Let's Talk Poetry - Part I

The traditionalist, modernist and post-modernist poets have their particular approaches for creating poetry. There is a vast amount of variations in poetic styles for poetry connoisseurs as well as for those who simply like to read poetry.

Poets from the traditional school believe in structures. Their poems have predetermined meter, rhymes and stanzas.

Modernist poets adhere lukewarmly to poetic structures. This position of theirs allows them to write poems with variable meter, rhymes and stanzas. Their artistic creations are known as Blank Form poetry. In Blank Form poetry, poems are written without rhymes but they retain a set metrical pattern, usually in iambic pentameter (five iambic feet per line) in English Verse.

Post-modernist poets write in Open Form. This unstructured form gives rise to the style of free verse poems. These poems do not use established patterns of meter, rhymes and stanzas. The rhyming techniques in these creations are derived from the repetition of words, phrases, or grammatical structures, the layout of words on the page, or by some other means. They probably opined that structure tends to hamper the free flow of the thought processes. Their “thumbs down” as it were to established codes found in classical poetry could be their way of ensuring that creativity is not suffocated. So essentially what they are saying is that literary creations must come from focusing on the process of poetry, not what the words in the poem actually say. Aesthetic thought which has become the soul and spirit of classical poets more specifically, the romantic poets is not revered by any of these non-conformist poets.

Hence, the ‘conspiracy theory’ asserts the non-conformist poets go all out to break down established structures for the sake of letting their creative juices flow without imposed restrictions so typical of classical poetry. In their back walls they are attempting to make poetry and language new again. Hmm! Thought about reinventing the poetic wheel! Much food for thought here, I’d say. Is this wishful thinking on their part? Is this challenge of theirs bigger than life? These are the kinds of questions that make rounds in the world of poetry. Time has a way of telling. Meanwhile, as poets of all persuasions we must continue to do what we do, write poetry for the public to enjoy. We must never loose sight of the fact that the public have varying moods and styles as far as poetry is concerned. There will always be fans for classical poetry as well as fans for non-classical poetry. Yet there are those who enjoy both classical and non-classical poetry. Poetry in any form and style will never die. However, the process of poetry continues to evolve from its classical roots, for conventions are never static but do change overtime. This shifting of the poetic paradigm fosters the birthing of originality. It places established conventions into new roles: to serve as comparative measures and contrast for new creative artistry. You may have thought that being placed in an archival state is a negative one. Not so at all. This constant referencing to established codes in order to create new poetic ideology and styles is what keeps traditional poetry in the eyes and minds of the public. There can be no doubt that classical poetry is always a source for constant referencing, for anything that is new must first have its source. What message is this sending to the poetry world? It presupposes that prevailing conventions of the times exert tremendous pressures on poets’ selection of form, content, style, diction and so much more.

As we continue to face this reality that everybody is in to poetry; some with heightened passion; some whose passion for it is subdued, and some who would not publicly admit that poetry plays a part in their lives, but at the end of the day we can say with assurance that poetry sustains the lives of rational beings. Poetry is the food that our senses feed on. Each crafted though ignites cognitive sparks and expands the mind as grey matter keeps on mushrooming and clinging to the mind like those ivy vines on walls and trees. The winds of change keep on blowing in the world of poetry. This puts demands for more and more versatile poets. Versatile poets don’t put a monopoly on any particular form of poetry because they have mastered the concomitant techniques or devices that shape traditional forms of poetry and then use such to extend their poetry into unchartered waters as it were. No one can afford to discount the power of traditional forms of poetry for they are great stepping stones for honing the craft of poetry and for those seeking to become versatile poets.

Poetry styles are very much more flexible in this 21st Century as more poets eschew recognizable forms, and write in non-conformist structures. However, poetry remains distinguished from prose by the forms and styles it takes. Some regard for basic formal structures of poetry can be found in even the best non-conformist structures that feed on the style of Free Verse and there can be no denying this as a fact. Similarly, in the best poetry written in the classical form, there are departures from its strict form for emphasis or effect. Both forms of poetry, classical and non-classical have useful purposes but what I think poets from both sides of the poetic divide must do is to strive for versatility in their creative endeavours. The modern ode to poetry I have written expresses my feelings on the matter and it goes like this:

Since poetry is the food of the senses
cart me loads of wholesome flesh
beneath the skin and on the bone
like a flamingo, I take my time to pick
and eat with delightful intensity
the savoury cuts of poetry.

