fandomhigh | Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Three

Tuesday, January 24, 8th period

Professor Chaucer is sitting behind his desk. He looks hungover, but in a better mood than he did yesterday. Which should tell you something about the kind of day he had yesterday. There's coffee (regular and decaf) and muffins set out on a table to the side of the classroom.

First off, I'd like to thank Kiki for again arranging the snacks for class. Please help yourselves. Today we're going to discuss more elements of poetry and the ballad form. You'll also be presenting your writing assignments from last week.

[LECTURE 1] We'll begin with Figures of speech. There are numerous examples of this element, but these are the most common.

Personification occurs when an object, animal or abstract term is given human qualities. Example: a dog with the capacity for human speech.

Apostrophe is a manner of addressing someone or something that is invisible or not ordinarily spoken to. Example: addressing part of a speech to 'Love' or 'Death' (obviously, not our DEATH, however).

Hyperbole, often referred to as 'overstatement', is the use of exaggeration for effect. Its opposite, understatement, occurs when more is implied than is stated. Examples: to say that you would die if you failed this class is 'overstatement', to say that the ocean is a bit wet is 'understatement'.

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. Examples: substituting the word 'grave' for 'death' is metonymy, saying that a person 'leant a hand' when meaning they gave the assistance of his entire self is synecdoche, stating that a herd of sheep is sleeping by saying that the bells they wear are asleep would be transferred epithet.

Paradox refers to a situation which at first appears to be self-contradictory but on reflection makes some sense. Example: saying that a peasant's world is greater than that of a rich world traveler would seem inaccurate until you take into account the idea of a spiritual world that the peasant may inhabit but the traveler may lack.

[LECTURE 2] Later in the term we'll be talking more about the concept of music lyrics as poetry, but today we're going to discuss an old and very specific form of music that's heavily tied to poetry: the ballad. A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. It generally describes a past occurrance, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, political, and very often catastrophic. The story is related in the third person, usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines (called ballad meter) and simple repeating rhymes, and often with a refrain. If it is based on political or religious themes, a ballad may then be a version of a hymn. Ballads should not be confused with the ballade, a 14th and 15th century French verse form.

The origin of the word ballad suggested something that could be danced to. Ballads are most often folk poetry in a musical format, passed along orally from generation to generation, set to conventional tunes and usually sung by a solo voice, the hearers joining in the refrain. Until written, the content evolves and changes over time, unlike a more literary poem. Unlike more traditional poetry, ballads do not employ a complicated explanation. The narrative is usually simple, clear and easy to read. Emotion is usually kept to a minimum, and the motives of characters are rarely probed in any great detail. Dialogue is kept to an economical level, but frequently used to empower the language.

The basic characteristics of a ballad are:

*Tells a story, typically in third person narrative.
*Focuses on actions and dialogue rather than characteristics and narration.
*Employs a simple metrical structure and sentence structure.
*Sung to a modal melody.
*Exists in oral tradition, passed down by word of mouth. Therefore, it undergoes changes and is of anonymous authorship.
*Usually has a theme that is not directly spoken.
*Often based on a true story.

Repetition and refrains are also used in many ballads. This is a strong resemblance to many forms of traditional music. Many traditional ballads have themes related to the supernatural, and occasionally ballads contain a moral dimension to them, usually expressed in a final verse.

Your reading assignment included several of what are called the "Child Ballads" -- a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child. The ballads vary in age. While many of them had been individually printed, for example as broadsides, Child's late 19th century collection was far more comprehensive than any previous collection.

The Child Ballads deal with subjects typical to many ballads: romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes (there are an inordinate number about Robin Hood). Some of the ballads are also rather bawdy.

[DISCUSSION] Give me an example of a ballad -- and it can be a modern song if you like -- and explain how it meets the criteria for ballad form that I've just described.

[WRITING ASSIGNMENT] Please read your sonnet assignment from last week to the class. Kiki will then collect them from you.

***Assignment for next week: Read Troylus and Creseyd.***

Class Roster

oatmanspatient

teen_twin

12parseckessel

time_agent

kikidelivers (TA) -- advanced student

death_n_binky -- advanced student

sharon_valerii

future_visions
Auditing:

gotcanewillpoke

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kiki will be taking attendance. Sign in with her here.

Kiki's got the sign in sheet out, with her name at the top. She'll collect it at the end of class.

Martin Blank.

Han Solo

Connor scribbles his name on the list.

Phoebe grins at Kiki as she signs in. "We should get together for a study group for Lit."

Kiki nods. "That sounds great," she says, "Let me know when?"

Jack signs in ~~omg so very late~~

Sharon scrawls her name on the sheet.

He doesn't feel the need to sign in, officially. But he is present, and he snags a cup of coffee, and he certainly has no idea why the professor would look hung over. Nope. No idea at all.

Ask any questions relating to the lecture, assignment, etc.

Post your response to the discussion on ballads here.

