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.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 13
No doubt you have heard the word stanza used with reference to the way a poem has been set out or constructed. The use of the word stanza is quite common in formal poetry, but the term is used very loosely in the vers libre. What we find in vers libre is more commonly referred to as a strophe. Stanza refers to the halt at the end of it, having the same derivation as stand or standing place (Italian). The strophe has a different meaning of a turning which is more appropriate in the vers libre.
1660 — 1720
Bonamy Dobrée
Oxford At the Clarendon Press 1924
Ferrick Gray
Snippets
Volume 1, Issue 4
This book by Dobrée is one of those which is quite easy to read and understand. Even though today we may not be familiar with some of the writers he speaks about, it is still a very entertaining and informative book. This was his first published book and was in 1924. In this case his area of interest was Restoration comedy of the period 1660 to 1720.
Rather than propose any specific theory, Dobrée takes the reader through a lively excursion of the work of seven playwrights in this period of about sixty years. The playwrights he discusses in terms of their plays are Etherege, Wycherley, Dryden, Shadwell, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar.
Ferrick Gray
for Poetry Showcase
An essay (poem) written in heroic couplets requires that certain formatting be followed. However, it can be difficult to render the formatting in a web environment.
Due to the length of this form of poem, it is necessary to use line numbers. Depending on the length, line numbers appear in steps of five or ten. Shorter poems using heroic couplets do not require the use of line numbers.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 10
Much of this essay has appeared in “Tradition: What Happened to Poetry?”, but it is included here with some minor additions for the completion of the summaries for Murry’s lectures delivered at Oxford in 1921. A lot of what Murry has to say is still relevant today, over one hundred years later. In many ways, it appears that the progress of poetry has not changed. Even today, its appeal is minimal, and it is not well received by the public, more so for formal poetry. However, some consider vers libre the savior of poetry, but it is far from this even though it is more popular.
From Eliot’s “The Family Reunion”
Ferrick Gray
Working with Eliot
Volume 1, Issue 2
The Family Reunion is a play written by T. S. Eliot. It was published and first performed in 1939. Eliot’s play had three unusual aspects to it, things we would not normally expect to find today. These are:
It is the appearance of the Eumenides that I will be considering in this essay; its purpose, use and effect on the play and connected characters. This essay is a small part of my full review which will appear on xiv lines later.
Kenneth Daniel Wisseman
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 12
Byron, without question, is my favorite poet. He created perhaps some of the most well-known love poems of all time. Today I will write about one of my—if not my favorite poems of his and analyze the brilliant meter found in this lovely poem, a meter that I find perhaps the most beautiful I have ever discovered; and one that does not appear again until much later in another poet’s work (who I admire), Robert Frost. Frost employed the same foot at the end of his pentameter lines, which Byron used throughout this poem, made up of mostly dimeter lines. The unique form of foot both poets made great use of has been termed anapestic feminine endings or anapests at the end of lines with an extra syllable. It is a poem that inspired my unique style of poetry more so than any other poem. This poem shows Byron’s unique way of creating emotive lines by changing his meter at key emotional moments. Both Byron and Poe made great use of this effect, and both made great use of anapestic feet, which give a certain melodic ring to poetry, and this poem is full of anapests, as are many of my lyrical poems.
This discussion deals specifically with verses written in iambic pentameter although it may apply to other metrical patterns. This metrical scheme, iambic pentameter, is commonly used in formal verse. Although variations are somewhat limited, they do exist and are utilized by poets to avoid the monotony of the strict iambic rhythm. For the reader, these variations can be welcome.
There are several valid substitutions for the iamb. These are the anapest, which is most common, the amphibrach, and, where appropriate, the trochee and dactyl. The last two are less flexible in their placement within the verse.
What I propose to analyze is whether we should use the amphibrach as the last foot or consider the final syllable of the verse as hypermetrical when dealing with the feminine ending.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 10
Scansion of verses is often thought of as unnecessary, and to a point this may be correct. In most cases, it is doubtful whether the poet is interested in the scansion of their verses, especially if they read well enough to satisfy. It is mainly when variations are introduced or there is some experimentation that scansion will be a necessity for the poet.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 9
This essay falls far short of any definitive answer to the question in the title. Perhaps it has missed the mark altogether. It contains my thoughts and as such, I take full responsibility for them, whether they are deemed arrogant, ignorant or acceptable. I am under no delusion that some readers will have a violent reaction to what I have written, and to a point, I understand their attitude. However, I too have been subject to similar criticism when in a position where it was inappropriate to voice my personal thoughts about poetry due to the herd mentality as to what constituted poetry.
Ferrick Gray
Snippets
Volume 1, Issue 3
We would think that all writers would give their best efforts in whatever medium they choose to write. We would also note that some writers tend to overreach themselves in their attempts. Typically, this is something that will occur, especially when the writer is first starting out. In this stage there is always some imitation which is understandable.
