INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

Lecture 1 – 06/10/2022: Introduction

Two aspects – poetic form and voice. Tensions, binaries, oppositions within the
poem.
Ozymandias.
Timeless desolation – failure to return to first person narrator. Irregular rhyme
scheme for contemporary poetry. Volta marks a sense of ambiguity, from the
remains to the plaque. Bitter irony to the message. Fleeting worldly achievements.
Despair, futility of legacy.
Art has survived longer than tyranny. The words of the tyrant have survived, despite
the inversion of their meaning. The mighty should despair.
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Manifesto of the type of poetry Dickenson likes. For the sort of truth poetry tells.
Angle of approach to truth. Explores glimpses into human experience profoundly,
despite constrictive form. Musical coherence developed by “I” sound, gives it a
stronger sense. Paradoxical oxymoron – “dazzle gradually”.
Poetry
“too” takes reference that someone else dislikes poetry. Distance, gap, failure of
understanding between readers and writers. Modernism. Tradition of “anti-poetry”,
hostility that the poet themselves felt towards poetry.
Edited the poem 5 times after initial publication. Some quite subtle, quotation marks
around “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”.
Tension between the poet and their own poetry. Reclaiming their own poetry from
readers and scholars.
Unusual form – free verse, no direct meter. Seemingly organised by syllable count.
Usually wrote in stanzas with a fixed number of syllables per line, combined with
rhyme (often eccentric – a, the, ungrammatical articles). Difference between Shelley
and Moore. Broke syllables in half to create an internal rhyme. Destabilization of
rhymes on shorter lines (creating anticipation for more that does not come).
Elizabeth Bishop’s memoir of Marianne Moore. Centrality of the individual voice of
poetry (that of the poet) alongside their style as a writer. Particular breath length,
cadence, form and rhyme.
Paradoxes and Oxymorons
Tension between title and the first line. Cast an ironic light on each other. Dramatizes
misunderstandings between reader and intended meaning of poem. Comic element
to the poem (typical for Ashbury). The reader expects or wants to read a certain type
of simple poem – doesn’t think the poem is – and the poem is sad because it
believes that it is simple.
Jody Norton – “The Romantic pathos of the failure of connection between poetry and
the subject, in stanza 1, is ironized by the punning sense of miss (to feel the lack of a
person or thing) as misunderstanding (to lack meaning)”.
Opening the Cage
Central tension between constraint and expression. Music of John Cage. It is the
formal obstacle or limitation that provokes the imagination to new heights.
Restricts him to making new statements using the same set of words. 14 lines. 14
words.
First 12 lines express aspects of the problem – last couplet resolves. (Strangely
Petrarchan?).
Giving voice to the poetry forces one to perform it and give it some grammatical
meaning. Produces further meanings.
The Snow Party
Tension between poetry and silence. The only sound is the tinkling of china and tea
– enhances the silence around it. A polite silence. Yet, atrocities are being
perpetrated elsewhere.
Sense of inertness in the poem – third person furthers this. Poem juxtaposes the
aesthetic (tea drinkers, snow falling, window) with the historical ( burning witches,
religious heretics). The poem doesn’t take sides or say one is more important that
the other. Neither displaces the other. A seeming attack on the complacency of
poets? Leaves the argument implicit.
A tension between presence and absence. Use of the present participle gives a
feeling of time being suspended. “Thousands have died” Present perfect.
(Thousands more will continue to die).
Historical context extremely important – history of the Glorious revolution, Battle of
the Boyne. Question whether the poet should be just concerned with the aesthetics
of the poem or concerned with the atrocities taking place elsewhere. The poet Basho
– wrote a poem in 1688 and Salem Witch Trials (elsewhere).
The poem may be cast in a specific form to invoke a certain form/tradition or invert it.
Lecture 2 – 13/10/2022: Singers and Songs
Figure of the female singer – 19th century, Rossetti, Dickenson, Browning.
Blues/Jazz tradition – early 20th century. Gender politics, other political themes..
Song
Draws on folk song tradition, riddles, children’s rhyme. Often depict singers, song-
like quality of the poem. Dichotomy between “she” and “I”. Oxymoronic? Contrasted
between the speaker and the singer – a contrast between the speaker’s former self.
The assertion of the poem as a “song” creates tension with its meaning. The content
of the poem seems the singing is over – yet the title suggests otherwise. The poem
ends with each speakers outpourings. Both the singing/weeping are futile – leave no