With beak-like quills, of granite
flint and stone, in jaws clinching
opening to unwind
flinging words like flying feathers
each crafted thought cascading down
with riddled sensuous thrills

myriads of cognitive sparks light up the mind

oh give me poetry to make me grow
a little fat, and a bit of this and that
a succulent slice of poetry
our poetic ancestors left behind.

We do know that literature comes in many genres which specify the specific form the content takes. The literary types of genres are plays, novels, essays, short stories and poetry. However, poetry has its own genres too in what is know as classical form, non-classical form, lyrical poetry, narrative poetry and career poetry. What we have coming out of these various poetry genres are many styles and with newer styles constantly emerging.

Style identifies the specific techniques or devices poets use to convey content to captivate the audience. All poets, and I mean those that use meter to create verses and those who do not. There is no doubt on this that poets use language within a concentrated blend of sound, meaning, and imagery to create emotional responses from the audience. So what I can see is that metered poets rely on verses from which the rhythmic flow stems from the rhyme-scheme used in stanzas. Free verse poets rely on cadence planned around units. Prose poets rely as well on cadence ordered around lines. Let’s bear in mind though, that poets like to play with words and in so doing they have created forms which adhere to conventional arrangements or they do not.

Forms that do not conform to the predetermined patterns of meter, rhythm, verses in stanzas have come about from the doings of modernist and post modernist poets as I have mentioned previously. And as you know, form is the structural characteristics of the poetic style. If the style is shaped around meter, rhythm and rhymes then it is referred to as fixed form, other names used for it are closed form, classical form, metered poetry and traditional form. Poetic styles that have emerged out of this rigid form are the epic, ode, sonnet, ballad, limerick, pantoum, sestina, triolet, villanelle, rondeau, ghazal, elegy, epigram, tanka, cinquain, haiku, acrostics, senryu, octtava rima, terza rima, paradelle.

Poetic styles that pour from non-compliant forms also referred to as unstructured poetry or open form poetry as espoused by modernist and postmodernist poets are free verse, reportage, prose poetry, the bop, blues poems, cento, found poetry, ekprastic, oulipo, chance operation, egoless poetry, beat poetry, blank form, open form, performance poetry, computer-generated poetry.

I’m persuaded with this notion that the childhood upbringing, core values, beliefs, personality, socio-cultural factors of poets are like bingo balls in an airtight capsule and once released they play substantial roles in the development of their poetic styles and techniques or devices from which choices are made as to what to use, how and in what manner. Among the many choices poets have to make involve content, diction, figurative language, rhetorical devices, sounds, and rhythmic patterns. Now let’s suppose that one poet from an early age sees beauty and love in everything around; another poet early in life sees nature as a manifestation of the Divine, and yet another poet believes that disorder is not necessarily a bad thing, by and large their orientation in life would have tremendous impact on their poetic compositions. Therefore one would surely see reflected in their poems, images projecting the awesomeness of the natural environment, images of romance, and images that depict the mystic and surreal. No surprise here, for poetry is the emotional side of language. Whether the poet is happy, sad or dwell in bleak corners of the mind, poetry has a way of stepping up to the plate. Poetry is the mirror of the mind that feeds on all of our senses. When images of any sort become consistent themes throughout the poet’s creative artistry, a poetic style is gradually taking shape and over time it morphs into the preferred style. In order for poets to expand their audience base among fans of all ages, cultural backgrounds around the globe, style and versatility hold the keys. Poetry must have universal images and should not be limited to what is current or popular but what is most effective for the particular effect poets wish to have on the audience. Versatile poets are those who can create effective poems from both classical and non-classical forms with their signature styles.

When we set about to compare poets, style is usually the starting point for the debate. For example, let’s look at these two English poets: William Wordsworth and William Blake.

William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770- April 23, 1850) astrological sign was Aries. He defined poetry as “the spontaneous, overflow of powerful feelings from emotions recollected in tranquility”. He was truly an apostle of romanticism in poetry. He was 80 years when he died. His poems, “The Daffodils” and “The World is too much with us” are listed among my favourite poems.

