From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: any formalists in the crowd? -- thanks to Annie Finch!
> Speaking of listening to Shakespeare, Joanna, Charles Olson did,
> especially to the late plays, & wrote about it in a most interesting
> fashion. Pointing out precisely how ol' Willie got way off the supposed
> metrical mark.
That sounds fascinating. Where could I get to read it?
>> I got myself involved with a writing group some time ago, led by a woman
>> who regards herself as a formalist. She wanted us to try sonnet form --
>> you know -- here's the rhyme scheme, and it's iambic pentameter, off you
>> go. So I come back with one that gets me my knuckles severely rapped,
>> because out of my 14 lines one has 11 syllables and one has 9. Never mind
>> that the two extra are both so light as to count as two halves; never
>> mind that the 'short' line conatins a syllable which is so long and
>> weighty that it needs an entire foot to itself. She rewrote the thing so
>> as to 'correct' the metre, and ended up with most of the stresses on weak
>> syllables, while I sat and growled. But I refused to alter it.
>
>> joanna
>
> Well it was never just ten syllables, anyway, & she should have known
> that. It *sounds like you were listening much more carefully than she
> was....
> Doug
She had a First in English, gained as a mature student which let me be the
first to say was damn good going. I however had some musical training, many
years ago, and have always considered poetry and music as having a lot in
common.
joanna
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