Poetry Corner 4.
Sorry it's a bit long .
Now we've got the football out of the way we can concentrate on the less important things in life, like life and death for example. (Thanks Mr. Shankley)
Spurs Community becomes a literary venue with a football team attached..Much like The Tate Gallery which has always been accepted as a terrific cafe with a half decent Art Gallery.
Here is some poetic balm to ease our Champions' league pain
'Tis better to have played and lost
Than never to have played at all. Alfred Lord Tennyson '' In Memoriam' nearly.
What is the point of Poetry?
Well come to that what's the point of anything. But let's leave that for another day. Still a tough one though Jim, not sure you're up to this. Yeah but they said that about Spurs and the Champions' League.
1) Because you want to say something even just to yourself is the obvious answer and poetry offers a multitude of ways in different styles and formats. The Greek word poem, just means "a made thing," It's personal and it's the poet's own.
Some people like to grab a suit from the wardrobe and gad about in style. Some prefer to tear off all their clothes and go naked. Some experienced writers sometimes like to take an outfit and subtly change it: a cravat for a tie say, and set a new trend. Bear with me.' A Cravat' Jimmy? Seriously?
2) Alexander Pope in his verse Essay 'On Criticism? published in in 1711 had an answer which covers part of the question
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
giving memorable form to sometimes quite ordinary thoughts.
The essay which is more a writing guide contains many well known thoughts.
' A little learning is a dangerous thing' . As we know from the Match Threads on SC.
'For fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. SC criticisms of Mauricio for example
'Be silent always when you doubt your sense'. How many times has A&C said this on the Match threads
Memorably expressed and often enhanced by rhyme or rhythm to make it literally more memorable.
But not necessarily. Pope wrote this when he was 20 and Samuel Johnson (Dr. Johnson) who was not an easy man to please was well impressed.
He of the 'When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
((Including the Mighty Spurs. Not in the 18th. Century obviously)
Johnson is the second most quoted man after Shakespeare and many of us have used his thoughts.
Second Marriage: 'The triumph of hope over experience'. is a popular one.
'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel' (See Nigel Farage)
and here is one especially for Spurs fans:
''It is necessary to hope for hope itself is happiness'' Thanks Sam it just doesn't feel like it at the time
3) Poetry is also very handy for people whose grasp of syntax, grammar, spelling, and even sense
is a little hazy. Because in poetry anything goes and nobody can say you are wrong. Sometimes referred to as Poetic Licence. Poetry innit!.
Prose is much more strict and because there are rules people can nit-pick. Essentially it's more 'prosaic' That is ordinary even boring but Dr. Johnson himself gives the lie to this.
See SC threads where grammatical pedants,you know who you are, who cannot refute your logic or opinion can catch you out with a Grammatical Exorcet, spelling error or the simple word 'paragraphs?' (*Pedant, from Latin for a teacher, as you have always suspecte
Here is a poem that explores that moment when the lines hover between prose and poetry that moment when the lines like the birds flew rather than fell.
Because you asked about the line between poetry and prose**
Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned to pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow.
There came a moment that you couldn’t tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.
Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)
I think perhaps you had to be there, but he's writing about a moment of revelation,of transformation which is what poetry can do. See Dele and Christian and Lucas Moura in the semi-final. The turning points in a game, in a season or in life, captured in the moment.
Kids begin by loving poetic form, Nursery rhymes, Haikues, limericks but end up hating it firstly because they are force fed unsuitable stuff in school and choke on 'meaning'.
Rock-a-Bye Baby
Rock a bye baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
Can be sung and has appropriate actions, simple rhyme, regular rhythm. Dark undertones like many Nursery Rhymes. Possibly tragic end. Ring a'ring of Rosies refers to the Plague. 'We all fall down'
Abstract art suffers the same fate. Try extracting meaning from Jackson Pollack's drip paintings. Artists and poets get to hate the question 'Very nice but what's it mean? Football doesn't MEAN anything. It's there because it's there. But Poetry usually has meaning whatever form it takes.