William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 13, 1827) astrological sign was Sagittarius. Credit goes to him as the innovator of Open form poetry. He was 70 years old when he died. He too, embraced the philosophy of romanticism in his poetry but in expressing his aesthetic attitude in poetry it differed somewhat from that of his contemporary, William Wordsworth. His poem, “London” has well crafted quatrains and rhyme scheme. “Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright” is my favourite.

When I compared William Wordsworth with William Blake I saw similarities and dissimilarities in their poetic styles. The similarities lie in the fact that these two English poets have embraced romanticism in their poetry and are both nature poets. In their treatment of nature, however, their styles are drastically different. William Wordsworth depicts rustic characters in his poetry. His poetry is based on the real language of the people and avoids the poetic diction found in much 18th Century poetry. He wrote eloquently about nature in easy flowing conversational open form with true lyrical power and beauty. In his poems, God is everywhere manifested in harmony with nature and Wordsworth felt deeply the kinship between nature and the soul of humankind. William Blake also makes reference to God in his poetry as he draws inspiration from nature but his style is vastly different from that of Wordsworth. His themes though universal per se, give rise to poetry that is bleak and full of symbolic mysticism; and his poetry flows on a repetitive rhythmic scale as it were.

Poets who created their signature styles had to make choices along the way. Wordsworth and Blake did just that despite the fact they are both considered effective romantic poets and being inspired by nature. They elected not to write about the industrial and political changes of the day which they saw around them but rather on nature and how it impacted on their feelings. In so doing, they established themselves as romantic poets whose themes thought treated differently captivated their audience. Style becomes the poet’s code of conduct. It stems from endeavouring to understand others and of thinking with the heart as well as with the head.

Once we are able to discern the style associated with poets we can really get to know and understand them or what I like to say is “to reach into their minds”. I believe that style can serve as the litmus test for getting to understand poets. In doing so one must check out the manner in which poets deliver their poetic artistry to the audience. I have never seen poets like William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth or Edward Kamau Brathwaithe, a Barbadian just like me and this list could go on and on. However, I do know for sure those that have passed on and those still here, and the fact that all poets have their unique styles. It’s from their distinctive styles that I’m able to set them apart and to extrapolate their thoughts. For example, Kamau Brathwaite’s style is distinctly not Shakespearean neither is it an Emily Dickinson, or a Robert Frost or Wordsworth and not even Maya Angelou his contemporary for that matter. How do I know this and yet have never met any of them in real time? I know them by their works and from comparative analysis of their poetry. If I want to read sonnets would I go to read the works of Edward Kamau Brathwaithe? I’m not saying that Kamau can’t write sonnets because such a talented man can but he made a choice. So, if I want to read poetry with unusual sycorax signature typography and spelling along with distinct accents, sonic gestures and pronunciations that make for exciting reading rich in nuances then Kamau would be my choice among others with comparable styles. Simply put, the poets’ style is determined by choices they made with respect to form, diction, figurate language, rhetorical devices, rhythmic patterns, poet techniques or devices that serve as poetic highways and byways that lead us into the poets’ mind.

As a poet, I say with confidence that all poets are constantly perplexed with the idea of how best to draw in the audience. This important need propels poets to use words arranged artistically to paint “mind-pictures” so as to capture the audience. Hence, a variety of poetic techniques or devices are applied. Many elements are woven into a poem for various effects. Particular structures may be used to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses. Sometimes, such devices as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Further more, expect to find ambiguity, dramatic monologue, anaphora, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction. These by and large, tend to leave a poem open to multiple interpretations. In poetry, this is very good for it stretches creativity to higher heights, as it were. Now, just look at the way metaphors and similes behave; when they exist in a poem they create a resonance between otherwise disparate images. Such layering of meanings tends to form connections not perceived previously. We must also recognize that similar forms of resonance may exist between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme and rhythm. These devices are useful plug-ins in the poets’ tool bag of techniques, as it were. These poetic devices all have tremendous impact on the poem’s structure, content, voice, image and imagery. You may have noticed that used has been made of the term poetic devices, but I tend to use poetic technique interchangeably with poetic devices because they perform similar functions that of making poems effective to the audience and to draw them into the story being told in a profound manner as well as for poetry analysis and or criticism. Click on this link to view the list of poetic techniques.

