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TJMF Publishing - Open Mike Cafe Editor's Desk Staff Editor Patty Zion |
Poetic Heroes, Part Two
Rhythm, Rhyme, Redo
By Patty Zion
Now that you have (hopefully) discovered your true poetic heroes, it's time to make them work for you. We will make use of the notes you've been taking as you studied the poetic masters.
Imitation may seem like a poor shadow of the original, but when learning something new, one of the best ways to improve our skills is to imitate those who already know the nuances of the craft. Budding artists have always studied with the master painters. Dancers begin by copying the movements of experienced dancers. And, in a similar way, poets can make faster, more meaningful progress by imitating the details of their poetic heroes. This gives creativity a form or container in which to sprout. Of course, we must advance beyond this box when we have acquired the necessary skills and knowledge. Imitation simply gives us the impetus to take off.
I enjoy exploring poetic form, and when I discover a poem with a fascinating pattern, all my senses come into the foreground, as I begin thinking of similar word patterns. Here is an excerpt from one such poem:
The Last Leaf
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
I saw him once before,
As he passed by the door,
And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground
With his cane.
They say that in his prime,
Ere the pruning-knife of Time
Cut him down,
Not a better man was found
By the Crier on his round
Through the town.
Two things strike me as notable about this poem. First, the rhythm and rhyme structure is unique. The rhyme pattern, aabccb, one I have never before encountered, feels enticing. And the rhythm matches the odd rhyme arrangement, with syllable counts of 6, 6, 3, 6, 6, 3 in each stanza. Of course, the syllable count is slightly variable, but the overall pattern remains - three metrical feet, then three again, and then two.
Secondly, the poet appears to switch viewpoints at the end of the poem. He starts by taking the side of the elderly man with the cane. But he ends by saying that when he (the narrator) is old and weak, we can go ahead and make fun of him. This striking switch made the poem indelible in my mind.
A third aspect of this poem, which I found irresistible, was the way the change of meter and rhyme in the third and sixth lines made the reader stop and think. There was a sort of traffic control built in to the poetic form.
So I undertook the project of duplicating these three features. The resulting poem, titled Nothing More, appears in my poetry book Child at Heart: Poems for Your Inner Child. Here are the opening stanzas:
A dog is nothing more than paw prints on the floor
and then a howl;
a leash upon a hook, a chewed-up history book,
a rumbling growl.
He jumps up on your couch and lies there like a slouch,
a furry pile.
He knows that he's in charge - a canine Army sarge,
but with a smile.
Although I had to adjust the line length to accommodate the size of the printed book, the rhythm and rhyme remain essentially the same as those of Holmes. And the poem gradually switches opinions as the lines progress, just like the original.
The result of this experiment, for me, was a completed poem which spoke with my own voice, but used the form established by a poetic master. I found the exercise energizing and motivational.
When we think of poetic form, we often think of the most widely used forms, including various styles of sonnets, the villanelle, and the triolet. These popular forms present wonderful possibilities. But the lesser known forms also tend to spark new ideas with their unusual flavors. Allow your senses to take in all that poetry offers, and you will find new inspiration for your own words.
Exercise:
Using your notes about poems by your favorite poets, find a work whose rhythm and rhyme pattern is interesting to you. If all your favorite poems were written in free verse, find one whose line and stanza length suits the poem well. Or, you might even use the example poem from this article.
Using your own words and theme, duplicate this form in a poem of your own. See how close you can come to creating the exact pattern of the original. Do not borrow words; borrow forms.
This exercise will rouse your creativity, while helping you to recognize the importance of form to poetry. Even loosely created forms are dynamic aspects of poetic writing, especially when they are uniquely suited to the theme of the poem.
Exploring poetic expression from every angle allows our emotions to find new avenues for release. By reading and examining the verbal stylings of master poets, we give ourselves permission to use new forms and designs. We can choose to replicate the strengths of the world's best poetry. We can rediscover, redesign and redo.
Staff Editor Patty Zion welcomes your editing questions and comments. You may reach her by e-mail at