trace. The younger, singing self gets the title reference, and first and last word.
Rossetti’s biography suggest a younger, brighter, lively Rossetti (Italian nickname)
yet became older and moodier. Like Dickenson, they were both known for their
intellect during their youth and their religion, with various biblical interweaving and
sourcing from hymns.
Split the Lark and you’ll find the music
Use of dashes (typical of Dickinson) – performance notes on a musical score. Code
for a change in pace? Seemingly to speed up, yet they also impede our ability to
speed up – denote a pause. Perhaps isolation of/emphasis of a particular word.
Compelled to perform the poem due to these dashes.
Speaker seems to speak post-mortem. Common theme for Emily Dickinson.
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 – Lark singing hymns.
Murder Ballad – male/female murdering the spouse due to infidelity. The songbird
appears, typically the reincarnated spirit of the murdered beloved.
Dickinson conceived of herself in relation to female literary antecedents.
A Musical instrument
Repeating the phrase raises a performative self-consciousness when delivering the
poem. The act of becoming a poet is destructive of the person you were before, like
how Pan destroys the natural world in becoming a singer. Weighing the aesthetic
against the moral.
Ain’t nobody’s business if I do
Song emerged out of the blues tradition. First sung by Anna Meyers, most famously
by Bessie Smith. Series of contradictory inconsistent behaviours – singer lays claim
to them by and casts away judgement by claiming it “aint nobody’s business”.
This shifts towards the end, claiming against her right to act against her own self
interest which is somewhat paradoxical against the nature of blues tradition.
10,000 mourners paid their respects at her funeral – highest paid female artist of the
time. Abusive, exploitative husband. Didn’t buy her a tombstone. Tumultuous
relationship with Gee. Very adulterous.
Smith herself embodies many of the contradictions present in the song.
Nobody’s Dirty Business - Male counterpart – from the voice of the abuser. Jaunty
ragtime tune – jarring for the post-modern listener. Similarly contradictory. Blues
tradition of antisocial behaviour (develops into the Rock and Roll of the 60s/70s).
Ain’t it a Shame – Similar focus. Blues – melancholy note to it, trapped by their own
behaviour, trapped in this dichotomy.
- “I mistreat my baby; I can’t see no reason why”
To a large extent the blues failed as a campaign of the civil rights activist. Gospel
song found a new role that blues did not.
The rise and fall in the popularity of the blues mirrors the rise and fall of the rule of
Jim Crow.
By the 60s/70s the Blues began to be appropriated by white artists and audiences.
The Weary Blues
The Cotton Club – many blues/jazz played there, including Bessie Smith. Only white
people allowed in, except performers on stage.
The blues singer in this poem with the “pull yourself together attitude” is not
particularly common. Strangely upbeat lyric represents his struggle in capturing and
directing the blues to a more collective, political endeavour. Yet, the blues remains
typically about the suffering of the individual.
Strange Fruit
Began as a poem by Abel Meerypol, Jewish American writer. The lyrics of the song
are largely straightforward. Holiday knew there would be retaliation in her singing of
the song yet wished to sing it. Specific rules around her singing – last song she
sang, waiter’s stopped service, room in darkness, no encore afterwards.
Lyrics framed by forms of silence, resonates with the performance of silence in the
song. Echoing political silence about the lynching of black men at the time. Sang
mournfully. She sang almost dangerously slowly behind the beat, creating emotional
tensions.
Ballad of Orange and Grape
Written by a Jewish American writer. Dealt with contemporary issues of segregation
and racism. An incongruity in calling itself a ballad – titled as such yet doesn’t
represent it.
Satirical use of the genre of pastoral, as seen in Strange fruit. The terms in which the
white people of the South would defend their society. Set down as a marker for the
singer to swing away – lead to expect one thing and receive another instead.
Songs written down as they were just dying out. Many singers believed they should
live in the oral tradition. The fixity of publication can be often dubious. Emily
Dickinson’s poems were often heavily edited with the removal of dashes and placed
“correct punctuation” (that the editors thought would “help” Dickinson’s poems get
into print).
Lecture 3 – 20/10/2022: Metre and Rhythm
Stressed and unstressed syllables in organised patterns.
Scansion – analysing and determining the metre and rhythm of the poem.
Poem lines contain a number of feet – one stressed accompanied with other
unstressed.
Foot type Style Stress pattern Syllable count
Iamb Iambic U- 2
Trochee Trochaic - U 2