Apart from these various poetic techniques or devices, poetry is promoted in many forms and for one to get the full benefits of poems they are never read silently. Poetry as an art form is meant to be read aloud and modern technology has impacted on this notion in many positive ways. Modern technology is increasingly influencing the way poetry is assembled, marketed and delivered. Bear in mind that poets don’t write for themselves. Then, why on earth, would they publish their creations? Poets are aware that their targeted audience does not have a monolithic taste for poetry, and they know that the various forms and styles of poetry attract various segments of their audience. When poets create their poems, uppermost in their minds are the goals of keeping the audience happy, retaining and expanding their audience by using every conceivable poetic technique or device available. These goals are never-ending for lived poets who want to remain relevant. With such goals in mind, contemporary poets see modern technology as the enabling platform for the achievement of their goals.

I see where technology is the driving force behind this paradigm shift in poetic expression, presentation and marketing. I think one would agree with me that this paradigm shift does impact on all poets, whether such poets see themselves as traditionalist, modernist, postmodernist or imagist. Today’s poets are fusing technologically sound enhancement tools in this new genre known as poetry-visualized. This bringing together of various multimedia tools into the products of poetry are not reserved only for free verse poems and are proving to be quite effective in poems written in traditional forms and styles.

Poetry-visualized gives poets more options to work with when creating their poems for versatility and wider audience appeal. Poetry-visualized is not poet-centric but rather audience-centric. In doing so, poets are giving due attention to the needs of their audience; and especially so for poets who not only write poems but are also poet-teachers. Poets want to be able to appeal to all the five senses and to get their audience to interact with, take in and process stimuli provided in poems’ content. So too, an understanding of the learning styles from various models can’t be detrimental to their goals. Poets who fail to move the fans from being passive-listeners will not readily draw those fans who want to be active-listeners to the muse. Poetry-visualized allows listeners to the muse to become active-participants by catering to their sensory perception and interactive styles. Thus, the philosophy of constructivism is as relevant to poetry as it is in the formal educative process. Whether intentionally or not is non-debatable. Poetry-visualized rides the backbone of constructivism and as such continues to sustain and attract more folks who would not normally be drawn to poetry. I have seen the result of this because from the moment I injected poetry-visualized to my poetry blog on the web my audience expanded, this trend continues to whole its own much to my delight.

Poetry is a literary genre and persons writing it are called poets. Hmm! Did I have to say so? The material poets provide in their poems is known as content and is made up of facts, ideas, and impressions. The arrangement of content is dictated by the particular form and styles poets use. In order to present this content to the targeted audience, poets must provide a voice. This is done artfully by assigning someone who will speak the words written in the poems. The person who elucidates the content of poems is called the “voice”. Voice can also mean the”aura”. Aristotle referred to the aura that is created from the element in the artistic production that induces a perception by the audience of the moral qualities of the speaker or character as the”ethos”. In narrative poetry, the persona is the “I” or the implied speaker as in the case of lyrical poems. Sometimes poets would identify a created character as the speaker. However, in the absence of such a specific attribution, the term persona is applied. In so doing, this allows for no automatic assumption that the creative work done by poets is their expressed experiences or views. The good that this does, it prevents any potential ambiguity and enables poets to give expression to things they would prefer not to have attributed to themselves.

+Poetic Techniques and or Devices in the English Language

(a partial list)

Accent
Alexandrine
Allegory
Alliteration
Analogy
Anapaest
Anaphora
Antithesis
Apostrophe
Archetype
Assonance

