Confusion?

cgeraci at insightbb.com cgeraci at insightbb.com
Fri Jul 7 17:40:20 CEST 2006


Don Markstein never said he was writing poetry or anything for the ages--simply that it isn't that difficult to write with a regular rhythm. We use stresses all the time, and it just takes a little thought to arrange them in a pattern. It's simply an organization of sounds--art requires something more. Shakespeare was prolific in writing in blank verse (which is Hiawathan backwards, isn't it?), and in many ways it's easier to memorize that way. (Try forgetting your lines onstage and having to improvise in iambic pentameter. That's living, baby.) Not all of it is artistic--some of it is simply expository. And in private moments, he abandons it altogether as too formal. 
As for breaking up the lines, try doing that to any piece of writing you have at hand--junk mail is usually great. You'll end up with some surprising "poetry." (Shakespeare had some fun with this in Quince's prologue speech--though it's probably easier to understand reading it than hearing it. I could find and post it if anyone is really interested.)
Or how about this bit of Shakespeare, cummings, and WCWilliams:

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----- Original Message -----
From: dcml-request at nafsk.se
Date: Friday, July 7, 2006 6:15
Subject: DCML Digest, Vol 41, Issue 7
To: dcml at nafsk.se

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> Today's Topics:
> 
>    1. Still confused.. (Dan Shane)
>    2. Toonopedia (Donald D. Markstein)
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 09:56:58 -0400
> From: "Dan Shane" <danshane at bellsouth.net>
> Subject: Still confused..
> To: <dcml at stp.lingfil.uu.se>
> Message-ID: <001101c6a03a$e268e3b0$a73aab10$@net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
>  
> 
> ELAINE RAMSHAW WROTE:
> 
>  
> 
> >>> 
> 
> Dan, I can't read the first paragraph of Don's message in 
> Hiawathan either; 
> but the second I can. 
> 
>  
> 
> By the way, it isn't hard to 
> 
> Write in rhythm, and the Song of 
> 
> Hiawatha (Kalevala 
> 
> If you're European) is a- 
> 
> Mong the simplest. Just in case you 
> 
> Haven't noticed (or are used to 
> 
> Other ways of reading English) 
> 
> I've been using Hiawatha 
> 
> Rhythm this entire message. >>>
> 
>  
> 
> AND I GRUMBLE:
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry Elaine, but I have trouble buying the idea that one can 
> claim a poetic
> metric is applied by simply breaking sentences (or syllables, 
> for that
> matter!) wherever one wants.  Such a pattern would mean 
> every sentence in
> the English language is written in Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha 
> meter as
> long as the paragraph's syllables are divisible by eight.  
> That would seem
> to diminish the hard work Longfellow, Barks, and Rosa put into 
> carefullyconstructing their phrases to achieve the sing-song 
> rhythm that is so
> obvious to anyone who reads it.
> 
>  
> 
> I don't wish to belittle Don Markstein's past creative works, 
> but in this
> one instance I still cannot pick up the intended beat even after 
> you have
> broken the lines for me.  Yes, I can force the inflections 
> if I read it
> aloud, but it doesn't naturally flow (at least not in my lazy brain).
> 
>  
> 
> The Song of Hiawatha has been one of my favorite written works since
> childhood.  I would certainly like to think that Longfellow 
> spent his
> one-and-one-half years on the poem doing more than writing his 
> story in
> prose and simply breaking the sentences at every eighth silly-bobble,
> ignoring any natural breaks due to punctuation or change of thought.
> 
>  
> 
> PICKY DAN
> 
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> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:58:24 -0700
> From: "Donald D. Markstein" <ddmarkstein at cox.net>
> Subject: Toonopedia
> To: dcml at nafsk.se
> Message-ID: <44ADB1B0.3020301 at cox.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> 
> > I'd like to jump in and thank Don for his wonderful Toonopedia 
> > reference site -- http://www.toonopedia.com/ --.  I was 
> turned on to 
> > it by a customer years ago and use it regularly.  I've 
> only been on 
> > this list a short time so it was great to see a familiar name 
> posting 
> > (great essay by the way).
> >
> 
> And than you, too, for the kind words, Marc. A plug for my 
> Toonopedia is 
> always welcome.
> 
> Quack, Don
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
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> End of DCML Digest, Vol 41, Issue 7
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