Friday

 

Today we are going to finish discussing God's Gandeur and chapter 11 (do questions 1-4 for homework along with handout on John Donne)

We will not read chapters 12 and 13 but I do want to briefly discuss types of meter/stress

Also syllabic poetry, and meter: iambic, anapest, dactyl, trochee and spondee

Frost said that that in the English language there are virtually but two meters: "strict iambic and loose iambic". Iambic is the most common form of meter followed by anapest. Trochaic and dactylic are rare. Spondee is used mostly in cursing. But all poems work on rhythm and the breaking of rhythm for effect and meaning. So even iambic meters are broken.

So what do iambic mean:

unstressed, stressed syllables - such as into the sun.

Anapest: unstressed, unstressed, stressed - such as intervene, or all must die.

Dactyl: stressed, unstressed, unstressed - such as enterprise or color of

Trochee: stressed, unstressed - went to church to

Spondee: YOU ASS! stress stress

poetry readings

by Charles Bukowski

poetry readings have to be some of the saddest
damned things ever,
the gathering of the clansmen and clanladies,
week after week, month after month, year
after year,
getting old together,
reading on to tiny gatherings,
still hoping their genius will be
discovered,
making tapes together, discs together,
sweating for applause
they read basically to and for
each other,
they can't find a New York publisher
or one
within miles,
but they read on and on
in the poetry holes of America,
never daunted,
never considering the possibility that
their talent might be
thin, almost invisible,
they read on and on
before their mothers, their sisters, their husbands,
their wives, their friends, the other poets
and the handful of idiots who have wandered
in
from nowhere.

I am ashamed for them,
I am ashamed that they have to bolster each other,
I am ashamed for their lisping egos,
their lack of guts.

if these are our creators,
please, please give me something else:

a drunken plumber at a bowling alley,
a prelim boy in a four rounder,
a jock guiding his horse through along the
rail,
a bartender on last call,
a waitress pouring me a coffee,
a drunk sleeping in a deserted doorway,
a dog munching a dry bone,
an elephant's fart in a circus tent,
a 6 p.m. freeway crush,
the mailman telling a dirty joke

anything
anything
but
these. 

NOTES:

When looking for the theme - and you should always look for a theme in a piece of literature - think about the connection between nature and God.

Other things to note - vocabulary: reck = recognize; trod = to set down the foot or feet in walking.

-- Form: this is an Italian Sonnet (and therefore is broken into an 8 / 6 stanza structure with a turn in idea happening at line 9). The rhyme scheme is ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The first eight lines set up an idea and the last six comment on that idea. Further you could look at the eight lines as a set of two quatrains (the rhyme scheme is called envelop as the outer rhyming words enclosed the inner rhyming words as seen here: God (1), foil (2), oil (3), rod (4).

In the first quatrain (or 4 lines) you should think about the following: charge (think electricity or lightning) - charge is connected to flame and to foil (foil is golden foil - like golden tinfoil). "ooze of oil" is olive oil. Olive oil was used to anoint kings. Rod is a metonymy for ruler (or laws).

In the first four lines note the on place of enjambment. This is important. Also note the alliteration (and how the alliteration connects two or more words together in both sound and idea): Line one: grandeur God; Line 2: flame foil shining shook; Line 3: gathers greatness; Line 4: reck rod now not. How does the connection of these words reinforce meaning?

In the 2nd quatrain (lines 5-8) there's a sift in tone. Note the repetition of "have trod, have trod, have trod" - what effect does this have? Does it make you weary? Note, in line 2 the alliteration trade toil seared smeared and the rhyme with bleared. Trade is commerce; toil is work or labor. The tone here is negative. Line 3: Alliteration smudge, shares, smell, soil. Line 4: foot feel now nor. Note, shod means shoed (wearing shoes). Note the one enjambment and how it twists the meaning (or creates duality of meaning in the lines). "soil" meaning "dirty or to make dirty" and soil meaning earth.

The last six lines move away from mankind and back to nature. Again note enjambment and the connotation of words like "spent" "bent" "springs" "wings".