Bard

Cacophony
Caesura
Classicism
Conceit
Consonance
Connotation
Couplet

Dactyl
Denotation
Dialect
Dramatic monologue
Doggerel

Elison
Enjambment
Envoy
Epigram
Epitet
Euphony
Euphemism

Falling Meter
Feminine Rhyme
Figure of Speech
Foot

Heptameter
Heroic Couplet
Hexameter
Hyperbole

Iam
Iambic Pentameter
Idiom
Imagery
Irony

Jargon

Litotes

Metaphor
Meter
Meiosis
Metonymy
Moritae

Onomatopoeia

Parody
Pentameter
Persona
Personification
Pun

Quatrain

Refrain
Repetition
Rhyme
Rhythm
Rising Meter
Romanticism

Scansion
Simile
Slang
Spondee
Stanza
Stress
Synecdoche
Syntax

Tetrameter
Trochee
Trope
Understatement
Unit

Verse
Versification

Forms of Poetry: Rhyme Royal

When I received the above photo from Gerry, a photographer from Devon, Plymouth, UK of a dragonfly I was inspired to write this poem. I'm fascinated with the many names assigned to this loveable insect. The dragonfly or tantaboo as it is known by in Barbados rekindled the fires of my childhood years at Maycocks, St. Lucy. I recalled roaming the grassy pastures, gullies, the west coast beaches of St. Lucy; wading in ponds and picking wild flowers and firewood. The self-imposed woodland safari, sort of, around that charming sentinel, Harrison's Point Lighthouse whose beams lighted the chattel houses found in and around the rural dwellings before it became United States Navy Facility (NAVFAC) was a pleasurable undertaking. Maycocks is located one mile from Harrison's Point Lighthouse.

NAVFAC at Harrison's Point came to the island, if my historical facts serve me correctly, on October 1, 1957 about one month following the U. S. Naval Facility on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas; and to be more personal, I was fourteen years at the time of its arrival in Barbados, known as the Land of flying fish, whistling frogs and green monkeys. It was officially decommissioned on March 31, 1979 having been on the island of Barbados for twenty-two years. During the time the US Base at Harrison's Point operated, school kids and I was among the lot were showered with English Apples which rained down from Naval Base Trucks that passed through our village roads, much to our delight feasting, as it were on red, sweet, juicy apples from temperate lands. To this day, the English apple is my favourite fruit. The NAVFAC at Harrison's Point brought many beneficial activities to residents of Maycocks and its environs of Checker Hall, Husbands, Bromefield, and Friendly Hall long after Bromefield Sugar Factory closed its operations. When Barbados became an independent nation on November 30, 1966 much good, mixed with spots of the bad have taken place in this rural community. Not withstanding the prominent eye-sore for folks born and bred in Maycocks is the Arawak Cement Plant so much so that villagers cling to the saying: "what you can't cure you must endure" is lived out daily among nostalgic village folks who cling to their chattel houses only to see the rapid rise of million-dollar homes with all the modern amenities and infrastructure imaginable.

The demographic shifting of the population in St. Lucy, the northern-most area in the island of Barbados continues even as I write this blog. What is amazing to me is that St. Lucy was never considered to be a place one would want to live because southern dwellers on the island referred to it as "behind God's back". When I attended secondary school in the city of Bridgetown, classroom bullies would taunt us with such names as "country bucks" and such name calling required the retort of "town rats"; however our gifts of country-grown produce they never refused, Lol now. Well I live to see these words eaten by those same dwellers. They are flocking to St. Lucy in droves from every nook and cranny from across the island. Now this pride of northern living in the parish of St. Lucy is considered a luxurious way of living. The face-lift of this northern-most parish shows no immediate signs of subsiding much to the delight of the off-springs of indigenous folks of St. Lucy - probably in their consciousness, they get to enjoy both worlds - the world of the rich, super rich; the natural environment that must be protected with a vengeance and vigilance. My decision to lease my sub-urban cottage not far from Sunset Crest to return to Maycocks where I was born has lifted my spirits to a newer high. My return to Maycocks provides me with the ambience I need to muse and to share my rural home with friends who love the natural environment, creative writing, photojournalism and all aspects of Fine Arts pursuits.

Yes, I do admit that I have digressed a bit but it was worth it. And for that I do apologize. Now back to the question which I suppose has been circulating in your mind: What prompted the choice of Rhyme Royal for the poem, Dragonflies? I dare say, the free-spiritedness of this particular kind of beautiful, loveable, mystical insect, the many names it bears and the fact that I like traditional forms of poetry. Classical poetry allows me to select a particular form from it to match the musing moment, Lol! My second book of poetry, "Poetry for all Seasons: Poems, Forms and Styles" attests to this. Also, the fact that I write not only poetic support material for classroom instruction, this utility aspect of my creations is matched with the aesthetics for which poetry is known.

