It's a word for bad writing: "doggerel." My handy dictionary says it comes from Middle English and refers to "dog Latin" -- apparently an insult.
Non-scholars back in those days (I imagine) would have experienced Latin outside church in metrical form, for the most part. And bad meter would result in some pretty "dog-gone" poetry.
For our part, it's what we dread: being called a writer of "doggerel." We toilers in the "traditional" field can pluck some pretty rotten grapes (or apples, or peaches, or ... ) when we just don't pay attention to what we're doing in meter.
Almost always, your English doggerel is going to come out stepping too regular: ta-tum, ta-tum, ta-tum, ta-tum, ta-tum. Line after line after line of it just ends up sounding stupid or forced. Dog-gone it.
But highly irregular meter is going to be just as bad, in the sense of not sounding like verse at all. It's the insult at the other end of the metrical-insult continuum: "prosaic."
Where's the balance? OK, you have been scanning poems, haven't you? You have been scanning a lot of them, right?
You've nailed "Lycidas," and "In Memoriam" and a bunch of sonnets by now -- and you don't need me any more ... . (sniffs away teardrop)
Ta-TUM ta-TUM TUM-ta ta-TUM ta-TUM
It's called a "resolution".* What's above is only one of several possibilities.
But you know that already, right?
Next time: That little pause.
*Note: The actual term is 'substitution' for English prosody. The term 'resolution' comes from Classical prosody. I use 'resolution' here to remind people of music, as in 'resolving' a note or chord from dissonance to something that sounds more regular. I don't think I'm the first to do this.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
And the winners are ...
Here they are: my five winning blogs, as required by my own Premio Arte Y Pico award.
They are:
www.ramblingrose.com/poetry/formalpubs.html
The entire site is very good, by a poet who has already won prestigious awards for her poetry. What I'm awarding is this particular page. She maintains it, and it should prove useful to you.
www.osfrjournal.blogspot.com
A place to publish, yes, but really a place to read about other poets. Again, a maintained site well worth your while.
www.klstil.blogspot.com
A fine "diary" blog by a conscientious educator.
www.carolpeters.blogspot.com
A blog in My Blog List opposite, by someone I know, I like and I respect. She always posts others' work, though her own is excellent.
www.donaldhall.blogspot.com
A blog in My Blog List opposite, by someone I don't know, and whose blog never fails to introduce me to something I didn't know before, even if a particular post concerns a poet I do know something about.
Each of the winners must:
1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it.
3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the “Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Please post these rules.
Congratulations to all!
....
They are:
www.ramblingrose.com/poetry/formalpubs.html
The entire site is very good, by a poet who has already won prestigious awards for her poetry. What I'm awarding is this particular page. She maintains it, and it should prove useful to you.
www.osfrjournal.blogspot.com
A place to publish, yes, but really a place to read about other poets. Again, a maintained site well worth your while.
www.klstil.blogspot.com
A fine "diary" blog by a conscientious educator.
www.carolpeters.blogspot.com
A blog in My Blog List opposite, by someone I know, I like and I respect. She always posts others' work, though her own is excellent.
www.donaldhall.blogspot.com
A blog in My Blog List opposite, by someone I don't know, and whose blog never fails to introduce me to something I didn't know before, even if a particular post concerns a poet I do know something about.
Each of the winners must:
1) Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language.
2) Post the name of the author and a link to his or her blog by so everyone can view it.
3) Each award-winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4) The award-winner and the presenter should post the link of the “Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Please post these rules.
Congratulations to all!
....
Monday, September 15, 2008
A rose is still a rose (even a little one)
I'm not the biggest fan of "The House of Life," the sonnet sequence by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It's a Victorian-era classic, no doubt, but I just think Rossetti's real gift was for painting. That his verse was as good as it was is amazing.
OK, that said, I think one of his sisters was his superior when it came to the written word. Christina Rossetti is best known for a children's story (in verse), and for the words to a beautiful Christmas hymn.