4) The language of poetry is dynamic, compressed, full of images and dense. Poetry is often complex and difficult and you need to ease your way in. Imagery is very common in poetry:
Lucas Moura stormed the Ajax defence. He didn't literally. (Metaphor: one thing has the attributes of another)
Lucas Moura was like a storm battering at the Ajax defence. (Simile one thing is like another)But just to confuse matters this is prose but using the devices often found in Poetry.
You want to say something and explore different ways of doing so.
Short corners for example. Much underused by Spurs.
Most goals are prosaic, tap ins, scrabbled goals from corners (see Llorente) but some are a thing of beauty and a joy for ever' (Keats) Eriksen's goals from outside the area; Dele's blindside runs.
Like poetry they have an extra dimension, an element of magic.
E.E.Cummins or e.e.cumins as he preferred
“i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh ... And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new.”
― e.e. cummings
Familiar erotic thoughts and feelings, but expressed in his inimitable style. No rhyme, or regular rhythm, or line length or normal grammatical or line structure. Uses imagery 'the shocking fuzz.of your electric fur....'love crumbs' and the strange structure of the closing lines, a detumesent (shrinking) ending but perhaps that's a bit too fanciful or 'just me' as they say.
A modern poem almost accessible at first reading but bears thinking about and then re-reading. You will notice things you didn't on first reading. Prose is often more easily understood but not always.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
By ironically Robert Frost. The most anthologised 'modern' poet.
The rivalry of passion and desire and hate. Irregular rhythm and line length complicated rhyme scheme and teasing repetition (suffice/ ice) Simple concept but memorably expressed. And we are back where we started. 'What oft was thought'
I'm going to stop there as I realise I have bitten off more than I can chew. (Metaphor or simile?
**In a recent conversation with Led's Zeppelin of this parish he suggested that in a sense all writing is poetry of one sort or another.
The poem by Howard Nemerov above explores the moment when prose becomes poetry so in a sense I am disagreeing with him but it's a fruitful line of enquiry and I will pursue it next time.
It raises the question 'What is poetry?' Which perhaps comes before 'What is the point of Poetry?'
Enough already.
Sorry it's a bit long .
Now we've got the football out of the way we can concentrate on the less important things in life, like life and death for example. (Thanks Mr. Shankley)
Spurs Community becomes a literary venue with a football team attached..Much like The Tate Gallery which has always been accepted as a terrific cafe with a half decent Art Gallery.
Here is some poetic balm to ease our Champions' league pain
'Tis better to have played and lost
Than never to have played at all. Alfred Lord Tennyson '' In Memoriam' nearly.
What is the point of Poetry?
Well come to that what's the point of anything. But let's leave that for another day. Still a tough one though Jim, not sure you're up to this. Yeah but they said that about Spurs and the Champions' League.
1) Because you want to say something even just to yourself is the obvious answer and poetry offers a multitude of ways in different styles and formats. The Greek word poem, just means "a made thing," It's personal and it's the poet's own.
Some people like to grab a suit from the wardrobe and gad about in style. Some prefer to tear off all their clothes and go naked. Some experienced writers sometimes like to take an outfit and subtly change it: a cravat for a tie say, and set a new trend. Bear with me.' A Cravat' Jimmy? Seriously?
2) Alexander Pope in his verse Essay 'On Criticism? published in in 1711 had an answer which covers part of the question
True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
giving memorable form to sometimes quite ordinary thoughts.
The essay which is more a writing guide contains many well known thoughts.
' A little learning is a dangerous thing' . As we know from the Match Threads on SC.
'For fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. SC criticisms of Mauricio for example
'Be silent always when you doubt your sense'. How many times has A&C said this on the Match threads
Memorably expressed and often enhanced by rhyme or rhythm to make it literally more memorable.
But not necessarily. Pope wrote this when he was 20 and Samuel Johnson (Dr. Johnson) who was not an easy man to please was well impressed.
He of the 'When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
((Including the Mighty Spurs. Not in the 18th. Century obviously)
Johnson is the second most quoted man after Shakespeare and many of us have used his thoughts.
Second Marriage: 'The triumph of hope over experience'. is a popular one.