Kenneth Daniel Wisseman
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 9
A friend of John Keats once wrote of John’s inspiration for this beautiful poem, “In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours. When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books. On inquiry, I found those scraps, four or five in number, contained his poetic feeling on the song of our nightingale.”
Ferrick Gray
Snippets
Volume 1, Issue 2
Mrs Dalloway is often said to be Woolf’s masterpiece, and having read some of her other novels, I would have to agree that this is no overstatement. From start to finish the novel is presented as something very different to what we are used to finding in other novels, in her own.
The Second Lecture from the Book: “The Problem of Style” by John Middleton Murry
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 8
Recapping from Murry’s first lecture, The Meaning of Style, he gave three possible uses of the word style:
Personally, I believe the third to be very difficult to identify regardless of the attempt at definition. For me, it is more an opinion, but Murry may enlighten each of us as we progress through his lectures.
Ferrick Gray
Snippets
Volume 1, Issue 1
I feel I have been missing something for many years. Finished this little book the other day, likely a couple of hours reading. I did not take a great deal of notice because to was engrossed in the stories. I cannot recall having read anything by Rudyard Kipling. Nothing was ever offered up as a youngster and nothing at school, but now was the time to rectify the situation.
Ferrick Gray
Working with Pope
Volume2, Issue 2
This analysis uses the version from:
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 8
October 9, 1849, a poem was published in the New York Daily Tribune. It would be the last poem of a poet I consider the greatest American romance poet to ever live. Many of his poems were of ladies he flirted with. He was an admirer of lyrical poetry, not so much of narrative poetry. Like me, his favorite poets no doubt were the great English romance poets, Byron, Tennyson, and Shelley. Lord Tennyson himself said of Poe that ‘he was the most original genius that America has produced’. T. S. Eliot once wrote, ‘Only after you find that a poem by Poe goes on throbbing in your head do you begin to suspect that perhaps you will never forget it.’ One interesting note about Poe’s last Poem is that Poe took certain steps to make sure that this poem was published; perhaps this was due to him knowing he had just created one of the world’s greatest love poems, his masterpiece and wanted to make sure that the world saw such beauty. Sadly, he never lived to see his poem published because he would die under very mysterious circumstances just two days before its publication. Oddly, one manuscript has a slightly different last line. Perhaps the poem we read today is not the one he intended; though in close inspection the more melodious word ‘sounding’ instead of the phrase ‘side of the’ sounds better to my own poetic ear, and is the one used today.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 7
Byron wrote some magnificent poems (Don Juan), some very beautiful and touching poems (She Walks in Beauty), yet somehow, I feel his work is overrated. For those of whom are devoted followers, there is no need to get upset over my statement. I too enjoy some of Byron’s poems, especially his later work. His work was more coherent than Shelly, far more interesting than Wordsworth (or was that Turdsworth), and more dynamic than Keats (that little dirty blackguard). His poetry reflected the legend, or perhaps the legend reflected the poetry.
written by Kenneth Daniel Wisseman
Analysis & Critique by Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 7
When it comes to using the descriptor critique, one needs to realize that critiques are not necessarily negative in their presentation or design. Criticism may of course be constructive or destructive. Destructive sounds very negative, but negative criticism may also work in a positive manner if the writer cares to accept it.
The poem I have chosen is written by Kenneth Daniel Wisseman (Wisseman from here on) and is included in his debut book—To Look Upon Eurydice. It is also written in one of my favorite forms, that of terza rima. Hopefully many will know of this form from Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy).
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 6
Something most have forgotten about, but more than likely have never heard of—one of the early modernist periodicals, The Egoist. I have printed a few of these publications to read. The main reason was for the input made by Pound and Eliot, two of the men of 1914 so they say. Pound suggested the change of name from The New Freewoman founded by Dora Marsden to The Egoist and succeeded in making it more of a literary review rather than a feminist journal. It is interesting that subscriptions dropped greatly over their publication from 1914 to 1919.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 5
The Problem of Style was published in 1922 and is a collection of lectures given in 1921 at the school of English Literature at Oxford. As such, they do not completely lend themselves to the style of an essay as Murry states in his prefatory note. His main concern was that there would be some repetition over the sequence of lectures. This would disqualify them from being an essay. Yet if some of them were to be published separately, we may be tempted to view them as essays. The defining qualities of each may not be as precise today.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 6
There are few who have heard of Katherine Mansfield (Mansfield from here on) and even fewer know her poetry. She was better known for her short stories, but sadly today these too do not receive the attention they should.
Mansfield was the wife of John Middleton Murry, and it was he who published a collection of her poetry after her sudden death. It is believed that she likely would not have taken well to their publication, and unfortunately Murry had edited a lot of her poetry in his attempt to make her poetry more welcome and known to the general public.