Rhyme Royal advocates the use of seven lines of heroic or iambic pentameter verses rhyming ababbcc. What I like about this rhyming structure is its versatility stemming from the fact that it can take on the form of a tercet and two couplets or a quatrain and a tercet. This allows the poet a great deal of flexibility when Rhyme Royal is used for longer narrative poems of which, no doubt, the Dragonflies poem qualifies.

Poetry archives do show that Chaucer first made use of the Rhyme Royal structure in his long poem, Troilus and Criseyde and Parliament of Fowles. He used it for four of his Canterbury tales as well.

My initial reaction to Rhyme Royal was to think of it as the preferred format for Kings and Queens who wrote poetry. My insight, was not too far-fetch if I may say so myself; for surely, the archives have stated that James I of Scotland used Rhyme Royal for his Chaucerian poem, The Kingis Quaire, hence the name, Rhyme Royal. Other historical icons who have used Rhyme Royal in their poetic creations come to mind: John Lydgate used it for many of his occasional and love poems. Shakespeare used it for the Rape of Lucrece. This form continued to be popular well into the 20th Century. It was used by W. H. Auden in his Letters to Lord Byron. Here is an extract of the last two stanzas of Auden's poem to Lord Byron

I know -the fact is really not unnerving -
That what is done is done, that no past dies,
That what we see depends on who's observing,
And what we think on our activities.
That envy warps the virgin as she dries
But Post coitum, homo tristis moans
The lover must go carefully with the greens.

I hope this reaches you in your abode,
This letter that's already fat too long,
Just like the Prelude or the Great North Road;
But here I end my conversational song.
I hope you don't think mail from strangers wrong.
As to its length, I tell myself you'll need it,
You've all eternity in which to read it.

However, I doubt very much that Rhyme Royal is popular in this internet age. Will someone prove me wrong?

Poem for President Obama

Praise song for the day
(Elizabeth Alexander, Poet)

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp --
praise song for walking forward in that light.

Pasted from <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html>

Forms of Poetry: Cinquain

Today is the first day of April and ushers in Poetry Month. I shall be writing poems each day of this month in recognition of Poetry Month. However, for the first twenty-five days of April, I shall probably compose poems with themes suitable for the Police Wives Association of Barbados. There is a reason for this. The Police Wives Association of Barbados is celebrating its Silver Anniversary.

Among the things I like about poetry is that it can be crafted in many forms and styles. Therefore it is important to understand the meaning and purpose for the diversity. This understanding allows the wise selection of the best form and style for the particular poetic purpose in mind. Today, I have selected to use the Cinquain form.

The original Cinquain was the brain-child of the female American poet, Adelaide Crapsey. She based it on the Japanese Haiku. When she died a single woman at the age of 37 from tuberculosis her poems were published posthumously in 1915. Her Cinquain form is made up of twenty-two words and is purely syllabic unrhymed lines. Two forms of the Cinquain have flowed out of her inspiration and they follow a strict pattern. You'll see the marked differences as you analyze their structures shown as follows:

Crapsey Cinquain Form

Line 1 = 2 syllables
Line 2 = 4 syllables
Line 3 = 6 syllables
Line 4 = 8 syllables
Line 5 = 2 syllables

Cinquain Forms which have emerged are shown in the following patterns:

( a)

Line 1 = One word title
Line 2 = Two words that describe the subject of the title
Line 3 = Three words related to the subject (use verbs)
Line 4 = Four to five words that express feelings about the subject (not a complete sentence)
Line 5 = Same word as Line 1, a synonym or a similar word.

(b)

Line 1 = A noun
Line 2 = Two adjectives describing Line 1
Line 3 = Three -ing words (verbs) relating to Line I
Line 4 = A phrase, or complete sentence that relates to Line 1
Line 5 = Another word for the noun

Click here to go to Cinquain poem

Pope John Paul II inspired poem

Giovanni Battista Montini came from Concesio, Brescia, Italy. He was born on September 27, 1897. In 1963 he became Pope Paul VI. He held office for fifteen years, two months. He died in 1978.

