Sorry Vera
I think y misunderstood me (and/or I wasn’t clear enough in what I wrote). I
was intending to signify that they were initially "entertaining” (not merely
“humourous” – which is only part of entertainment). I wanted to include
great rhymesters like Cole Porter (more a three-or-more-syllable rhymester,
him) who could write the saddest, unfunniest, of lyrics – but I didn’t.
Perhaps I should have done (even though there aren'such long-lasting rhyme
sounds).
What I was meaning was that strong prolonged rhyming sounds set up
expectations in the reader/listener (particularly when the lines have a
comma or a full stop – when they don’t run over onto the next line, when
they’re not end-stopped). Repetative two-syllable sounds at the end of lines
do that. After entertaining the ear, however, the poem may then continue to
do lots of other, and very different, things. As you say there are countless
examples of this.
Controlling the sounds in this way is part of the craft of poetry. Indeed,
when I’m working to include rhyme, I sometimes enjoy playing the ear against
the eye (and frequently hiding the rhymes in the lines, so the eye doesn’t
detect them first).  This also allows words that almost rhyme to “harmonise”
and increase the resonances of words and phrases and lines in fascinating
ways (and this can sometimes even solve problems where I can’t make the
rhymes work too well at the end of lines).
If “experts” from the Poetry Society, or wherever, said, or say, things too
simply then they have their own problems with their reading and writing.
I guess poets (and those who read poems) are people who “discover” the
potential of words, and words-with -their-sounds in their poems. With
Entomologist, for instance, even though I’d tried, I couldn’t say the words,
create the stresses, that the writer intended and was using herself. Poems
have to inter-connect between writer and reader. A poem that works (like a
painting that works, a piece of music that works) makes people say
surprising things – the creator can sometimes learn so much, and learn to be
humble, if they hear. If readers and writers don’t hear then there’s so much
stumbling in so much dark (and more bruises and curses than poems).
Bob



>From: Vera Rich <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: New sub: Entomologist
>Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 06:05:37 +0100
>
>The assertion that poems with feminine or triple rhymes are, in English,
>intrinsically humorous was frequently cited by The Poetry Society in its
>old
>incarnation - and, indeed, by certain other 'experts' even today.
>
>It is, however, simply not true. Apart from the classic example of Hood's
>'Bridge of Sighs', this is proved over and over again by Tolkein's poetry.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Bob Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: 22 August 2001 19:45
>Subject: Re: New sub: Entomologist
>
>
> > Hi David,
> > Yeh, I agree with James Bell. Y seem to have all the aspirations a
> > traditionally formed sonnet needs: with such a predictable rhyme pattern
>and
> > pentameters that play iambic sound games from the start - except with
>the
> > sounds of "insectile" and "polemics" that is. They're two very complex
>sound
> > patterns in a poem that is playing with the simple rhythms a humorous
>poem
> > needs. Because you're using such strong rhymes (and simple clear words
> > elsewhere) it could be that the whole line may need re-working, may need
>new
> > words (or a new concept) from the start.
> > Poems that have clear more-than-one-syllable rhymes at the ends of lines
> > always seem to entertain before they do anything else - and you have
>plenty
> > of them (academics/polemics, ento-mology/bumblebee, tell her/feller,
>Hel-en
> > cried/inside). I also found I wasn't able to predict the rhyme that was
>to
> > come either.
> > It's rare to see a form that's valuable for exploring relationships (and
> > also for using complex accretions of details) also work with such
>blatant
> > humour at its end. Sonnets usually get warm smiles - but this one made
> > really made me grin!
> > If you live in the UK there's a neat new little Faber book (called, I
>think,
> > 101 Sonnets, edited by Don Paterson) that shows how else the form's been
> > used - but rarely with such gleeful fun. His essay introducing the book
>is
> > clearly written, up to date, and well worth a glance as well.
> > Bob
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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