> At 11:19 PM 7/26/2001 +0100, Matthew Francis wrote:
> >I think myself that free verse doesn't lend itself to regular rhyme
schemes.
> >Having freed your metre, it seems inconsistent to work to a strict
rhyming
> >pattern, and the end result could seem sloppy. Craig Raine wrote a long
poem
> >recently in irregular rhyming couplets which was badly reviewed, and the
> >extracts I've read look pretty dreadful. On the other hand, occasional
rhyme
> >works very well with free verse, all the more effective because the
reader
> >isn't expecting it.
Oh this endless subject. It seems a particulary fraught matter here in
Britland, where I know otherwise linguistically sensitive and intelligent
people who keep on ruining their poems with rotten rhymes.
Fact: English is poor in full rhymes, so artistically they are to be
avoided, except in special cases. Fact two: English is rich in para-rhymes,
because of its plentitude of dipthongs, so there is a resource that goes
begging, while (Fact three) people mistake a ornament and rhetorical device
(end-rhyme) for an essential of poetry itself.
What matters in a poem, among other things, is the sound texture entire, the
couplings of assonance and consonance, as well as rhythmic agitation or
excitement, and to conflate that with end-rhyme in the name of formality is
the worst and repeated artistic misjudgement you can make.
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 1:46 AM
Subject: Re: query
> But Ford Maddox Ford's sequence Buckshee is magnificent. And the Koran,
> written in rhyming prose, aint bad.
>
> Mark
>
> At 11:19 PM 7/26/2001 +0100, Matthew Francis wrote:
> >I think myself that free verse doesn't lend itself to regular rhyme
schemes.
> >Having freed your metre, it seems inconsistent to work to a strict
rhyming
> >pattern, and the end result could seem sloppy. Craig Raine wrote a long
poem
> >recently in irregular rhyming couplets which was badly reviewed, and the
> >extracts I've read look pretty dreadful. On the other hand, occasional
rhyme
> >works very well with free verse, all the more effective because the
reader
> >isn't expecting it.
> >
> >Best wishes
> >
> >Matthew
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: sevanthi ragunathan <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> >Date: 26 July 2001 22:01
> >Subject: Re: query
> >
> >
> >>>From: Joanne Denton <[log in to unmask]>
> >>>Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
and
> >>> poetics <[log in to unmask]>
> >>>To: [log in to unmask]
> >>>Subject: query
> >>>Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:10:47 -0700
> >>>
> >>>Hello everyone,
> >>>Can "formal" rhyme and free form be combined without
> >>>sounding clumsy? Thank you in advance for any help, Joanne
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>I think so. Molly Peacock has a number of poems with rhymes and uneven
> >>meter. Try her book Take Heart.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>_________________________________________________________________
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> >>
> >
>
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