Yeah, so after I wrote that last entry about not being able to focus, what did I do? I spent four whole hours reading about various topics related to poetic form on the Internet, including the entire Poetic Form category on Wikipedia.
Most impressive, exciting, or amusing topics:
Clerihew
Crown of Sonnets
Kenning
Amphibrach
Chronogram
Anapest
I started because I was thinking about parodic or epigramatic forms, like the limirick or the Clerihew, in conjunction with rhyming alphabets or instructive verse. Their meter is so simple it almost seems instinctive in the rhythms of english, but it actually seems to be to be quite difficult to describe in the poetic tradition inherited from greek and latin verse that gives us more formal verse like Rhyme Royal or the meters exemplafied in the anapest article.
I mean, a really complicated way to describe a limerick is
(Anacrusis) Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
(A CHARming young CAT named SiERra)
Anacrusis/headless Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
Showed TENdancies NOT far from FERal
(Extra syllable) Trochee Iamb
Her VERy sharp CLAWS
(Extra syllable) Trochee Iamb
Should GIVE you some PAUSE
(Extra syllable) Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
(Extra syllable)Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
When she's WILD-eyed she's LIKEly to TEAR ya.
But that's obviously ridiculous. You can only do it really well by supposing an amphibrach as a legitimate foot -- then everything fits fine.
(Amphibrach Amphibrach Iamb/incomplete amphibrach)
That's not revolutionary in any way. It's just helping me to see that:
a) Limirick is a form uniquiely suited to english, with its strongly accentual, rather than syllabic verse (Dactyl et al being based on Latin verse)
b) The puzzle of meter is amazing! I mean, I understand instinctively how to hear a limerick, but it's very hard to describe it!
I was also compltely bowled over by finally understanding syllabic meter (at least, I think I do) given the example from Spanish \"De armas y hombres canto.\" (in the meter article. I don't speak Latin, so Latin examples completely go past me, but this one -- I understand that in Spanish this line has six syllables, because of elision. It's hexameter.
DYAR mas YHOM bres CAN to
But if I were thinking of it in English, it would have eight!
de AR mas y HOM bres CAN to
The difference is in how strictly you treat rhythmic accent (English) versus sound-length (Spanish). Undoubtedly I don't compeltely understand this, but anyway I feel like I learned a lot. None of it, of course, at all what it would have been productive for me to be doing.
That Kenning article, by the way? Amazing. My god. I hadn't quite realized (not speaking either Old English or Old Norse), that of course that poetic tradition is almost entirely based on metonymy! The Wikipedia article is, I think, written with a view to the Next Generation episode, Darmok, that postulated the same thing. And "Darmok," in its turn, I now realize, was almost certianly written with an ear to Old English poetry.
Most impressive, exciting, or amusing topics:
Clerihew
Crown of Sonnets
Kenning
Amphibrach
Chronogram
Anapest
I started because I was thinking about parodic or epigramatic forms, like the limirick or the Clerihew, in conjunction with rhyming alphabets or instructive verse. Their meter is so simple it almost seems instinctive in the rhythms of english, but it actually seems to be to be quite difficult to describe in the poetic tradition inherited from greek and latin verse that gives us more formal verse like Rhyme Royal or the meters exemplafied in the anapest article.
I mean, a really complicated way to describe a limerick is
(Anacrusis) Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
(A CHARming young CAT named SiERra)
Anacrusis/headless Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
Showed TENdancies NOT far from FERal
(Extra syllable) Trochee Iamb
Her VERy sharp CLAWS
(Extra syllable) Trochee Iamb
Should GIVE you some PAUSE
(Extra syllable) Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
(Extra syllable)Dactyl Dactyl Catalectic Dactyl
When she's WILD-eyed she's LIKEly to TEAR ya.
But that's obviously ridiculous. You can only do it really well by supposing an amphibrach as a legitimate foot -- then everything fits fine.
(Amphibrach Amphibrach Iamb/incomplete amphibrach)
That's not revolutionary in any way. It's just helping me to see that:
a) Limirick is a form uniquiely suited to english, with its strongly accentual, rather than syllabic verse (Dactyl et al being based on Latin verse)
b) The puzzle of meter is amazing! I mean, I understand instinctively how to hear a limerick, but it's very hard to describe it!
I was also compltely bowled over by finally understanding syllabic meter (at least, I think I do) given the example from Spanish \"De armas y hombres canto.\" (in the meter article. I don't speak Latin, so Latin examples completely go past me, but this one -- I understand that in Spanish this line has six syllables, because of elision. It's hexameter.
DYAR mas YHOM bres CAN to
But if I were thinking of it in English, it would have eight!
de AR mas y HOM bres CAN to
The difference is in how strictly you treat rhythmic accent (English) versus sound-length (Spanish). Undoubtedly I don't compeltely understand this, but anyway I feel like I learned a lot. None of it, of course, at all what it would have been productive for me to be doing.
That Kenning article, by the way? Amazing. My god. I hadn't quite realized (not speaking either Old English or Old Norse), that of course that poetic tradition is almost entirely based on metonymy! The Wikipedia article is, I think, written with a view to the Next Generation episode, Darmok, that postulated the same thing. And "Darmok," in its turn, I now realize, was almost certianly written with an ear to Old English poetry.
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