In conclusion, I would just like to thank anyone who looked at this blog. I've had fun creating it, and I hope you enjoyed yourself in it's reading.
But now, the time has come for my personal answer to the big question.
What makes a good poem?
In my opinion, a good poem must be thought-provoking. You must be able to read it over and over and over again, and get a different meaning out of it every time. It must stay with you long after your read it, a lingual shadow that constantly lingers at the back of the mind. And above all, it must reach past your mortal exterior and touch your very core, stroking, jolting, or tenderly embracing your soul.
What makes a great poem?
A great poem is written from the heart, TO the heart.
This may be the end. But at the same time, it is only the beginning. Despite the end of the project, poetry will never die, sprinting off into the future and lingering in the past.
As we watch the sky blaze in its garments of fire
We remember our legacy, swell with desire;
Though our journey is through, there's no need to forget
A great past lies behind us, with more to come yet
~ Adam B.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
What Makes A Good Poem?
0So what DOES make a good poem? This is the big question that I am trying to answer with this project. Naturally, no matter who you ask, the answer will be different. So in actuality, there is only one way to find out what makes a good poem, and that is to ask yourself. In the meantime, however, I have here some answers given by others. Perhaps they will change your outlook on good poetry.
~~~
What is a good poem?
A good poem is a slip-of-a-thing
that celebrates language, that takes
you on a short journey and touches your heart,
turns on your imagination, or tickles your funny-
bone somewhere along the way.
~ Nikki Grimes
~~~
A good poem suprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an action of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.
~ Joan Bransfield Graham
~~~
A good poem stays with me. I like the way it hangs out somewhere in the back of my mind coming to the front on occasion to remind me it's there.
~ Valerie Lewis
~~~
What makes a good poem? A good poet.
~ X. J. Kennedy
~~~
What is a poem?
Hard work.
Emotion surprised.
Throwing a colored shadow.
A word that doubles back on itself, not once but twice.
The exact crunch of carrots.
Precise joys.
A prayer that sounds like a curse until it is said again.
Crows punctuating a field of snow.
Hard work.
~ Jane Yolen
~~~
A poem is a picture made of words.
Good poems can tell us what we already know in our bones but had never seen or heard or even put into words before. For a poem to be good it needs the element of surprise. That comes to the reader both in content, line break, sound, and voice. You read the opening line, are carried (or jolted) to the last line, and then wonder, how did I get here? There you are standing in this new place but feeling that, yes, you too, belong here.
A good poem is like a simply wrapped package that appears unremarkable at first glance. Until you read it. Then stars glow where there was never light before. Something sparkles. It might be you. It might be the dark. It might be the woman two rows ahead of you on the bus.
Good poetry gives us ourselves as if we've never had who we were before. It also gives us each other, shortens the gap between one and another. And good poems give us the world as if for the first time.
A fine poem needs mystery too; it doesn't say everything. If you were to compare a poem to a simple math equation, say 1 + 1 = 2, then a poem is butterfly + jagged scar = his warm breath on your neck. It's another way of knowing that makes perfect sense, but not logical, linear, rational sense. It's the way the heart knows, and the soul, the logic of dreams. It's how we know when we love or when we are afraid.
Poetry works on us not only through content but through sound. And for a poem to be well written it must remember that element as well. It needs to sound right. There's not just one right sound, but many, and each poem has its own that needs to be incorporated in order to be a thing of strength and beauty.
~ Patrice Vecchione
~~~
~ Adam B.
~~~
What is a good poem?
A good poem is a slip-of-a-thing
that celebrates language, that takes
you on a short journey and touches your heart,
turns on your imagination, or tickles your funny-
bone somewhere along the way.
~ Nikki Grimes
~~~
A good poem suprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an action of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.
~ Joan Bransfield Graham
~~~
A good poem stays with me. I like the way it hangs out somewhere in the back of my mind coming to the front on occasion to remind me it's there.
~ Valerie Lewis
~~~
What makes a good poem? A good poet.
~ X. J. Kennedy
~~~
What is a poem?
Hard work.
Emotion surprised.
Throwing a colored shadow.
A word that doubles back on itself, not once but twice.
The exact crunch of carrots.
Precise joys.
A prayer that sounds like a curse until it is said again.
Crows punctuating a field of snow.
Hard work.
~ Jane Yolen
~~~
A poem is a picture made of words.
Good poems can tell us what we already know in our bones but had never seen or heard or even put into words before. For a poem to be good it needs the element of surprise. That comes to the reader both in content, line break, sound, and voice. You read the opening line, are carried (or jolted) to the last line, and then wonder, how did I get here? There you are standing in this new place but feeling that, yes, you too, belong here.
A good poem is like a simply wrapped package that appears unremarkable at first glance. Until you read it. Then stars glow where there was never light before. Something sparkles. It might be you. It might be the dark. It might be the woman two rows ahead of you on the bus.
Good poetry gives us ourselves as if we've never had who we were before. It also gives us each other, shortens the gap between one and another. And good poems give us the world as if for the first time.
