Done my first poetry exercise from the book I bought. Basic iambic pentameters.
My boss is sitting opposite me now.
What is he thinking? That's what I would know.
Last night the weather hot and sultry was;
I wish a cooler temp'rature tonight.
A worm, a bird, a fox, a man, a worm.
A circle stretches round us ev'ry one.
This pencil writes; this rubber hates it all.
A fruity loaf for lunch but none for tea.
The changeling man has died. I shall not mourn
a life so filled with lies as this one was.
I work for poor and needy human beings.
My Hindu mate will love this line the most.
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Monday 29 June 2009
The Ode Less Travelled
Am quite excited by a book I bought today.
I was never really interested in poetry until doing my Latin and Greek GCSE's. I got to learn about metre, and poetic techniques in a way that was never taught in English. English poetry criticism always seemed pretty obscure - like you needed to know everything about the poem before you could appreciate it.
I found (Latin) verse composition interesting. At uni, Michael* bought a cool old second hand English verse composition book. Oxford's great for books. I was a bit envious, and have been keeping my eye out for a good English verse composition book since...
...and never came across one I wanted. Not in bookshops, nor second hand bookshops, nor amazon, nor ebay. I guess that shows the limits of search engines, because the book I've bought is entitled The Ode Less Travelled.
It's written by none other than Stephen Fry, that great British wit. And seems exactly like the book I've been searching for all these years.
I'll just quote one little passage...
But however well or badly we were taught English literature, how many of us have ever been shown how to write our own poems?
"Don't worry, it doesn't have to rhyme. Don't bother with metre and verses. Just express yourself. Pour out your feelings."
Suppose you had never played the piano in your life.
"Don't worry, just lift the lid and express yourself. Pour out your feelings."
We have all heard children do just that and we have all wanted to treat them with great violence as a result.
I was never really interested in poetry until doing my Latin and Greek GCSE's. I got to learn about metre, and poetic techniques in a way that was never taught in English. English poetry criticism always seemed pretty obscure - like you needed to know everything about the poem before you could appreciate it.
I found (Latin) verse composition interesting. At uni, Michael* bought a cool old second hand English verse composition book. Oxford's great for books. I was a bit envious, and have been keeping my eye out for a good English verse composition book since...
...and never came across one I wanted. Not in bookshops, nor second hand bookshops, nor amazon, nor ebay. I guess that shows the limits of search engines, because the book I've bought is entitled The Ode Less Travelled.
It's written by none other than Stephen Fry, that great British wit. And seems exactly like the book I've been searching for all these years.
I'll just quote one little passage...
But however well or badly we were taught English literature, how many of us have ever been shown how to write our own poems?
"Don't worry, it doesn't have to rhyme. Don't bother with metre and verses. Just express yourself. Pour out your feelings."
Suppose you had never played the piano in your life.
"Don't worry, just lift the lid and express yourself. Pour out your feelings."
We have all heard children do just that and we have all wanted to treat them with great violence as a result.
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