At 10:28 11/11/99 +0000, you wrote:
>Austin Clarke, who used syllabic counting and other musical devices derived
>from Gaelic verse, once met Pablo Neruda, who asked him: 'What kind of
>poetry do you write?'
>
>Clarke's answer was something like: I load myself down with chains and try
>to wriggle free.
>
>Billy
Actually, it was Robert Frost who asked Clarke this question, to which
Clarke replied: I load myself with chains and try to get out of them."
What Billy omits is "the wise octogenerian poet's" response: "Good Lord!
You can't have many readers." As Clarke's poems are (once again)
lamentably out of print, while Frost's, I would imagine, still sell by the
cartload, the American was doubtless onto something!
Alex
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:42 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Rhythm
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 10 Nov 1999 14:39:37 -0000, you wrote:
>>
>> >Robert Sheppard mentioned word-counts. Could anyone explain
>> how word-counts can be
>> >used as a way of establishing rhythm? I'm genuinely
>> interested, but I can't at present see it.
>>
>> - like others, I can't see word-counts or syllabics as ways of
>> establishing rhythm, tho they might creatively be ways of establishing
>> tensions for rhythms to bounce off (I'd cite Gunn as some of the best
>> instances of this, where he gets the beat going almost in spite of the
>> self-imposed artificial syllable-count restriction he's built in). I'm
>> always amazed that folk need to / want to build in such extra problems
>> (as in: see? I can do it with one hand tied behind my back): it takes
>> me all my wit to get going with a clear deck and no restrictions. But
>> the precedents (JS Bach; L. Zukofsky) are there and surely honourable.
>>
>> Zuk's 80 Flowers, for instance, just beggars belief: each one 8 lines,
>> 5 words per line, and yet the range of rhythms on display is
>> staggering. Blimey! I wish I could do that.
>>
>> Not that taking these restrictions away means that what you're left
>> with is - uh - "Free Verse". For myself, I'd like that term ditched,
>> reported to the Advertising Standards Authority, sued for corrupting
>> the young. It ain't free, kids, it's just pay as you go, and every
>> move in this world has to be earned.
>>
>> RC
>>
>
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