Vol.3 (04) - "Meter in English"

“Meter in English”

by Robert Wallace
Part I

Ferrick Gray

Poetically Speaking
Volume 3, Issue 4 (March 20)

 

Prefatory Comments

⠀ This essay is about another essay, namely Meter in English by Robert Wallace. He daringly put forth his ideas for simplifying the study of the structure of poetry. It was written in 1993 and later circulated to several other poets for comment. David Baker included their comments and Wallace's essay in the book Meter in English: A Critical Engagement. As one would expect, there were mixed thoughts. Some were very supportive of Wallace's ideas, and others were very critical. I have not read Baker's compilation, but I have read Wallace's essay. Later, I may read the responses to his essay, but I doubt that any will be able to persuade me to move from what I believe. In short, I believe in all of Wallace's comments and consider his work of prime importance for anyone working in structured verse. I recommend reading this essay! However, I do have a few comments to make, and for the most part, they may seem trivial, but I believe they are worth noting. Essentially, Wallace was proposing that English verse is exclusively or fundamentally iambic, and with this statement, he says, accentual-syllabic is English meter.

Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias"

Ferrick Gray

Poetry Showcase

March 14

⠀⠀ I met a traveller from an antique land,

⠀⠀ Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

⠀⠀ Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

⠀⠀ Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

⠀⠀ And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

⠀⠀ Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

⠀⠀ Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

⠀⠀ The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

⠀⠀ And on the pedestal, these words appear:

⠀⠀ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

⠀⠀ Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

⠀⠀ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

⠀⠀ Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

⠀⠀ The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Vol.3 (04) - What Would Happen If Everything Were the Same?

What Would Happen If Everything Were the Same?

Ferrick Gray

The Yellowed Page

Volume 3, Issue 4 (March 5)

Prefatory Remarks

⠀ There is no doubt that the appeal of poetry has declined a great deal over the past decades. No one can disagree with this, but what could we say is the cause of this phenomenon?

⠀ At one point, there was a move away from formal verse to what became known as vers libre, or free-verse. For what reasons? I suppose people were thinking that all poetry had become the same. Was it? The answer to this question is partly yes, and no. Yes, formal poetry, in particular the pentameter verse, had reigned supreme for a long time, and no, all forms were not the same.