Vol.3 (06) - Imitation: Good or Bad?

Imitation: Good or Bad?

Ferrick Gray

The Yellowed Page
Volume 3, Issue 6 (April 20)

Prefatory Comments

⠀ The most natural course for any young or beginning poet is that of imitation. There are good reasons why this activity is common and in many ways necessary. However, there may also be problems that would not be obvious at the time.

⠀ Think about the first steps in any poetic journey, especially those younger poets, children, we may say. Most, if not all, will dabble with rime. I believe this to be true. At this stage, I cannot believe any youth or beginner disregarding rime in favor of free verse. Why? Because this is what we have in schools, or did have. Is it still considered of any importance? Whether or not, we found riming couplets and Sicilian quatrains. They are easy to remember, and both sound and rime appeal to younger children. Something is captivating about it all. Besides, they would have far better success with formal verse than they would with free verse. At this age, in the classroom, there would have been those who would have thought they were being subjected to an unimaginable torture.

Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee"

Ferrick Gray

Poetry Showcase

April 7

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

Vol.3 (05) - Meter in English - Part II

Meter in English (Part II)

by Robert Wallace

What are the Metrical Feet in English Verse?
a diversion by
Ferrick Gray

Poetically Speaking
Volume 3, Issue 5 (April 4)

 

Prefatory Comments

⠀ It would be suitable at this stage to list the ten articles (what I will refer to as maxims) listed by Robert Wallace in his 1993 essay, Meter in English.

1. Instead of the term feminine ending, we should say simply extra-syllable ending, which may be abbreviated as e-s ending. (Equally, we may speak of extra-syllable or e-s rimes.)
2. For an omitted first syllable of a line, we should use the term anacrusis (from Greek, meaning the striking up of a tune).
3. Quantities are not a basis for meter in English.
4. Syllabics is not a meter in English.
5. In modern English, accentual meter does not exist.
6. Anapests (⏑ ⏑ –) and dactyls (– ⏑ ⏑) are legitimate substitutions in the iambic norm of English meter.
7. We should drop the pyrrhic foot (⏑ ⏑) and accept in its place the double-iamb (⏑ ⏑ – –), as one of the six foot-terms necessary: iamb (⏑ –), trochee (– ⏑) , anapest, dactyl, spondee (– –), double-iamb.
8. Anapestic, trochaic, and dactylic meters do not exist in English.
9. We should never use four degrees of speech stress for scanning.
10. The spondee is good, and fairly frequent, foot in English.