I have the impression from Lawrence that list members consider talk of what
is and is not poetry rather dull, which it is , but it does relate to the
more interesting discussion of rhythm. I'm not against 'boundaries' as
the-poet-known-as-Pain puts it but I don't believe there to be a simple set
of criteria that differentiate poetry from other forms of language. When we
recognise a poem we do not run through a mental tick list - like other forms
of 'recognising' it's not really a question of criteria, definitions or
rules at all.

Similarly rhythm is something we recognise and the cues we use may well, as
others have suggested, be related or linked to the rhythms present in the
world around us.

As the mind identifies forms in seemingly random images (eg a face in wood
grain) so, it seems to me, the ear is inclined to organise sound into
rhythmic forms. As an exercise try reading 'please refrain from urination
when the train is in the station' without setting it to the tune (and
rhythm) of Humouresque.

Part of the attraction of free verse is the way the text can confound the
mind's attempts to superimpose rhythm - it also means that one can have a
rhymic structure that is contained within a free verse poem that gives the
text an auditory luminesence (if that makes sense).

Formal poems can of course employ this process in reverse exploiting the
recognition of formal structures with those of free speech as well as other
familiar patterns. A meter, to my mind, just establishes a particular
embarkation point for the reader - a kind of auditory context.

It's interesting how visual cues influence our perception rhythm. Four lines
of iambic pentameter could be written as five of heptameter - but if the
verse were read out loud (without pauses or stress on line breaks) I think
the difference could be heard as well. Well, I wonder if anyone agrees?

Anyway hope there's something of interest here - 'the Great Lakes roll in
their cold grey sheets' and I'm off to bed ....


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Chris Vallance




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