Spondee Spondaic - - 2

Anapaest Anapaestic Uu- 3

Dactyl Dactylic - Uu 3

Amphibrach Amphibrachic U–u 3

Pyrrhic Pyrrhic Uu 2

Sonnet 73
Iambic pentameter established on first line (dominant metre). Rhythmical differences
alter tone = second line is metrically the same but rhythmically differing. The first line
is much more stately and strong with the second line having a more nervous rhythm.
The Line 4 caesura creates a rhythmical clustering either side of the caesura.
Rhythmic variation on a set meter – poem feeling old and worn out due to love.
Easter, 1916
Written in Iambic trimeter. The poem dramatizes Yeats’ changing opinion of the
rebels. The first stanza shows him treating them lightly/as a joke, yet by the end he
takes them more seriously. (Irish rebels who spread up to British rule, ended up
being martyred).
Political radicals – seemingly taken too seriously.
Extra unstressed syllable, slacked rhythm, reflecting his joking tone – polite to their
faces yet will joke with his friends later.
Seeming shift in meter – the meter becomes much more strongly established
towards the end of the poem – shift in tone reflected in metre.
Change from motley (colour worn by fools) to Green – the colour of Ireland – national
pride. The revolutionaries are also named – not just “them”.
Traces how irish nationalism shifted from the fringe to being mainstream.
Rhythm becomes more regular towards the end, creating a grander, more
monumental role.
Never love unless you can
Trochaic meter
Catalectic trochaic tetrameter.
The Tyger
Trochaic tetrameter
Lullaby
“from” – stressed importantly metrically but has no real meaning other than forming
conjunction between the individual beauty and thoughtful children. Hard to voice it
too much – sound peculiar.
Lean into to the “the” to keep the line singing on the end and convey the meaning.
Performance and voicing poetry. If not voiced it seems to negatively impact the
poem.
The Voice
Gives up on his form – almost like his voice breaking compared to his usual poetic
canon. An elegy for his wife – dactylic trimeter. Established a metical expectation
which fails to be met in the last stanza. Creates a whole new depth of emotion.
Lecture 4 – 27/10/2022: Rhyme
Epistle to James Smith: historically, rhyme was synonymous with poetry; he uses the
verb “to rhyme” as to infer “to write poetry”.
“When the comforting echo of rhyme is removed, success or failure in the choice of
words, In the same sentence structure, in the order, is at once more apparent…
Freed from its exacting task of supporting lame verse, it could be applied with
greater effect where most needed.” T.S. Eliot, “Reflections on Vers Libre” (1917).
When a regular rhyme scheme is established we expect it to be completed. Eliot
argues that the using a rhyme scheme “cages” a poem and using free verse – “frees
it”.
I felt a funeral
Rhyme scheme mimics the form of the poem – no completeness or closure given.
Ending in a dash.
My dreams, my works, must wait til after hell
- Internal, slant & half rhymes; more to explore here.
Susie Asado
Motor-automatism – Stein denied this though (automatic writing) – writing in a way
which mimics the unconscious thought. She thought it was too complex and
mysterious that could be accurate in reproducing such unconscious things.
A poem focused on language seemingly – creativity and playfulness evident. To
some seemingly nonsensical (reference to her comments on Einstein and general
relativity).
Dream Song 14
18 lines – 3 sestets. Long lines pentameter, short in trimeter. Typical form for
Berryman’s dream songs.
Image of a black dog in the 20th century – image of depression, in your mind.
Preventing from accessing pleasure. The theme of “drag”, “boredom”… Shifting
sense of “solubility” of a rhyme scheme that can’t quite be pinned down.
They shut me up in prose
Poetry as something that frees you from the constraints of prose (relation to
historical context of women & prose?). Only one perfect rhyme, a few half rhymes.
Offered a rhyme then denied “Prose/Closet” – a letter away. Denying expression and
freedom. Mirrored.
“I would suggest two particular effects of rhyme: rhyme makes experience from
within the body and so can produce unreasoned intimacy; rhyme destabilises the
hierarchies of sense and so lends itself to radicalism” (Gillian Beet, ‘The End of the
Line’, 2007).
“Sound in its due place is as much true as knowledge (and all that…). Rhyme is the
public truth of language, sound paced out in the shared place.” (J.H. Prynne, letter in
The English Intelligencer)