Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Seven

[geoff-chaucer.livejournal.com]

Wednesday, December 14, 7:00PM FST

Just a quick reminder to everyone that your sestinas will be read aloud in class next week, so if you're having trouble writing please make time to come see me. Also, if you owe make-up work, I need it turned in to me by Thursday, December 15 -- which is tomorrow, by the way.


Today we're going to talk about a form of poetry called blank verse, and pick up our discussion of your assigned reading. I'll also be offering an extra credit exercise for those of you interested.

[Lecture] Blank verse is comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same meter, usually iambic pentameter. It was developed in Italy and became widely used during the Renaissance because it resembled classical, unrhymed poetry. Marlowe's "mighty line," which demonstrated blank verse's range and flexibility, made blank verse the standard for many early English writers, including both Shakespeare and Milton, and was embraced by more modern poets such as Yeats, Pound, Frost, and Stevens. While it may not be as common as open form, it retains an important role in the world of poetry.

Blank verse can be composed in any meter and with any amount of feet per line (any line length), though the iamb is generally the predominant foot. The other three standard feet and their variations can be employed in a blank verse poem. It is difficult--almost impossible--to write a blank verse poem consisting of all iambs, and other types of feet get used more often than one may think.

Blank verse can be written with any combination of feet. The name of the dominant foot coupled with the number of feet in the line, provide the name of a poem's meter. For example, the dominant foot in Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" is the iamb, and there are five feet per line. Thus, the poem is written in iambic pentameter. Notice, however, that not each foot is an iamb, but Frost mixes up the feet, as in the first few lines of the poem.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun


[Discussion] Alexander Pope's The Dunciad is an example of satirical poetry. Choose one of the four sections and answer the following questions: What is Pope satirizing? What do you think he was trying to accomplish through this satire?


[Extra Credit] Write a short poem in blank verse satirizing something about Fandom High. (Extra credit can be applied to make-up work for missed classes if you like.)


The following students have two or more unexcused absences. If you have not yet seen me about make-up work for the classes missed, please do so.
scissors___: two absences, have discussed make-up work
death_n_binky two absences, have discussed make-up work
rory__gilmore two absences

Make-up work needs to be handed in to me no later than Thursday, December 15 (yes OMG tomorrow).

Comments

Re: DISCUSSION

[kikidelivers.livejournal.com]

"Pope is definitely satirizing his contemporaries, particularly political figures and fellow members of the literary field. He seems to particularly hate writers-for-hire, and booksellers that enable them. I mean, he has them running through...er, human waste, chasing a fake poet, one who was a plagerist, so he certainly has no love for people who fancy themselves literary greats who really are hacks."

Re: DISCUSSION

[scissors--.livejournal.com]

"Well, i guess Pope was not very happy because he had to write for money, being a catholic and all, and still managed to make some quite decent works. The hacks were just writing as many words as possible like that dickens guy to get rich."