sus

Moderator
...begins now. And I am learning from the masters, of course. On the banks of the 20th century. Beginning with the Pound Era.

[Cathay's] real achievement lay not on the frontier of comparative poetics, but securely within the effort, then going forward in London, to rethink the nature of an English poem. It consisted in maximizing three criteria at once, criteria hitherto developed separately: the vers-libre principle, that the single line is the unit of composition; the Imagist principle, that a poem may build its effects out of things it sets before the mind's eye by naming them; and the lyrical principle, that words or names, being ordered in time, are bound together and recalled into each other's presence by recurrent sounds.

I am going approximately in order from the beginning of Modernism, although I may backtrack from my starting point into Symbolism. The idea is to get a sense of the trajectory—of poetry as a temporal unfolding and not a static thing-in-space.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to learn along with me, or to teach me what they know.
 

sus

Moderator
I am off for a long walk across Brooklyn all afternoon but I will be back with ideas and images I hope.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Useful exercise might be to try to create a parody or pastiche of anything you deem sufficiently distinctive.
 
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mixed_biscuits

_________________________
that wont help. poetry is a science of the self not a parlour game. he needs to purge all that is base within himself and burn with a pure fire.
He's looking to understand the stuff and its development, as far as I can tell, rather than unfold his soul.
 

sus

Moderator
Why not start further back with the good stuff?
That's a good question I wondered that myself.

The easy answer is I am already reading and immersed in Pound Era.

Probably the more accurate answer is that (1) I've struggled with the Chaucer I've tried (2) 19th century stuff has always icked me out (3) I could probably overcome these if I felt I could link them into my intellectual matrix. But there is nothing to hook into. I'm trying to fill out a quilt from a starting center and there aren't any seams on my quilt to sew that square onto.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Invest in a few of these

 

sus

Moderator
It's corny but I choose to believe in these things and I believe because I believe I'm better off believing than not.

And also "isn't it pretty to think so" etc
 

sus

Moderator
Invest in a few of these

I'm somewhat apprehensive of working through anthologies. I feel like it will make poetry homework. It will dampen the pure burning fire of my soul.

I feel like I need momentum. That's what the chronological trajectory thing is about. Gas to get me off the ground.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I'm looking to become a great poet. To apprentice in the tradition and unlock new powers of my language and my self. I should probably try some pastiches and also, in my spare hours, burn like a pure fire.
Have you written anything? Post it.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
I'm somewhat apprehensive of working through anthologies. I feel like it will make poetry homework. It will dampen the pure burning fire of my soul.

I feel like I need momentum. That's what the chronological trajectory thing is about. Gas to get me off the ground.
But you're reading a book about poetry, wouldn't it be better to read the actual poetry itself first?
 
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