01-16-2021, 03:11 AM | #1 | |
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Poetry that looks like poetry?
In the introduction to Best Canadian Poetry 2019, the guest editor says, in part
Quote:
I have no issue with free verse, and don't mind trying this sort of poetry, but I'm assuming it is possible to have contentful poetry that still LOOKS like poetry? The attached screenshots are at the "extremely prosaic" end of the formatting spectrum in the book so far, nevertheless many do look a lot more like prose than verse. Since I only read on electronic devices, I'm not looking for poetry at the extreme visual art end of the spectrum either, but would be interested in recommendations of accessible poets who pack meaning into a more traditional verse form - and that includes free verse. Last edited by Uncle Robin; 01-16-2021 at 03:25 AM. |
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01-16-2021, 06:28 PM | #2 |
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Are you talking about poets in general, or modern poets. You can always go with books with poems by famous poets or books of famous poems. I've got 101 Great American Poems and The Seashell anthology of Great Poetry. Songs for the Open Road is another I like. Frost, Whitman, Elliot, Longfellow. That's more likely to give you the sort of poems you are looking for.
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01-16-2021, 08:12 PM | #3 |
Now what?
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Also, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Margaret Atwood, Robert Pinsky, Frank Bidart.
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01-16-2021, 09:03 PM | #4 |
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Thank you both! I am more familiar with poets of the Whitman/Frost type era, so I'm especially interested in finding poets from this century who still use that sort of traditional verse structure. If only to give the lie to the assumption implicit in the quote from my original post that it's an either/or kind of thing - either write in traditional form OR write contentful poetry. Certainly Urdu poets of the last century have had no trouble keeping the content of their poems current and relevant while using (often much stricter) traditional forms.
Happily, the small anthology I was reading did have some excellent poems of more traditional forms, and at least one of the very prose-like poems was a satisfying read as poetry. As for poetry as visual art, one poem I started had an "A" at the the top left of its first page and "B" at the the top right. It was only when I clicked to the next page I saw why - Not the sort of poem to be read on an e-reader, sadly |
01-18-2021, 06:07 AM | #5 |
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William Blake! My favorite poet! If I was to describe him in a few words I think this is what comes to mind. Blake was not an orthodox Christian: he was interested in various sects (he was. e.g. a Swedenborgian) and theories (e.g. Jakob Boehme), he joined and broke with them (I must create my own system, or be enslaved by the system of another), he accused God of indifference, he took up for animals (The dog starved at the gate of the Farm/This augurs the fall and ruin of the State; He who mocks the Infant's Faith/Shall be mock'd in Age & Death), attacked the clergy, demanded free love (yet he did not decide to have a second wife when his current wife did not like the idea), affirmed women and female nudity (Nakedness of women is the work of God) - did he lack the courage for male nudity? It is hard to believe since he was not afraid of any nudity in his painting.
In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell the voice of the Devil says that the Bible is the source of 3 errors when it claims that: 1. man consists of body and soul 2. energy is Evil and comes only from the body, while reason is Good and comes only from the soul 3. God will torment man for indulging in Energy On the other hand, it would be true (and this is also Blake's own conception) that: 1. the soul and the body are one, for the body is part of the soul and the five senses are its windows 2. energy is life and comes from the body, and the reason is the limitation, the fetter of Energy 3. energy is Eternal Joy |
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01-21-2021, 09:59 AM | #6 | |
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I cannot pass up this opportunity to post the incredibly inaugural poem from Biden's swearing-in. While it may "look" like prose, hearing her recitation, you hear the poetry, the meter, the rhythm of it.
"The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman Quote:
Last edited by astrangerhere; 01-22-2021 at 06:16 AM. |
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01-21-2021, 10:58 AM | #7 |
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Thank you! VERY contemporary poetry that looks and feels like traditional poetry. The young woman has definitely made a mark with this, and her performance of it today.
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01-21-2021, 05:56 PM | #8 |
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She is very impressive.
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