In chapter 5 of The Portable Poetry Workshop, Myers discusses free verse. Occasionally, "free verse" seems to be a synonym for "laziness," as it is easy to go off on a rant, neglecting poetic tools. The chapter which we just read, however, gives the reader so many ways to improve their poem that they have no excuse to be lazy. In your poems, do you choose to employ these concepts when first writing the piece, or do you add them later? Also -- what were all of your thoughts on implication? We(?) found it particularly interesting in that it can add an unusually subtle dimension to a poem, but does it add anything else? Can it influence a reader's perspective on the narrator? Can it make an ordinary scene seem extraordinary?
Oliver claims that free verse is more accessible because it does not follow a strict meter. Do you find free verse to be more or less accessible than metered poetry? What about in terms of the potential laziness referred to in the above paragraph? Oliver references speech being lyrical and free verse poetry using many of the same techniques. What do you think effective public speakers have in common with good poets (particularly spoken word or slam poets)? On page 116 of A Poetry Handbook, the reader is told that poetry improves significantly when written in solitude. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it could potentially add something to the poem if it is written with constant interruptions? Have you experimented with this on your own, and if so, what did you learn about your writing style and it's dependency on the presence of others?
On a side note, if you had to pick one, would you say that diction, tone, voice or rhythm were most important to a poem's strength?
My own method of writing poems is to strait wherever i want to and just write without worrying about any of the teqnuces is the methods that can be used to add new dimensions. It might help when I revise my poems but not for the first draft. When I revise my poem I start by adding more imagery and playing with the line format. The implication would come out of all these other changes if they are done thoughtfully. In order to work on the implication of the poem you need concrete ways to do it, you cant just change implication in the abstract but you need to change lines, words, etc. Sometimes you need to take things out.I prefer meter poetry to free because for me it gives me more of a flow and I like having more of a structure. Meter verse is closer to natural songs which I find closer to the real idea of poetry. Free verse sounds more like prose to me. I find in easier to write in solitude, interruption and distractions break the train of thought and I do not find it helpful.Sometimes I get ideas from other people that I would not have thought of if I was by myself. I find it hard to write in class because there are a lot of distractions.
ReplyDeleteI think that most people, when free verse writing, start out with just what comes to their head. Thats why, I think, we have the process of revision so that we can rework everything into what we really want it to be.
ReplyDeleteI think that free verse is more accessible. It takes time to add meter into a poem, and if you're wanting to get down an idea, free verse is what I would go to. I definitely, as michael said, prefer meter, but as we are talking about accessibility, i would think free verse.
I think that solitude can enhance the vision of some poems, but I dont think that it is a necessity or something that is hugely important to the writing.
I think Rhythm is the most important aspect to a poem because I think that a good poem has structure to it and a poem with no rhythm sounds like free verse to me, which just reminds me of the "laziness" that Eric and Lily mentioned. Diction is good but I dont think its absolutely necessary. Voice doesnt matter to me, I think that a poem can be good in any voice. I think that different voices can change the meaning of a poem, but that doesnt mean that it doesnt work. Tone is very important but I dont think that the way a poem sounds/feels makes the poem good.
Truthfully I write out my thoughts then cut away what is errelivent though not always. With free verse this really seems what it's supposed to be and if so poetic devises are used then you could almost say free verse is the drawing board of poetry, since we can write anything but in order to fit a certain style besides it's own their are no boundaries.
ReplyDeleteIt really depends on what the purpose of writing the poem is. If my goal is to write about something on my mind i generally find free verse easier if i don't worry about the structure of the poem. I guess it would resemble prose during the first stages of a poem. If my goal is to make a stupid or pointless poem then i like to start out of the gate with some techniques, (rhyming, meter, metaphors, exc...)
ReplyDeleteI think that the main similarity between good poets and public speakers is the person knows what they are talking about or writing about really well. This comes across as confidence in the presenter. A good presenter can sell practically anything if they have confidence in what they are saying (think about infomercials)
I personally can only write when i am alone, even with prose. Constant interruptions annoy me, and their is something about the presence of other people that makes me self conscious. In order to write i need to shed the feeling of someone looking over my shoulder, so being alone is key.
I write my poems based on the tone or message behind the poem, Most of my ideas start out as free verse but then when ever I had it in for the second time there tends to be more structure to it. Free verse is definitely "Lazy" because it is very much like the difference in writing a developed essay to a journal entry. I defiantly write poems with a more deep meaning when I'm alone, I feel its a lot easier to put something down on paper when theres no one around unintentionally manipulating your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI definitely try to spice up the language in my free verse poems with alliteration, rhyming, and metaphor, but only about half of those come out in the first draft, then I spice it up a little more later. I've noticed that the more I've written, though, the more these come out naturally, and I don't need to add them in later. So I don't look at free verse as "lazy" so much as freeing. There is nothing to confine your work, and so sometimes certain juxtapositions contained in your head find their way to the page accidentally in a way that doesn't happen in metered poetry.
ReplyDeleteI think that public speakers can learn a lot from poetry slams and vice versa. Poets sometimes need to be more conversational in their presentations, like good public speakers, and speakers sometimes need more artistry in their speeches, like good poems. I think the perfect example of this is the "I have a dream speech." This speech could easily be converted into a poem, but was one of the most powerful speeches of all time. It's kinda a give and take
I definitely see free verse as freeing. It allows me to express myself using whatever words I think are fit for the feeling I am trying to convey or uncover. Sometimes trying to rhyme everything can be too confining, so I really enjoy free verse. I, like Chris, sometimes add rhyme in afterwards to give the poem more of a rap-ish feeling, if I'm going for that, or looking to make it easier to recite.
ReplyDeleteI think that the work that comes out of uninterrupted sessions are very different from those that are written five minuets at a time. Sometimes I get caught up in a poem and need to write everything down in that moment, and I would forget the idea if I went off to do something else before finishing it. But other times, going off and coming back to a poem is very effective, because it gives me the chance to come back into the poem with a new eye that may catch something that didn't work initially. It definitely depends on the poem though.
I do not think that “free verse” is a synonym for “laziness” in poetry. Free verse can be very thought out and well written, and can contain many of the aspects, or “technical measurements”, which Myers writes about: tension, voice, tone, form, sectioning, flow, punctuation (by means other than punctuation), etc. When I write a poem at first, I tend to have a structure in the back on my mind to help the flow of the poem. Once I have finished putting my ideas onto the paper, I can then go back and alter it to a “fixed form” if I choose.
ReplyDeleteI can usually write much better in solitude. I also find it hard to write in class because I have trouble focusing on what I am writing with many people around me. I start to think about something else, but sometimes that triggers another poem. When I am alone and quiet, if I am for example writing about a certain memory, it is much easier to remember details and relive the memory in order to capture it in words.
If I had to pick, I would say that tone or voice is the most important to a poem’s strength.
When I write, it's about the first thing that comes to mind. Whether I hear a car drive by or the I see a fly on the wall. I just let my mind wander and write about where it ends up and how it got there. The key for me is shutting everything else out before hand. If I'm distracted or have other things on my mind, I get writers block. This is why I am able to write better alone, there are less things to distract me. Because I end up just writing and not really thinking about anything, I find free verse to be somewhat lazy. It doesnt require the writer to put any substance behind the words. I'm not saying no free verse has depth at all, but it's easier to be lazy with free verse than it is with other forms of poetry
ReplyDelete