Albino Luciani was borned on October 1, 1912. He was from Forni di Canale, Bellunco, Italy. He became the Pope John Paul I. He died in office on September 29 , 1978 having only served for 33 days. According to the conspiracy theories in David Yallop's book, "An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I" he was assassinated by poisoning during the night of 28th to 29th September 1978. Could this be a "perfect crime" since we don't know for sure how he died? We do know how his successor died. The conflicting reports on his death surfaced immediately on how he died and this may have given rise to the conspiracy theory about his death. However, the story surrounding his short reign may be due to the fact that Pope John Paul I, the first pope to have a doubled-barreled titled had planned to carry out reforms he perceived the church needed. Listed among his reforms were a complete shake-up of the Vatican Power Structure; an absolute ban on contraceptives and fertility treatments. His life and death provides a compelling story.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla succeeded him as the 264th Pope. The title he carried was Pope John Paul II. He was from Wadowice, Poland and was borned on May 18, 1920. He shepherded his Catholic following of one billion, a little over two and a half decades. He was a very influential Pope. He was my favourite Pope even though I'm not a Catholic. I watched him on Kiwi television when he made his last appearance on this planet at his Vatican Window at St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday 2005. He could only give a silent blessing as he waved his hand to the large crowd that had gathered knowing full well that his time to leave this earth was close at hand. I could not keep back the tears that flooded my face. Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 at the age of 82 years. The death of Pope John Paul II inspired me to write this poem, "Easter" in Blank Form with Septet Stanzas.

Blank Form poetry is also known as Blank Verse. It is used extensively in narrative and dramatic poetry. In lyric poetry, it is adaptable to lengthy descriptive and meditative poems. In Blank Form poetry, there are end-stops but no end-rhymes. It retains a metrical pattern, usually iambic pentameter, a line containing five iambic feet in English Verse. It can also be any unrhymed verse. So , you will find that in the poem, "Easter" I have shaped it with Septet verses that contain iambs mixed with some anapaest, trochees, spondees, dactyls and pyrrhics. So, no, they cannot be classified as the standard iambic pentameter verses nor non-standard iambic pentameter verses. Now, I'll tell you why.

The Standard Iambic Pentameter contains five (5) iambs which measure five feet. An iamb is made up of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. I used these marks to show an unstressed syllable V and the stressed syllable with a stroke like this /. Look at this example in the word attack. The first syllable is at and it is an unstressed syllable, the second syllable is tack and it is a stressed syllable. So the word, attack is scanned like this V/ and has one iambic foot.

The Non-Standard Iambic Pentameter contains five (5) feet made up of iambs and other types of metrical feet. This is to counteract the metronomic effect by substituting for an iamb another type of foot whose stress is different. So it is not unusual to see any of these: trochee, spondee, dactyl, anapaest or pyrrhic, and so on. The second foot is almost always an iamb. The first foot is the one most likely to change by the use of this inversion technique. Another feature of the Non-Standard Iambic Pentameter is the addition of a final unstressed syllable. This therefore, creates a feminine ending or what is referred to as a weak ending. Any verse whose last word has an unstressed final syllable is said to have a feminine ending. Verse 1 of Stanza 7 from the poem, "The Barrow that Built a Nation" gives an example of a feminine ending.

Barrow used good tools for nation building (feminine ending)

In Septet poems, all stanzas have seven verses.

Forms of Poetry: Terza Rima

Valentine's Day continues to be very popular in the 21st Century. This knowledge prompted the writing of two poems in recognition of February 14. They are entitled: Saint Valentine's Day written in the form of an Acrostic and Valentine's Day in the structure of the Terza Rima.

These two poems are not sensuously provocative as some folks would have expected and for that I do apologize. As a sage poet you would have guessed correctly that they narrate the muse in a somewhat historical vein that underpins Saint Valentine's Day. Why? Because in this 21st Century, February 14 is looked upon as Friendship Day and is not only for lovers. In a sense, it is for folks that desire to express their affection to someone they cherish, respect, or appreciate. However, these two poems evoke images about myths and legends surrounding February 14.

I'm still fascinated by the history of catholicism. It is a universal fact that Saint Valentine is the name ascribed by the Catholic Church to several martyred saints in Ancient Rome. Still concerns exist today about Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14. Why? Because nothing is known except his name and that he is buried on the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. I'm still left to wonder if February 14 celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. Hence, I'm left to believe that February 14 supports legends that have somehow evolved so profoundly. Therefore it was incumbent on me to make cameo appearances of these legendary icons, Cupid, Eros and Romeo and Juliet in the poems. In the poem I turned to poetic license and reversed 'Romeo and Juliet' to 'Juliet and Romeo' so that it rhymes with cameo.

