And, yes, too, Rob, one of the issues about the oral poetry of the past is
that it is known to us as, um, texts.
2009/6/29 Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
> Point taken, dave.
>
> I didn't quite mean to suggest that extempore poetry doesn't exist, more
> that it's not part of the English (language) *tradition.
>
> One problem is that it's ephemeral -- if you extemporise a poem, unless
> it's promptly written down afterwards (or tape-recorded), it's lost.
>
> This would apply even, I'd guess, to orally composed poetry, which would
> have to be repeated by the composer several times, so no longer extemporary,
> before it was "fixed".
>
> In contrast, it seems to be, or at least is presented in literary texts as,
> part of both the Old Irish/Welsh and Norse/Scandinavian literary traditions.
>
> Perhaps it's a case that the more demanding and constrained the poetic
> norms are, the more there's a counter-movement towards extemporisation, or
> at least celebrating extemporisation.
>
> Dunno.
>
> Robin
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Bircumshaw" <
> [log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:14 PM
> Subject: Re: Apology for swords
>
>
> Rob
>> When I was young in Brum there was a mentally and physically disabled chap
>> called Mark who used to wander about the streets talking to anyone who'd
>> listen in rhyming couplets. They were certainly his own and extemporised.
>> He was a near dwarf with discoloured looking skin and a huge
>> disproportionate head. It was hard to say whether he was consciously
>> making
>> the rhymes, the patter seemed to be his verbal consciousness, I got the
>> impression he was his own automatic voice.The verses were often about a
>> person who was strange and suffered. But this person, himself, was quite
>> clearly someone else to his narratives. Unlike rappers, they weren't
>> ego-centred, the unpleasantness of much rap is possibly uncomfortably
>> close
>> to a truth about the origins of poetry, but one can travel far from a
>> starting point, yes?
>>
>
--
David Bircumshaw
"Nothing can be done in the face
of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
|