Ruark's comment that
>well it makes it sound better, the lines mark the
>space for the voice or song to move in, it is like a
>phonogram, the edge of the lines are the profile of
>the inner and outer breath of the poet/thinker, so the
>lines are a sort of sounding score so that readers can
>accurately trace a writers
>poetic/philosphical/political intentions. It really is
>quite simple
seems useful -- when applied to a poetic form of at least some complexity.
But I'm not sure it answers the original question about breaking a sentence
up & pretending it's poetry. Indeed, a prose poem, in which syntax, the
sound of words, the use of imagery & all the rest (if wanted), will have
great rhytmic intensity & play than these one word per line things we have
been seeing. The single sentence, or pair of sentences, just does not allow
for either much thinking or poetry. What we've been getting is, indeed,
'quite simple,' but I'm afraid I mean that very differently than Ruark
seems to. As far as that goes, even the rather lamentable pieces by Normam
Mailer were more fun, a bit more complex...
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
The trees
have ears
The moon
stalks lovers
Nelson Ball
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