 Poetry: May 25, 2011 Issue [#4412] |
  Poetry
This week: Crafting Tradition in Free Verse Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Here undoubtedly lies the chief poetic energy:
-in the force of imagination that pierces or exalts the solid fact,
instead of floating among cloud-pictures.
George Eliot
Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me,
why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?
Walt Whitman
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. And reading aloud, one hears the song in the wind, the trees, the stars, the heart and spirit of the singer and adds his/her solo to the chorus.
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Greetings, fellow lyric wordsmiths. Thank you for having me back.
Reading aloud, I challenged myself to search for the lyric song in free verse. It is today called a form of traditional poetry, is it not? So, I read, aloud, seeking the rhythm of words crafting images, places, ideas. I sought familiar metric schemes, rhymes, the essence of the art.
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. Okay, as wordsmiths, crafters of the art, I thought it fun here to share the names of the tools crafting the art
 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
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Read aloud some lyric verse crafted by members of our Community who share their vision via the art of poetry ~ listen to the words and share your thoughts with the artists who crafted each
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Maybe you'd like to try one of your own, either free verse or fixed forms, your lyric voice is welcome here 
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Thank you for sharing this exploration and I invite you to engage in the crafting of free verse to create your own lyric imagery and art. Remember, as in all poetry, one rule remains,
read all poetry aloud
and share the art crafted with words.
Until we next meet,
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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