'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel' (See Nigel Farage)
and here is one especially for Spurs fans:
''It is necessary to hope for hope itself is happiness'' Thanks Sam it just doesn't feel like it at the time
3) Poetry is also very handy for people whose grasp of syntax, grammar, spelling, and even sense
is a little hazy. Because in poetry anything goes and nobody can say you are wrong. Sometimes referred to as Poetic Licence. Poetry innit!.
Prose is much more strict and because there are rules people can nit-pick. Essentially it's more 'prosaic' That is ordinary even boring but Dr. Johnson himself gives the lie to this.
See SC threads where grammatical pedants,you know who you are, who cannot refute your logic or opinion can catch you out with a Grammatical Exorcet, spelling error or the simple word 'paragraphs?' (*Pedant, from Latin for a teacher, as you have always suspecte
Here is a poem that explores that moment when the lines hover between prose and poetry that moment when the lines like the birds flew rather than fell.
Because you asked about the line between poetry and prose**
Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned to pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow.
There came a moment that you couldn’t tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.
Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)
I think perhaps you had to be there, but he's writing about a moment of revelation,of transformation which is what poetry can do. See Dele and Christian and Lucas Moura in the semi-final. The turning points in a game, in a season or in life, captured in the moment.
Kids begin by loving poetic form, Nursery rhymes, Haikues, limericks but end up hating it firstly because they are force fed unsuitable stuff in school and choke on 'meaning'.
Rock-a-Bye Baby
Rock a bye baby, on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
Can be sung and has appropriate actions, simple rhyme, regular rhythm. Dark undertones like many Nursery Rhymes. Possibly tragic end. Ring a'ring of Rosies refers to the Plague. 'We all fall down'
Abstract art suffers the same fate. Try extracting meaning from Jackson Pollack's drip paintings. Artists and poets get to hate the question 'Very nice but what's it mean? Football doesn't MEAN anything. It's there because it's there. But Poetry usually has meaning whatever form it takes.
4) The language of poetry is dynamic, compressed, full of images and dense. Poetry is often complex and difficult and you need to ease your way in. Imagery is very common in poetry:
Lucas Moura stormed the Ajax defence. He didn't literally. (Metaphor: one thing has the attributes of another)
Lucas Moura was like a storm battering at the Ajax defence. (Simile one thing is like another)But just to confuse matters this is prose but using the devices often found in Poetry.
You want to say something and explore different ways of doing so.
Short corners for example. Much underused by Spurs.
Most goals are prosaic, tap ins, scrabbled goals from corners (see Llorente) but some are a thing of beauty and a joy for ever' (Keats) Eriksen's goals from outside the area; Dele's blindside runs.
Like poetry they have an extra dimension, an element of magic.
E.E.Cummins or e.e.cumins as he preferred
“i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric fur, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh ... And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new.”
― e.e. cummings
Familiar erotic thoughts and feelings, but expressed in his inimitable style. No rhyme, or regular rhythm, or line length or normal grammatical or line structure. Uses imagery 'the shocking fuzz.of your electric fur....'love crumbs' and the strange structure of the closing lines, a detumesent (shrinking) ending but perhaps that's a bit too fanciful or 'just me' as they say.
A modern poem almost accessible at first reading but bears thinking about and then re-reading. You will notice things you didn't on first reading. Prose is often more easily understood but not always.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
By ironically Robert Frost. The most anthologised 'modern' poet.
The rivalry of passion and desire and hate. Irregular rhythm and line length complicated rhyme scheme and teasing repetition (suffice/ ice) Simple concept but memorably expressed. And we are back where we started. 'What oft was thought'
I'm going to stop there as I realise I have bitten off more than I can chew. (Metaphor or simile?
**In a recent conversation with Led's Zeppelin of this parish he suggested that in a sense all writing is poetry of one sort or another.
The poem by Howard Nemerov above explores the moment when prose becomes poetry so in a sense I am disagreeing with him but it's a fruitful line of enquiry and I will pursue it next time.
It raises the question 'What is poetry?' Which perhaps comes before 'What is the point of Poetry?'
Enough already.