Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson One

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

Wednesday, October 26, 7:00PM FST

Welcome to your poetry writing class. Find a place to sit where you're comfortable, although I'll ask that you keep toward the front of the room.

We'll begin with introductions: tell everyone your name and why you signed up for the class.

[Following introductions, the class is treated to a brief lecture.] Let's first talk a little about how poetry is defined.

The word poetry is derived from the Greek word 'poeio', meaning "I create". It is a written art form in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to -- or sometimes instead of -- its semantic content. The emphasis on the aesthetics of language and the deliberate use of elements such as repetition, meter and rhyme, distinguish poetry from prose. Poetry is generally considered its own literary genre, but it can also occur within other genres. Plays, for example may be prosaic, poetic or a combination of the two.

In order to write poetry, you'll need to have an understanding of the various elements used in verse. We'll begin today with three of the most basic: rhyme, meter, and figures of speech.

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words.

Meter refers to the linguistic sound patterns of verse.

Figures of speech: There are numerous examples of this element, but let's begin with the most common.

Personification occurs when an object, animal or abstract term is given human qualities.
Apostrophe is a manner of addressing someone or something that is invisible or not ordinarily spoken to.
Hyperbole, often referred to as 'overstatement', is the use of exaggeration for effect. Its opposite, understatement, occurs when more is implied than is stated.
Metonymy is the substitution of the name of a thing with that of an object or concept that is closely related. A form of metonymy is Synecdoche, where a part of a thing is used to stand in for the whole, or vice versa. Transferred epithet, another form of metonymy, applies the attributes characteristic of a thing to another which is closely related.
Paradox refers to a situation which at first appears to be self-contradictory but on reflection makes some sense.

Now: I'd like each of you to choose one of the elements I just defined -- including the various types of figures of speech -- and give me an example.

[Following the lecture]

All right, enough discussion of the technicalities. Let's share some poetry. Please read the piece you brought to class, and then tell use why you chose it.


***Assignment for next week: Begin reading Petrarch's Canzoniere (yes, there are 366 poems, no you don't have to read them all). Also, please leave me a message on my voicemail if you're interested in applying for the position of Teaching Assistant. I'll be interviewing applicants over the next fortnight.***

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Comments

Re: POETRY SHARING

[positive-angel.livejournal.com]

From Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

32.

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain’d;
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition;
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins;
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God;
Not one is dissatisfied—not one is demented with the mania of owning things;
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago;
Not one is respectable or industrious over the whole earth.

So they show their relations to me, and I accept them;
They bring me tokens of myself—they evince them plainly in their possession.


And I like the poem, believe it or not, because of the rhythm of the words as well as the way he taps into the longing for the simplistic life of animals.

Not to mention I like the poet.

Re: POETRY SHARING

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the most profound effect a poem can have is not in its meaning but in the sound of the words themselves, the way they feel in your mouth as you speak them and how they dance in your ears when you hear them. [He grins.] Thank you, Chihaya.