  Poetry
This week: Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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"...the writing of poems....
the call of overhearing music that is not yet made."
Mary Kinzie, in A Poet's Guide to Poetry
Poetry is the lyrical rendition of the rhythm of sight, sound, touch, taste; of living, seen through the eyes of a poet and consigned to paper and laptop and keyboard until it can be read aloud. Yes, all poetry needs to be read aloud, to savor the rhythm in the words, and revive the images the poet conscribed to the pages of a book or computer.
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Greetings!
Thank you for having me back. This week I would like to attempt an answer to a reader's question from my last visit. Yes, there is a difference between blank verse and free verse. I will try to explain what I've seen and heard in my reading and writing.
If you recall from our exploration of blank verse last month, most blank verse does not have end rhymes, but there is a dominant meter, a beat that carries the images forward in near normal speech. Though each line might not finish and image or thought, running to the next via enjambment, each maintains its rhythm, with the occasional shift for emphasis. Blank verse is most often written in iambic pentameter (five 'feet' of soft-hard syllables per line). Reading aloud, it is most akin form of metered verse to normal speech. Try for yourself, read aloud Robert Frost's Mending Wall, and you'll see how natural it feels as you taste the words.
Free verse also does not rhyme, and it has no set meter. A lot of poetry written today is called free verse, but not all writing called free verse is poetry. I'm sure you've heard or read in a submission guideline, that a contest host or publisher seeks free verse poems, 'for tradition's sake.' How can we call free verse 'traditional' poetry? Well, let's see if we can answer that question.
Walt Whitman, in his Leaves of Grass, did not adhere to end rhymes, metrical constructs, or lengths to the vivid images he conveyed. Read from it, aloud, however, and you will find the images come alive, and you will join in a conversation lyric, enter a world alive with pathos and passion.
Walt Whitman, as later will T.S. Eliot, Carl Sandburg, Billy Collins, and Mary Oliver, among other poets known and awaiting our discovery, in place of the familiar regularity of metrical poetry. They substitute for fixed meter and structured stanzas, the cadence of ordinary speech, and selectively use traditional poetic devices to focus the listener's attention or to end or begin a thought.
Free verse makes use of repetition, white space, and visual imagery to convey an image or idea to words. Free verse poetry often uses combinations of meters, such as iambs and troches, along with intentional line breaks, and word groupings to create emphasis. The poet chooses which of the traditional devices to use, and when.
Please note the operative word - 'chooses.' In free verse, each poet selects devices as he or she chooses, to express the image or idea, which is what makes the words come alive as poetry, and not a mere jumble of random words on paper. Mary Oliver has commented, in an interview I read awhile ago, that she writes a poem, sets it aside, then returns to revise it until it speaks the image she perceives in recalling the moment of writing.
Some of the devices you will most likely find in reading (and writing!) free verse aloud.
 Alliteration and Assonance - repeating consonants (alliteration) or vowel sound(assonance) within a line, a stanza, or scattered throughout the verse for focus or reflection.
Anaphora - repeating words at the beginning of a line or stanza for emphasis. Free the nascent muse; free the voice that seeks release; free the song, silent within; free. the verse.
Epistrophe - repeating words at the end of a stanza or line for emphasis or reflection.
Use of irregular stanza length and structure. For example, a poem about a snake may be lithe, flowing, with a band or two of shorter lines, then a spot of white space before the fangs affix veomous grip.
Patterns of word to convey concrete images. You see poems about love or lost love in the shape of a heart, the sentiment amplified by the shape. Or consider an hourglass shape for a poem describiing a day's beginning, or end, or being; an egg shape for a chrysalis, or perhaps a butterfly. But do take care not to let the physical shape on paper take over, and use words as fillers, but strive for a symbiotic sibilance of image to word to image spoken by your reader.
Many poets have stated that free verse is actually more challenging to write than metered verse, since the options are unformatted, awaiting the hand and eye and ear of the poet to make the images real. Maybe like swimming for the first time, you jump in and start to kick and paddle,then remember to breathe. Use the devices at hand, as the muse compels, to convey an image or idea.
My resources - "A Poet's Guide To Poetry," Mary Kinzie; "Word Magic for Writers," Cindy Rogers.
Until we next meet, I invite you to read and share your thoughts on some of the verse offered by members of our Community. Let us know what you think - is free verse harder to write effectively than metered poetry, and do you see where tradition fits in?
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
I invite you to read - Aloud ~ the following penned by members of our Community for your reading pleasure and review ~
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I listen in the darkness and hear only echoes of silence. (Form: Free Verse)
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| | | A POETIC WHALE (E)
I love whales and tried to describe what I saw on a whale watching tour. Hope you like it.
#1554682 by CraigieLady  |
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want to try, not sure where to start ~ check this out
Inspired to try one, or re-try the expression, consider this month's challenge below ~ do you not think it invites expression in free verse?
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Thank you again for this opportunity to explore a challenging form of poetic expression. I would like to share with you a couple of comments with respect to last month's exploration of blank verse and invite you to visit with the writers ~ you will certainly find some great reading  ~
From: annakay
Is there a difference between blank verse and free verse?
I hope this week's newsletter answered for you with the exploration of free verse. I think the basic difference is the use of a fixed meter as a base for blank verse as opposed to reliance on other traditional devices by free verse poets.
From: monty31802
As always, a fine and enjoyable Newsletter Kate.You are a treasure...
 Thank you for your unflagging encouragement and inspiration. And for providing a foundation for the muse poetic to wax creative.
Until we next meet, fellow scribes poetic,
Keep Writing!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading |
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Poetry: July 15, 2009 Issue [#3164]
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