A fine poem needs mystery too; it doesn't say everything. If you were to compare a poem to a simple math equation, say 1 + 1 = 2, then a poem is butterfly + jagged scar = his warm breath on your neck. It's another way of knowing that makes perfect sense, but not logical, linear, rational sense. It's the way the heart knows, and the soul, the logic of dreams. It's how we know when we love or when we are afraid.
Poetry works on us not only through content but through sound. And for a poem to be well written it must remember that element as well. It needs to sound right. There's not just one right sound, but many, and each poem has its own that needs to be incorporated in order to be a thing of strength and beauty.
~ Patrice Vecchione
~~~
~ Adam B.
World Renown: Keats
NUMBER FIVE: John Keats (1795 - 1821)
On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour
GIVE me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone.
~ Adam B.
On Leaving Some Friends At An Early Hour
GIVE me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ’tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half discovered wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round my ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone.
~ Adam B.
World Renown: Eliot
NUMBER FOUR: T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)
The Hollow Men
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
The Hollow Men
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
~ Adam B.
World Renown: Dickinson
NUMBER THREE: Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)
A Bird Came Down
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
~ Adam B.
A Bird Came Down
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,--
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.
~ Adam B.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
World Renown: Frost
NUMBER TWO: Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ Adam B.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ Adam B.
World Renown: Shakespeare
NUMBER ONE: William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Sonnet #18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease has all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing force untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owns't;
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breath, and eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
~ Adam B.
Sonnet #18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease has all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing force untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owns't;
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breath, and eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
~ Adam B.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
World Renown: Best of the Best
Poets, like anthing else, have their own form of "celebrities." The elite of poetry, the following five people (and poems) are the best of their kind. They have enthralled and captivated readers for many centuries. Some of them are familiar. William Shakespeare is widely recognized as the da Vinci, Michelangelo and Van Gogh of the poetry world, all rolled into one. The talent of some other poets on this list, including Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, only emerged within the past two centuries. Either way, the five people on this list have indisputably earned their right to be there. They have always been, and always will be, the best of the best.
The next five posts will list from 1 to 5, in my opinion, the best poets in existence.
~ Adam B.
The next five posts will list from 1 to 5, in my opinion, the best poets in existence.
~ Adam B.
Styles and Techniques: Sonnet
The sonnet...perhaps the most beautiful of all poetry styles. They usually contain stories of love and/or philosophy. Shakespeare, perhaps the most highly esteemed of all poets, wrote 154 sonnets in all, all of them with a specific layout.
English (or "Shakespearean") sonnets consist of fourteen lines. Three quatrains, followed by a concluding couplet. The rhyming scheme is as follows.
A-B-A-B
C-D-C-D
E-F-E-F
G-G
For example:
Dizzy summer day's delight
Impassioned by her fervent stare
Heat by day and fire by night
Enslaved by an angel fair
Blinded by her casual beauty
The world dimmed and forged bliss
Fulfilling neither pride nor duty
Merely the thirst for her half-hearted kiss
Winter lapsed in peals of thunder;
Turned to hail what once was rain
And though this heart was torn asunder
Broken memories remain
If she would but release mine heart
The ice would fall, the cold depart
~ Adam B.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Word Art: Poetry and Art
Is poetry art?
The answer is an emphatic yes!
According to Webster's Dictionary, art is "the conscience use of skill and creative imagination especially in the in the production of aesthetic objects."
Even though when people think of art, what usually comes to their heads are images of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh, poetry is by definition a type of art, because of the "creative imagination" involved. Even though poetry is not usually meant to be visually pleasing (with the exception of shape poetry), no one can deny that it is a form of art.
What happens, though when you combine visual art with written art?
The answer is an emphatic yes!
According to Webster's Dictionary, art is "the conscience use of skill and creative imagination especially in the in the production of aesthetic objects."
Even though when people think of art, what usually comes to their heads are images of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh, poetry is by definition a type of art, because of the "creative imagination" involved. Even though poetry is not usually meant to be visually pleasing (with the exception of shape poetry), no one can deny that it is a form of art.
What happens, though when you combine visual art with written art?
This painting by artist Gary Wick is called "Rocky Shore Hawaii 02." A fine work of art. Now try reading the quatrain poem "the Gift" (featured in the previous post "Styles and Techniques: Quatrain"), when it is placed next to this artwork.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rolling beasts of liquid thunder
Bequeath their gift to ashen sand
The heart and hand of wooden flame
A silent trade from sea to land
Bequeath their gift to ashen sand
The heart and hand of wooden flame
A silent trade from sea to land
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The feeling of the poem changes, correct? I know it does for me. The visual accompaniment gives a different meaning to the words. This is proof that visual art can indeed manipulate one's outlook on poetry. Many poets illustrate their poems with the intent of influencing their readers in how they interpret the written words. However, this is not always a good thing. Many poets would rather have their readers give unique, personal meaning to the words that they spin together. Personally, I think that the more thought-provoking a poem, the better.
~ Adam B.
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