Now, as I reflect on these Valentine's Day icons let me start with Cupid. A classical statue of Cupid shows him as a child with his bow. In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of erotic love and beauty. The other Latin name Cupid goes by is Amor and is synonymous with Karma. There are two versions concerning Cupid. The Roman version and the Greek's. The former places Venus, goddess of love as his mother and his father Mars, the god of war. The Greek's version of the legend places him as the son of Aphrodite and named him Eros. Of all the tales swirling around him, my favourite is the one about Cupid and Psyche.

What I like about England among other things is the fact that I can indulge myself in the delights of heritage tourism. During my last visit to England I crisscross from Northamptonshire to Strafford-upon-Avon. In the company of an English lady our trip took us to a castle and the birthplace of William Shakespeare among other things. I was quite enthralled with vines that sculptured some of the buildings I've seen as we travelled by car.

In the USA I've seen ivy vines sculpturing buildings and trees.

In fact, my sister and I love to see those clinging ivy vines on her deciduous trees and I have taken the above pictures for you to see. The compliments from friends and strangers like the picturesque nature of the vines on the trees. If vines were allowed to grow on buildings in Barbados, folks would cry foul, especially that invasive type of vine known to Barbadians as the 'love vine' and my Floridian friends call it the "devil's gut". Well, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, isn't it? Or, one man's meat is another man's poison . Don't even mention the 'love vine' for this climbing pest is outlawed in Barbados and wherever love vines are found growing the authorities would step-in with their eradication machinery because love vines kill everything they ensnare. Wow! I went off on at a tangent, so you recognized that too. So sorry. Now I'm back on track.

Yes, history tells us that in his early career, playwright William Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. The play focuses on two star-crossed lovers whose untimely death unites their feuding families. When I first read this play in secondary school (high school), it brought tears to my eyes. Back then I never really like tragedies per se; I like happy endings and refused to touch 'Macbeth' with a ten foot pole and selected "As You Like It" as my option, lol. I like very much, all of his comedies. The 'Merchant of Venice' to my mind is a tragic comedy play. In fact, it's a comedy play with no laughs. I like very much Portia's appearance in Act IV, Scene I with her "Quality of Mercy Speech" to the Court of Justice in Venice. These opening lines from her speech still play in my head:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

When ever I come across the name, Portia I relive the mental images of the "Quality of Mercy Speech" and this is quite often because one of our local TV weather presenter's name is Portia. So Portia has become a stimulus for my brain to recall this event experienced vicariously, I dare say.

Now, I refer to the opening paragraph of this blog, and you will see that I've stated that I have written two Saint Valentine's Day poems. One is structured as an Acrostic and the other as a Terza Rima. In a previous blog I dealt extensively with the Acrostic so there is no need for me to go back there, I think. Now let's talk about the other poem written in the form of the Terza Rima. This poetic form also has its roots in medieval times thus well suited for the Valentine's Day poem. This poetic form comes in various ways; and for this poem's structure I have selected to have a rhyming couplet at the end of the last stanza with the end-rhymes rhyming with the end-rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet. A tercet is a stanza made up of three verses.

The Terza Rima was invented by an Italian poet, named Dante Alighiere in the late 13th Century. It consists of Tercet verses in Iambic Pentameter in English poetry. It uses a chain or interlocking rhyme scheme of aba, bcb, cdc, and so on. There are several ways in which to conclude the Terza Rima poem as shown below:

Ending with a one-line (verse), we have two options:

Use a single verse at the end of each stanza, with the end-rhyme rhyming with the end-rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet.

Or

Use a single verse at the end of the last stanza, with the end-rhyme rhyming with the end-rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet.

Ending with Couplets, we have three options from which to make a selection:

(Option One)

Use a rhyming couplet at the end of each stanza, with the end-rhyme rhyming with the end-rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet.

(Option Two)

Use a rhyming couplet at the end of the last stanza, with the end-rhyme rhyming with the end-rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet.

(Option Three)

Use a rhyming couplet at the end of the last stanza, with the rhyming couplet not rhyming with the end rhyme of the second verse of the preceding tercet. The rhyming of this couplet is independent, as it were.