|
|
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679 |
Today's (28/01/2002) word of the day ended with a poetic quote: In reply to:
So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just
the art of being kind is all the sad world needs. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
poet (1850-1919)
But can anyone tell me the poetic style which Ms. Wilcox uses above? I've only seen it on a few occasions but I believe it to be a quite romantic usage of words.
Those that can't see what I'm pointing at each line is broken up into two phrases ending in juxtaposed rhyming words. Creeds, wind followed by kind, needs.
One for the scholars amongst you methinks.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I can't come up with anything more specific than "internal rhyme" (as opposed to "end rhyme"). Internal rhyme can involve two words within a line or one within and one at the end. Perhaps one of the nit-pickers among us can find a more exact term. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
I think maybe it's a quatrain, specifically an envelope rhyme. As to the meter of the lines themselves, the first two appear to be adonic (dactyl+trochee, with the unaccented trochee syllables cesurally omitted), whereas the final two lines in effect mirror the adonic meter, employing iambic feet instead. What a lovely example of double mirroring -- using both the rhyme scheme and the internal meter.
Good to have you back in the fold, Rubrick!!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
|
|
OP
addict
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679 |
Wow, Caradea! I'm knocked out by your poetic definition. Thanks for that. I couldn't have put it better myself. Lots of new words for me to look up in the meantime. I'm humble enough to admit that I had never heard a single one of them before!!!! 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
There is a rhetoric term for the three "So many......" Caradea knows the rhetoric site better than I do. What is it called, beloved goddess?
P.S. Anaphora?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
brilliant, cara! But having looked again I am left still wondering a bit… This is the layout you think it should be, yes? So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs. I’ve tried reading this aloud several different ways, and for me the way that conveys the author’s intention best seems to be laying the stress of the first two lines something like this: So MAN-y GODS, so MAN-y CREEDS…My reasoning is that the poem’s essential structure of meaning lies in the apposition of the many (routes to human happiness) with the single thing the poet identifies as being required. This renders the poem’s structure as more straightforwardly iambic throughout. You will remember far better than I what the term for the repetition of ‘so many’ is in the gentle arts of rhetoric! But the poem’s main punch is delivered by the short last line: only 6 syllables rather than the eight we expect from the rhythm of the preceding lines. This creates a subconscious “boom-boom” effect in our minds that underscores her conclusion point; it also formally mimics the idea that her suggestion is one of more elegance and simplicity than the longer alternative routes mentioned earlier. Having said all that, I must confess I don’t particularly like it as a poem – too painfully close to a Hallmark card  Ah, let us rejoice in our diversity.But great topic, Rubrick – stick around this time!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679
addict
|
|
OP
addict
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 679 |
This renders the poem’s structure as more straightforwardly iambic throughout. You will
remember far better than I what the term for the repetition of ‘so many’ is in the gentle
arts of rhetoric! But the poem’s main punch is delivered by the short last line: only 6
syllables rather than the eight we expect from the rhythm of the preceding lines. This
creates a subconscious “boom-boom” effect in our minds that underscores her conclusion
point; it also formally mimics the idea that her suggestion is one of more elegance and
simplicity than the longer alternative routes mentioned earlier.
Having said all that, I must confess I don’t particularly like it as a poem – too painfully
close to a Hallmark card
Ah, let us rejoice in our diversity.I agree! It's not much of a poem but it's the structure which I found interesting. The last line adds a certain air of despondency by reducing the meter by two syllables. W.H. Auden in his poem Stop all the Clocks uses this to effect when he wrote: He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.The last line is the longest in terms of words and syllables but the poems tempo is altered radically by splitting the line and halting the rhythm. This is powerful stuff and not a sniff of Hallmark to be had! But great topic, Rubrick – stick around this time!
Thanks, Mav. I think I will!!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
I looked ‘em up, since you aren’t playing nice cara EPANALEPSIS (ehp-uh-nuh-LEP-sis) A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated after intervening matter, as "Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more," from Milton's Lycidas. CATALECTIC, CATALEXIS Metrically incomplete; the dropping of one or two unaccented syllables from the end of a line, thus ending with an incomplete foot. http://shoga.wwa.com/~rgs/glossary2.html#catalectic
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
the movie that is the all-time shoo-in for winning the Silver Rory.ok, I give up - wassat?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
... I must confess I don't particularly like it as a poem ...
Thank you, Mav, for them sentiments. I'm delighted to have some company, although I would go further; I think it's one of the worst pieces of tripe I have ever read. [Sorry, Rubrick]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69
journeyman
|
|
journeyman
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 69 |
I think the poetic value is in the sentiment - and it has a whopper of a sentiment. You'll never find the sentiment "we don't need gods and religions to be decent people, just more kindness" in a Hallmark card.
I like it, just because it is daring.
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
Cheers,
Bryan
You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear MaxQ: I wonder how the judges who award the Rory can possibly endure the task.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
|
|
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
The original question--about what the verse form is called: I've forgotten most of what I once know about poetry, but I do recognize the abba verse form as the basis for the Petrarchan or Italian sonnet form (as opposed to the Shakesperean form). It was favored by, among others, John Donne and John Milton. For example, Milton's "On His Blindness," which begins:
When I consider how my light is spent,
E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent...
Beats Wilcox, doesn't it?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Beats Wilcox, doesn't it?
Definitely. It's totally more not comprehensible.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,350
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
773
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