Kenneth Daniel Wisseman
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 5
In the early 14th century Francesco Petrarca made the Sonnet form popular during the Italian Renaissance with his unrequited love poems to a lady by the name of Laura; and as is typical of sonnets he praised the lady highly, though sadly his love was never returned. So popular was this new form amongst the Italian poets of that era that it soon swept across Europe and into England. Poets like Chaucer were highly influenced by Petrarch’s works and was the first English poet to translate a Petrarchan Sonnet, adapting it within his epic poem Troilus and Criseyde on lines 400-469 of Book I. Yet it was not until 200 years later that this long-forsaken form would blossom again in England, during the Tudor Dynasty. That literary flower was Thomas Wyatt’s translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere, a collection of 366 poems, composed mainly of love sonnets.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 4
I have read that Marianne Moore (Moore from here on) was one of the modernists. This may well have been true because of the unorthodoxy of her poetry in terms of construction and presentation. It was different and did not meet with great approval. However, I do not think it was a matter of making the effort to be different. This was how she wrote, with purpose and patience. As to any similarity to others, not Eliot, Pound or HD. For me, there is something reminiscent of Williams.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 3
“When pitch-encrusted night aloft prevails;
When no still goddess through the mid-air sails;
When scorpions vomit forth their poisonous scum;
When to the demon tryst gaunt witches come,
When noisome pestilence stalks through the glen,
Bellowing forth its enmity to men;
When ghastly toads scream loudly through the air;
Oh, I would not—no, I would not be there!”
— Recitation by King Phanor while playing his mandolin. (Act I)
This is a very charming and humorous play which can be easily read from the page, but it has also appeared on stage numerous times since its first performance in 1870. The playwright is none other than W. S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, and this was one of his most popular plays before teaming with Sullivan. Although there has been some (a lot of) criticism regarding the originality of Gilbert with this play, he still manages to give it that Gilbertian touch. The origins of his play come from Madame de Genlis’ fairy story written under the same name (Le Palais de la vérité). There is no secret as to where Gilbert found his inspiration.
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 2
Poetry is written for different reasons. Some appeal to our emotions, some make us think, but all are to amuse, entertain, educate or stimulate thought, and in some manner to hopefully impart an enjoyable reading experience. In this discussion I am looking at serious poetry written to English forms, and so discounting children’s poetry which deserves a separate discussion at some point in time.
Ferrick Gray
Working with Eliot
Volume 1, Issue 1
You should know that I am a great admirer of T. S. Eliot. I rank him as the greatest poet, dramatist, critic and perhaps even philosopher of the twentieth century, and now. Many things have been written about him, some true, some not so true but that happens with great people. I do not agree with everything he has to say, but that does not mean he is right, or I am wrong. There is a lot to do with opinion in many facets of poetry, drama, critique and philosophy. You may ask: Who would dare criticize one of the greats? It is easy to be critical, especially when the one you may criticize is no longer living, they have no chance to respond. However, I believe we are allowed. to provided we are respectful. Let’s face it, none of us are going to achieve what Eliot achieved living or dead. Admittedly, he would likely think some of this is a total waste of time, but nevertheless it is interesting, even if it is just for me.
Ferrick Gray
Working with Pope
Volume 2, Issue 1
59 How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie, 60 How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry,
A first reading indicates a change of rhythm with embryo.
59 Hŏw hīnts | lĭke spa͞wn | scărce quīck | ĭn ēm | bry̆ŏ līe
and the verse clearly shows the presence of the anapest in the last foot. This format is commonly seen with the anapest taking the last two syllables of a three-syllable, sometimes four-syllable word. Its presence is obviously noted, but it does not violate the rhythm of the verse.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 4
An interesting paper by Donald Thomas Carte on: Deconstructing Two Roads: Applying the Psychology of Regret to Resolve the Mystery Surrounding Robert Frost’s Most Beloved Poem. It is interesting from the point of view that what has been deduced is certainly plausible, but I wonder if too much has been read into the poem itself regarding background events.
by Anne T. Barbeau
Yale University, 1970
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 3
This interesting little book, from its style of writing, is clearly the author’s thesis or something close to it. However, this is of no concern because the content is well written and Anne Barbeau’s (Barbeau from here) arguments are well supported by research and insightful interpretation.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 2
We may marvel at the critic, or we may curse them. Not everyone can or will appreciate the role of the critic. As a result, we ask two simple questions. Is the critic necessary? And if yes: What makes a good critic?
Ferrick Gray
Poetically Speaking
Volume 2, Issue 1
(also for Poetry Showcase)
They wonder how it feels.
Hope has left and steals
the box Pandora held,
of colors she adored,
now with broken seals,
since curiosity spelled
great woe.
Flee! They go.
Those evils once stored.
Ferrick Gray
The Yellowed Page
Volume 2, Issue 1
This essay, or at least these comments, contains extracts from a very short letter from Eliot to James Smith. The letter is dated 21 June 1926 and sent from London.
The introductory paragraph1 clearly indicates that Smith has sent Eliot the manuscript of his poem for possible publication in the Criterion. In addition, the poem has obviously been written in heroic or riming couplets indicated by the reference to Pope and his verses.