>>Now,
>>can we get from there to the idea that we parse long & short lines
>>differently?
>>I'm not sure.
>
>I'm not sure either. There is also the question of the prose poem, and
>why it might be identified as a poem, even though it uses sentence
>structures - in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, for example, I can't
>think of the prosaic structures as anything but poetry. Or Baudelaire's
>Spleen. There are short stories by James Kelman or Alasdair Gray which
>seem to me to be prose poems, although they are called "short stories".
>There is some shadow border which is surely one of readerly perception;
>perhaps a poem or that which is called a poem seems to demand a more
>charged expectation of language. But I'm really not sure about that!
>
Alison
that final comment is interesting. When it comes to some of the material
I've seen as 'found poems,' it seems to me that it is precisely the
expectation set up by naming the work a poem that changes the reading
experience. If a text comes right up to you & says, Hi, I'm a poem, read
me, then perhaps we will read it with a different eye & ear than
otherwise...
Take Eli Mandel's "First Political Speech" as an example of what I mean:
first, in the first place, to begin with, secondly,
in the first place, lastly
again, also, in the next place, once more, moreover,
furthermore, likewise, besides, similarly, for example,
for instance, another
then, nevertheless, still, however, at the same time,
yet, in spite of that, on the other hand, on the contrary
certainly, surely, doubtless, indeed, perhaps, possibly,
probably, anyway, in all probability, in all likelihood,
at all events, in any case
therefore, consequently, accordingly, thus, as a result
in consequence of this, as might be expected
the foregoing, the preceding, as previously mentioned
as already stated
Transition table
from Learning to Write by Ernest
H. Winter (second Revised Edition)
Macmillan (Toronto, 1961), p156
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
I don't need to
hold back here
in the union
of forms
Charles Olson
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