tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11921782.post111928618071440813..comments2023-07-30T07:20:00.952-05:00Comments on Say Something Wonderful: Things to Do with PoemsE. M. Selingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00426524354823232002noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11921782.post-1119364844666038682005-06-21T09:40:00.000-05:002005-06-21T09:40:00.000-05:00BUILDING A BETTER MYSTERYEric, the Howe passage is...<B>BUILDING A BETTER MYSTERY</B><BR/><BR/>Eric, the Howe passage is a good example of the sort of poetic effects we've been discussing. Since you ask "What are the rhetorical tricks, the gestures of language, that raise those curtains of arcana?," here's what I've come up with in regard to the quote, certainly a partial list that could be tweaked in various ways:<BR/><BR/>1. <B>Subject matter:</B> a significant moment in the Western mythos, with tremendous historical and cultural influence. So, in effect, mystery is hardwired in the poem.<BR/><BR/>2. <B>Parataxis:</B> the use of a paratactic, relatively fragmented and disjunctive mode of writing suggests a secretive code or whispered truth.<BR/><BR/>3. <B>Repetition & variation</B>: this creates a litany-like effect or the sense of a magic spell.<BR/><BR/>4. <B>Stanza structure:</B> the use of the couplet and then single lines provides a sense of order and contributes to the music, the rhythm of thought. In this case, I get a feeling of measured calm.<BR/><BR/>5. <B>Mixed discourse:</B> Immediate and expressive discourse juxtaposed with a more "analytic" or even "scholarly" type of language. This results in a high degree of...<BR/><BR/>6. <B>Self-consciousness:</B> an overriding sense of awareness in and of the poem; i.e. this is mystery and simultaneously an investigation or demystifying of mystery.<BR/><BR/>Howe is a master of all this; one sees it used to great effect in Palmer's poetry too. Of course, I would never think of trying it in my poems.Norman Finkelsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03673105579717018812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11921782.post-1119297221635637262005-06-20T14:53:00.000-05:002005-06-20T14:53:00.000-05:00Do you know the passage from one of David Hockney'...Do you know the passage from one of David Hockney's autobiographical volumes of work in which he says that great art, like great religions, must have something for everyone? "Otherwise, it is not a religion, it is a mere cult" is how he puts it. Great art imagines an audience of all humanity even if not every member can perceive it to the depths. (I love Oscar Wilde, but his work's appeal is in part cultish.) The whole passage is long; I have often handed it out to students, especially those who are enthralled with the idea of the poem as puzzle and are in love with obscurity--the more, the better.<BR/><BR/>I'm reminded of seeing, a year or two ago in Los Angeles, the Actors' Gang production "The Mysteries," which included four medieval mystery plays as well as three contemporary takes; I was just enthralled by the immediate appeal of the medieval plays in a way I never approached when reading them. I have never felt so much like an illiterate fourteenth-century peasant. At one point I was nearly in tears with pity for Christ. And I'm Jewish.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com