Villanelles and Revision

AGENDA:

Continue to work on revising earlier poems and writing a villanelle.

If you want extra credit, work on another choice poem from the packet.

Villanelle

AGENDA:

Write a villanelle

Villanelle

A villanelle (also known as villanesque) is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form.

http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/g/villanelle.htm

A1
b
A2

a
b
A1(refrain)

a
b
A2(refrain)

a
b
A1(refrain)

a
b
A2(refrain)

a
b
A1(refrain)
A2(refrain)

The House on the Hill

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1894)

They are all gone away,     The House is shut and still, There is nothing more to say. Through broken walls and gray     The winds blow bleak and shrill: They are all gone away. Nor is there one to-day     To speak them good or ill: There is nothing more to say. Why is it then we stray     Around the sunken sill? They are all gone away, And our poor fancy-play     For them is wasted skill: There is nothing more to say. There is ruin and decay     In the House on the Hill: They are all gone away, There is nothing more to say.

Memory Map 1: Getting the Knack 20 Poetry Writing Exercises

AGENDA:

Do poetry exercise Memory Map 1

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED351692.pdf

Line-breaking Exercise

AGENDA:

Linebreaking/Enjambment

AGENDA:

Read the following:

Do the line break exercise on the handout.  Cut and paste the passage onto a word document.

EXERCISE:

http://english202-childers.blogspot.com/2010/09/line-break-exercise.html

Also read:

http://mrbchs.wikispaces.com/line+break+exercise

The Poetic Line

What is a poetic line?

A line is a unit of words in a poem, and it can vary in length.  According to Oliver (1994), "The first obvious difference between prose and poetry is that prose is printed (or written) within the confines of margin, while poetry is written in lines that do not necessarily pay any attention to the margins, especially the right margin" (35).

An example

Here are three lines from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language":

Locate I

love you some-

where in

SOURCE: OLIVER, M. (1994). A POETRY HANDBOOK. ORLANDO: HARCOURT BRACE & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Lineation

What is lineation?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, lineation is "an arrangement of lines."  Coulson and Temes (2002) elaborate on this definition: "[T]here is an interplay between the grammar of the line, the breath of the line, and the way lines are broken out in the poem--this is called lineation" (para. 12).

An example

Here is an example of  "an arrangement of lines," spanning two stanzas, from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language":

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

SOURCE: COULSON, J & TEMES, P. (2002) HOW TO READ A POEM. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.POETS.ORG/VIEWMEDIA.PHP/PRMMID/19882 & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Enjambment

What is enjambment?

Estess and McCann (2003) tell us: "Enjambment means breaking a line but not ending the sentence, that is carrying over a sentence from one line to the other" (p 140).

An example

There are multiple examples of enjambment in these lines from Robert Creeley's poem "The Language." Notice how this single sentence is carried over from one line to the next and over multiple stanzas, and all the lines break abruptly.

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

take care not   

to hurt, you   

want so

much so   

little.

SOURCE: ESTESS, S. & MCCANN, J. (2003). IN A FIELD OF WORDS: A CREATIVE WRITING TEXT. UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NJ: PRENTICE-HALL & CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Robert Creeley and The Line

One of the masters of enjambment and the line is the poet Robert Creeley.  As you can see above, Creeley's line breaks are often startling and unexpected.  To find out more about Creeley's unique use of the line (or breaking the line), read the section on "The Line" in How to Read A Poem, which you can find here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19882

You can also find a brief biography of Robert Creeley and his poems here:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/184

SOURCE: POETS.ORG FROM THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETRY

Robert Creeley's "The Language"

Here is the complete poem of Robert Creeley's "The Language":

The Language

Locate I

love you some-

where in

teeth and   

eyes, bite   

it but

take care not   

to hurt, you   

want so

much so   

little. Words   

say everything.

I

love you

again,

then what   

is emptiness   

for. To

fill, fill.

I heard words   

and words full

of holes   

aching. Speech   

is a mouth.

SOURCE: CREELEY, R. (1992). THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ROBERT CREELEY, 1945-1975. BERKELEY, CA: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Robert Creeley's "The Language": An Animated Version

An animated poem of Robert Creeley's "The Language" read by Carl Hancock Rux:

open player in a new window

SOURCE: POETRY FOUNDATION

"Creeleyizing" A Poem

Assignment Task:

Select a poem that you have written.  For the purposes of this assignment, it is best if the poem consists of lines at least ten syllables in length and/or heavily end-stopped lines (meaning that punctuation appears at the end of the line). 

After you have selected a poem, "Creeleyize" your poem.  In other words, rewrite your poem by breaking your lines at unexpected moments (like Creeley does in a number of his poems), creating frequent enjambment and short lines.  

Assignment Purpose:

The purpose of this assignment is to revise the lineation of your poem, exploring ways in which your changes in line breaks and line length open up new meanings and points of emphasis in the poem.  It might also suggest possibilities for further revision to imagery and sound.

Some Questions to Consider After Your Revision:

• Does the change in lineation help reinforce the rhythm of the poem? Or does it seem distracting?
• Is the change in lineation appropriate for the meaning of the poem? In other words, does this new form enhance the content of the poem?
• What words and phrases stand out to you in this revision that did not stand out before?  How does this change the poem?
• What additional ways might you revise the poem to explore other possibilities for making meaning, sound or word play?