However, this reputation does not convey fully her poet's skill and versatility. Allow me to provide at least this link to the treasure trove of high-quality verse this lady left us. Try
http://gutenberg.org/etext/19188
Or, perhaps better still, you might search your local bookseller for the Penguin Classics paperback of her complete poems.
She has several sonnet sequences of her own you may wish to explore.
My list of award winners is almost complete. I hope to have it for you next time.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Papa (or Mama), Don't Preach!
I remember one night in particular. It was "Open Mic" again, and, as usual, I was enjoying myself -- listening to great material and excited about reading my own.
Then, one well-intentioned, but (to me) misguided individual got up to read her work for the first time. A rhyming ditty in a semi-hip-hop vein, the poem meandered from her early wayward life to one of the straight-and-narrow.
OK, that was it, right? No -- that was just the preamble. The rest was a sermon in (not-very-well-done) rhyme. It seemed interminable, verse after verse.
Several minutes later (well past the courtesy limit -- and limiting in turn how long the rest of us could read), she finally concluded with an angry-sounding ... something.
I applauded, as did the others, just barely.
There's a place for what's known as "didacticism" in art. Teaching, rather than preaching, is allowed -- if you know what you're doing.
I feel that the work of (AFAIK) Alexander Pope wasn't preachy, and neither was (what I've read) of George Crabbe (though there were sermons implied in his work). Both are kind of hard to read for me, because the didactic tone, however well done, can wear me down pretty fast.
In general, I think we have to try and avoid both preaching and teaching. Expression is what we're looking for, and if, in that expression, we find something new we'd like to pass along, I think that's certainly OK. It's what we're all about, in fact.
But when we dwell on it ad nauseum, be it from the mountaintop or the pulpit, we are imposing on our readers' or listeners' time and trouble. And, usually, we are doing it from an attitude of arrogance (however unwittingly). That last is the real "tell," isn't it?
Who wants to listen to that?
But it's a temptation I think we, as poets, need to stay alert in avoiding.
The forum we're allowed can be such an easy trap.
(BTW, as I was editing this thing two days after pre-posting it, I realized I'd just fallen into the trap myself! See what I mean?)
Next time: The lesser-known (and better) Rossetti.
Then, one well-intentioned, but (to me) misguided individual got up to read her work for the first time. A rhyming ditty in a semi-hip-hop vein, the poem meandered from her early wayward life to one of the straight-and-narrow.
OK, that was it, right? No -- that was just the preamble. The rest was a sermon in (not-very-well-done) rhyme. It seemed interminable, verse after verse.
Several minutes later (well past the courtesy limit -- and limiting in turn how long the rest of us could read), she finally concluded with an angry-sounding ... something.
I applauded, as did the others, just barely.
There's a place for what's known as "didacticism" in art. Teaching, rather than preaching, is allowed -- if you know what you're doing.
I feel that the work of (AFAIK) Alexander Pope wasn't preachy, and neither was (what I've read) of George Crabbe (though there were sermons implied in his work). Both are kind of hard to read for me, because the didactic tone, however well done, can wear me down pretty fast.
In general, I think we have to try and avoid both preaching and teaching. Expression is what we're looking for, and if, in that expression, we find something new we'd like to pass along, I think that's certainly OK. It's what we're all about, in fact.
But when we dwell on it ad nauseum, be it from the mountaintop or the pulpit, we are imposing on our readers' or listeners' time and trouble. And, usually, we are doing it from an attitude of arrogance (however unwittingly). That last is the real "tell," isn't it?
Who wants to listen to that?
But it's a temptation I think we, as poets, need to stay alert in avoiding.
The forum we're allowed can be such an easy trap.
(BTW, as I was editing this thing two days after pre-posting it, I realized I'd just fallen into the trap myself! See what I mean?)
Next time: The lesser-known (and better) Rossetti.
