The Definitive Review
Kenneth Daniel Wisseman
for Poetry Showcase
Into brown eyes that shine like Eve,
Soft eyes of love that linger leave;
Farewells upon her bonny bosom my dream,
Her sunny locks, caress’d its flowing stream;
I shall always love her with all my heart,
Though miles apart.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 15
Blank verse is by far the most flexible style of poetry. The most common form is heroic blank verse, and is written in iambic pentameter verses with variations according to pauses.1
It is the style of verse that lies between the formal verse and vers libre, and has some characteristics of each. This gives the poet a simple and flexible means of poetic expression, something not always achievable with formal structures in poetry.
Ferrick Gray
Working with Pound
Volume 1, Issue 1
I was thumbing through Faber’s 2005 reprint of Pound’s Personæ and came across one of my favorite poems by the master. His Sestina: Altaforte. Personæ was originally published in 1926, with Pound creating a body of his shorter poems. Much of his earlier work was omitted from this definitive edition, as he was prepared to dispose of it. He sought something that would define him as both a person and a poet.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 11
I cannot understand the fluency of many poets, or their inclination to write another poem rather than to spend time perfecting the one just written.
— T. S. Eliot, September 21, 1942
From: The Letters of T. S. Eliot: Volume 10—1942-1944 (page 216)
Edited by: Valerie Eliot and John Haffenden
Published by: Faber & Faber, 2025
ISBN: 978-0-571-39649-8
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 14
One of the biggest complaints today stems from formal poetry, particularly the use of rime. What is it about rime that creates so many arguments among poets? For whatever reason, modern poets have a greater aversion to using rime. Their reasons are many; some are justified, while others are not.
What many fail to realize is that the use of rime in poetry is not necessarily bad, and it makes little difference to what style you write. The most common complaint against rime is that it is unnatural. However, is it truly unnatural? Another is that the rime is often predictable. On this point, I would tend to agree. Not all riming is done in the best way.
Ferrick Gray
Snippets
Volume 1, Issue 5
The center of discussion for this essay is that of the Heroic Play. Most people would never have heard of this type of play let alone have read one. The device used in this type of play is the heroic couplet which today would seem a very strange form to use for a drama of any description. Many of us would dismiss those plays as pure nonsense, yet no matter how absurd they may be to us now, they were immensely popular and much requested during their day.
Ferrick Gray
Working with Eliot
Volume 1, Issue 3
What follows my thoughts about the first five verses of Eliot’s Burnt Norton from his Four Quartets. Clearly there is a philosophical meaning to them (and other parts of the poem) and my aim here is to determine if they make sense.
Eliot’s poetry can at times be quite obscure to the general reader, and it is up to the reader as to what they take away after reading his work. There may be allusions to other events which the reader is not familiar with, but Eliot makes no apologies for this.