to me, but popular phrases can come from anywhere. I remember things like “Make my day” (Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry) or "I'll be back" (Arnold Awarchzenegger as Terminator) and if I saw those in a poem would surely hear them saying those words to me. The point is, you simply must keep your audience in mind as you write and try to not use dead language.
Let your love of poetry shine!
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In response to last month’s question: What is the most difficult poetry form you have written and what was the result?
ESTyree   says, “Rhyming couplets never seem to come out right for me! I have a few in my port, but they never flow right. I can free flow, do the iambic pentameter, etc. But the rhyming couplets frustrate me to no end!”
ryanpie says, “A good question. To be honest, when I write poetry, I prefer to just write whatever comes to mind - I don't use forms. I HAVE tried it before, but I just think I could do better without one.”
scribbler says, “I think the most difficult poetry, isn't or rather wasn’t difficult to write because it was hard to get the words out. For me a poem is difficult if it is personal and it *hurts* to write down. That’s what makes it difficult.”
monty31802 says, “I can answer your question very quickly. The most difficult for me is the Haiku. Unrhymed poem of 17 syllables - 3 lines, 1 & 3 have 5 syllables and 2 has 7. I can do it but it always sounds forced and I am never satisfied with the outcome.
BTW this was an interesting Newsletter.”
black_orchid says, “For me the most difficult poetry that I've written is always poems about past relationships that didn't work or that were bad. It resurfaces memories of the relationship, sometimes it's difficult to handle. The result of this is I get over the relationship better, it doesn't haunt me as it used to.”
While not all of the feedback was regarding particular forms, it was all great feedback regarding difficulties we face in writing poetry. Thank you for all of your comments!
My question of the month: Are you ready for another 21 Days of Poetry Challenge? (Coming next month in the July 11th Newsletter! Be ready to sign up – the Challenge will start on July 13th which means you will only have from the time the newsletter is released until 10 PM WDC time on July 13th to sign up. No late sign ups accepted!! Complete the 21 Day Challenge and win a Merit Badge!)
Next week’s editor is a guest editor – spidey  ! |
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Poetry: June 20, 2007 Issue [#1784]
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