| User | Sandburg | | Topic | Off into the deep. | | Message | I bought a copy of Rattle, a small press poetry journal, the other day. I highly reccomend buying and reading these collections whenever you can find and afford one. It’s good to see all the different kinds of poetry being written these days. I liked one poem so much I googled the author and wham, she had several poems posted online and I found her blog and was able to leave her a message. Then I followed her links to other poets and man, it isn’t that they are so much better than anyone on site here, it’s just that they are soooo different. So off into the deep end of the pool for me. I think that even though their are thousands (there are thousands, right?) of us on Elite Skills, we still tend to read the same couple dozen of our favorite peeps, and we are influenced by them. That isn’t a bad thing, but it is probably a better thing to be influenced by a larger circle of poets, even if they aren’t our peeps and we never get to communicate with them. And I’m done and I’ll shut up now.
Dave |
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| User | Sandburg | 2004-12-21 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | OK, but I’ll bet you do most of this already. I look up any word I don’t know on the first read through. I note words that are used in a different way than "normal"
I look for double entendre, symbolism, metaphors. I check the title several times to try to spy a theme. I ask myself if the story in the poem is an allegory or is it litteral.
I examine the poetic devices the author used and try to decide what the objective was and if it was met. This can include whether the style of poem was the best choice for the subject matter.
Hell, Learah, you write twenty five words or more longer than I do on most of your critiques anyway. You should be telling me!
Still, there are sites where you can read what very learned critics say about famous poems. I’m not talking about studying theory, I’m saying that just as you learn to write by reading poems and stories, you can learn to critique (and write better) by reading other critics ideas about poems you like.
Ciao,
Dave |
| User | Learah | 2004-12-21 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | Yeah but reading articles on how to comment is boring. I want to know how to do it and would rather learn that through ES by reading poetry... the big articles are really daunting. I guess I’d just like to know what to look for. |
| User | Sandburg | 2004-12-21 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | I recently bought a collection of Frost and each poem has a commentary by the editor. Now I’m not going to plaigarize the commentary, but it does shine light on how to start thinking about poetry, what wiser people examine. Truly, sometimes when I get replies to my work, I wonder if the writer thought about what he was saying before he typed it. That or whether I’m too stupid to get my ideas across. People don’t seem to examine for potential symbols in the work. They don’t look for metaphors or extended metaphors. It’s a lot like reviewing a good film. One person says it’s boring and a waste of time, while another rambles on with how the train entering the tunnel was symbolic of.....
So perhaps search for literary criticism on author’s you enjoy and see what is already written Learah.
Dave |
| User | Learah | 2004-12-20 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | I know what you mean, Dave... small things make a big impact. We all have our own small things but some people do them better than others.
I want to start posting more in the classics, but you know what? I’m scared that I don’t know what to look for in "proper" poetry. Cos I don’t have the real education of poetry on an objective standpoint. I’d like to know how to comment on that, use it as a way to practice, devlope, my understanding of poetry.
I’m obsessed with styles. I don’t know what they are though, or how to identify them. I’d really like to write a villanelle; Dylan’s Do Not Go Gently has been playing on my mind for a while now, I really like the form. But I get muddled... I’d like to have a space here on ES I could flick to that tells me about a poem’s style. A way to learn about good poetry, how to identify it, how to write it, and why it’s so special.
That idea’s been hanging around since before the elections. I remember saying to a few people that we could use a section on poetry forms.
Also, how about a Poetry Prompts?
Like the writing prompts but used as a theme generator for poems. They could include rules as... "must be a villanelle/haiku", and there we could put our words to the test. |
| User | Sandburg | 2004-12-20 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | Experimental is fine, but I was just saying that the wider the circle of poets we read, the better (more versitile) writers we’ll become. I was reading Sylvia Plath once and saw her use of the word "ebon" to describe black, and I had never seen nor thought of shortening up ebony that way. Small point, but the craft must be mastered small point by small point, at least once you are into it a bit. |
| User | phil askew | 2004-12-19 | | | Subject | Experimentation | | Message | Learah - Your "experimental" section is an intriquing idea. It could contain reference on poetic forms such as ’sonnets’ or ’haiku’, and then, to aid in the experimenting, an ideas section. This section would include new forms of poetry, any that we wish to include. If a user found a particular piece of interest, its format, or concept, could be included. For instance if one read E.E. Cummings "Portrait", it could be posted as a unique style for writing about death, and if a user wished they could try a similar style on a different or related topic. In other words, we could experiment around examples presented by users. |
| User | Learah | 2004-12-19 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | I think we could do with an "experimental" area here at ES. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but what Dave said really made a lot of sense. We do seem to be ina very tight circle where we read the same people time and time again, and our work... may get better but doesn’t seem to change, at the same time. I’d like to learn about expanding my poetry knowledge... any suggestions on how we could use our website to do that? |
| User | phil askew | 2004-12-19 | | | Subject | Into the deep | | Message | Dave, I believe what you are saying is we should all experiment a little, in both, what we read and what we write. We should expand our horizons, go off into the deep, try new things. My question, where do you stop? How different does it have to be before it’s no longer poetry, or for that matter good writing? |
| User | Sandburg | 2004-12-18 | | | Subject | Good Links | | Message | http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Online_Writing/E-zines/Poetry/
More than you can handle in a day. |
| User | Sandburg | 2004-12-17 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | I’d suggest walking down to a really stocked newstand and getting a tall black french roast while perusing all that they have to offer. Then of course be polite and buy your favorite. |
| User | Eggman | 2004-12-15 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | Lure them to ES.
I doubt they’ll stay long, but a poetry community needs some of this influence you speak of. |
| User | besodemuerte | 2004-12-15 | | | Subject | untitled | | Message | so, you gonna share some of these "different" poets names of hook us up with some site adresses? i’d like to check out some of the good ones you found... |
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