In recent weeks, the workshop has been hammering away at metrics and formed verse. It is a tough thing to teach, but I have an ideal group, very patient with the technicalities. They have borne up well under a discussion of metrics, aided by a reading of Pinsky's wonderful book on the subject, which is far less didactic and pedantic than most treatments. They are less patient with the many samples I have brought in, and minutely examined.
But we have just had a wonderful experience with the sonnet. After looking at a few (very few examples of sonnets, including a wonderful recent one call "Why Did The" that does a wonderful turn on the chicken crossing the road (Google it), they took a list of words I came up with in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet and wrote some poems in class that were at times amazingly accomplished. One student even said that he heard or felt the persona of a non-existent historian speaking over the bedside of a burned son. When you hear things like that, you can understand the old chestnut about the Muse, dictating verse into the poet's ear as he notes it down as fast as possible.
Next week we are looking at more elaborate forms, particularly the sestina. I have never tried to write one of those because my mathmatical skill is nonexistent and I stink at puzzles. But I came across something that might help: a template in Excel, or how to build one. I include the link below for anyone who wants to try it:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/sestinas/1DanielAri.html
To give an example of a sestina, and there are many many fine ones, I have settled on Pound's "Altaforte." Some people feel that Pound should not be taught because he was a Fascist, but I do not believe in censorship under any circumstances. And besides, although he was an old coot, a nut, and an anti-semite, Pound was the one person who published my great-uncle, Isaac Rosenberg's opus, "Break of Day in the Trenches," when Pound was editor of Poetry magazine.
Even though he called Rosenberg "that little Jew," I still give him his due for publishing it.
2 comments:
How wonderful that you are exposing your students to forms like this. When I've tried writing to set forms, I've found that the sounds and perimeters lead my thoughts in curious and delightful ways.
Maybe I'm crazy to try it, but I think that a few of the students lean in this direction already. And it's true that it's almost like being possessed the way completely alien words and topics come into one's head when s/he's writing in a form.
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