Week 3 (Riley and Claire)

Book by Mary Oliver:

We have noticed that with a lot of free verse poetry doesn’t seem to have the same meter from line to line, or even an apparent consistency. How important is cadence in the construction of a poem when you are writing? How important is it to the flow of the poem?

Which type of poetry is “better” (We know this is an extremely subjective thing), ones that rhyme (50-55ish) or free verse where the content is the center of the piece, not so much the words.

“The most important point in the line is the line is the end of the line. The second most important point is the beginning of it.” (Pg 52) Do you agree with this idea? Are their some cases where this is reversed?

Myers: On page 92, he talks about "Thematic Shapes of Poems". How do you think shaping a poem makes it better? Why do you think that poets use thematic shapes?

Kings And Rhiannan

What do you think of the "dingdong" theory on page 20 of Oliver? Why do you think the theory didn't survive?

I'm pretty sure I was asleep that day in kindergarten, when we learned that W was a vowel? Where did that come from (Oliver, page 21) and why do you think its considered one?

Do you think about sound as specifically as Mary Oliver does? Do you concentrate on something so precise when you write a poem, or is it less important to you in your everyday writing?

"The major problem in creative writing is creative writing." Pg 23, Myers. He goes on to say that the contents of a poem comes from itself, and we somehow want to or need to change a poem it is best to look back at it. First, do you agree? Do you look back at your own poem to change it? And are there poems you feel you don't need to change.

Words for thought,

R and K

Welcome!

Hey!  So this is the site where we will be sharing thoughts  on writing poetry and what that means.  The first posting should be up by class on Thursday by the students responsible for it.  They will be chosen in class on Monday, January 9, 2012.  We will be choosing pairs (and one triple) for this sort of work.  Everyone must respond to the official posts by 12 noon the Sunday after they are posted.  If you don't respond by then, you will receive a zero for that week's assignment.  If you respond tepidly, you will receive a tepid grade -- fervently, a fervent grade!

The goal is to develop a conversation about the technical and emotional elements of writing poems and where those intersect, overlap, influence one another.  A short, thoughtful response to the pointwill be more useful than a ramble that doesn't really get ius anywhere.