"My choice is a song called "The Ballad of the Green Berets" (http://greenberetcd.com/ballad.html). It tells about the life and struggle of elite group of soldiers who are trained and sacrifice for their country and how this can be a tradition within the family. It also has 'Ballad', in the title."

"I have always liked 'The Ballad of Eranee' (http://foibledwit.livejournal.com/8601.html#cutid2)," Kiki offers. "It tells the story of two young lovers, but the man betrays and abandons the girl, who is so depressed over it that she dies. It has a pretty simple form, too, although it is a little more complicated in that it has an internal rhyme scheme as well as the more common form. I don't know the melody, but I so know that it has been sung. I don't know, either, if it was directly ever true - but the story it tells is common enough to apply to any number of real-life relationships."

"The Ballod Of Ira Hayes," (http://www.toptown.com/hp/66/irahayes.htm) Connor says, "is a song recorded by Johnny Cash. It tells the story of a young Pima Indian who joined the Marines and went to war. He was one of only a handful of men who survived a battle, and when he returned home, he started drinking, and he died alone. It's the story of aman's struggle to be something, to do something, and doing something honorable, but after the fact he was in a worse place than he'd been before, and the heroism was a noose around his neck, and he never got past it."

Hentry Martin (http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiHENRMART;ttHENRMART.html) ~~as recorded by Figgy Duff~~. It's a remarkably unsentimental ballad about piracy. Three brothers have no money, they draw lots, and the youngest -- Henry -- goes out to capture ships. There's no sense of Robin Hood rob-from-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor, and Henry has no mercy. When the sailors on a "rich merchant ship" beg for their lives, they are dispassionately dismissed and the ship is sunk with every hand aboard. One only hopes that, in all of that, Henry managed to get the money off the ship.

Read your sonnet to the class and hand in the written copy to Kiki.

"Since I'm, um, in the Advanced Class," Kiki begins, hoping it doesn't sound like she's bragging. "I had to write two, one in each form."

Dilemma.

Oh happy I, when on you I once gazed
With fortunate eye, and smiled on that I prized
And hoped, with faithful heart and face upraised
To yours – the kindly visage cicatrized.

But no, 'twas not as I had wished it be,
And to my solitude was I resigned,
For why lament to discover liberty?
I would not be the "girl who was left behind."

Would it be uncharitable of the world
To let me in my new-found love rejoice?
Returned, assured, with your heart’s banner unfurled
And I find now that I must make this choice.

And now I'd rather have my body bent with pain,
Than have my heart so torn and rent in twain.

[ooc: Original. Emo poetry about John and Harry, woot!]

The Ferret and the Feline

Two companions, both alike in dignity,
In fair Fandom, where we lay our scene,
Where odder comrades Fate doth oft convene,
From new affection dawns friendship brightly.

From forth the clever minds of these two chums
This pair of furry schemers make their stand
With plotted aim to wheedle up on command
Cookies! Each consumed down to the crumbs.

And any gain in weight they may impute
To sensibilities they know to chafe
To reap they from their labors sacred fruit:
For every visitor is struck full mute
With nary heart nor mind nor hand kept safe
From the absolute complete and utter cute.

[ooc: Um...semi-sorta original, and with enormous apologies to Mr. Shakespeare. I was flailing liek whoa last night, and so recoursed to just blatant robbery and parody.

Marty, looking hungover himself, read off a sonnet that appears to have been written on a Caritas cocktail napkin.

While the English style sonnet scheme is correct, the poem itself is awful in content involving the themes of crazy vampires, crazy mothers and a older clone of a student who goes to school.

Connor has written his sonnet in Italian, and translated it in o English. With creative rearrangement of words and images, he's managed to make the English rhyme. [And because his mun does not speak Italian, all you're getting here is the English version. It's original, so yeah]

Outside My Window

Outside my window an ancient tree
Knotted trunk for climbing low or high
Gnarled branches that stretch across the sky
Darkness vast and endless as the sea

My brother lying in darkness next to me
Waiting for the moon blazing bright
Sneaking down against the light
Nerves hunmming like wings of a bee

Vibrant grass so wet with dew
All the world alive and in our sight
Out alone just we two
Brothers lawless in the night
He looks at me with eyes of blue
Back to bed before day light

Jack reads his poem. One would rather wish he had not. There is not a single rhyme that doesn't have an "ay" sound it in, which kind of distorts the rhyming sequence as *everything* rhymes. Plus it's all about a summer DAY where the treetops SWAY and people are making HAY. However, it's really too awful to be anything but an original, so at least he didn't plagerize.

Sharon squeaks when she clears her throat. Then she reads her sonnet. It's a little dull, and not particularly well-written. When she sits down, she's rather flushed and wishing she'd gotten a better idea of what to write.

Phoebe reads off a sonnet about love and passion and how they both complimented and contrasted.

Anything else IC that I've left out.

Yep. It's the OOC thread.

Creative Writing: Poetry, Lesson Three

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QUESTIONS

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SONNETS

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