[Lewis Turco]

Earlier this spring Vivian Stewart of Oklahoma City wrote me this email:

“I am judging poems--winners will be awarded at the conclusion of the
workshop I will lead in Texas the last week in March. I think I will put some titles and lines from these poems on a transparency to use as teaching tools at the last session I will lead. Most examples will be positive. All will be constructive. This "wakes" up the audience and generates discussion.

“I am concerned that several poems in the rhymed category omit articles.
Example:

"’Perhaps he's known this loneliness
when world just fell apart.’

“Several lines in other poems in the batch leave out articles. I wonder if these poets have had a speaker who suggested omitting ‘unneeded’ words. Would you offer a specific quote I could use about this practice?”

This is what I replied:

“Ever since the Romantics, English-language poets have been trying to use normal syntax in their poems, and normal syntax includes articles and conjunctions. To leave them out is to call attention to abnormal syntax, therefore to poetic diction, therefore to awkwardly written verse. Robert Frost didn't drop articles. This is something people do who think verse has to be written in monotonously regular meters. They need to learn something about counterpoint in language, and leaving in articles can help in this regard.”



[This message has been edited by Lewis Turco (edited March 30, 2008).]

[Michael Juster]

Amen. Let's get rid of acrobatic contractions and laughable inversions too!

[Maryann Corbett]

All good points, but I wonder if this post is in the spot where Lewis intended it to be. I've sent you a PM, Lewis, since I think this would serve us all better on one of the discussion boards, unless you meant to reply to a particular poem.

Maryann

[John Whitworth]

I can't see any reason to omit these articles most of the time. They are very rarely stressed. Didn't Donne put them in (and not just Donne) with an apostrophe as th'world and that sort of thing. Nowadays we wouldn't need the apostrophe. Bilie Holiday sings a song 'I wished on th'moon' and it sounds fine. Well, alot better than fine actually.

[Maryann Corbett]

I'm going to be a fussbudget and move this conversation to a conversation board. I'll leave a locked copy here for a day so people won't be confused about where it's gone. Look for it on General Talk.

Maryann, aka Ol' Fussbudget

[James Wilk]

Often--but not always--dropping possessive pronouns and articles creates awkward syntax. When it does, it's often called "Tonto-speak" in the argot of poetry workshops, and it's very annoying.

To a lesser degree, asyndeton and polysyndeton come across as metrical cheats; nonetheless, I find them annoying as well.

I say, "Amen, Brother!" to Lewis Turco.

Jim

[Quincy Lehr]

I do think there might be some leeway if you know what you're doing. For example, in my long poem, 'The Joke', I have a run where the articles are dropped for a particular staccato effect in lines like these:

'Cat meows. Startled crickets scatter.
Coursing thoughts in tones of radio chatter.
Queasy gut. Dirty, empty plate.
Distant noises from the interstate.
Cup of coffee. Jolt and palpitation.
Breathless, I review the situation.'

The effect I was going for was the insomniac train of thought where ideas and impulses come in blurts, like telegraph messages or headlines (and ditto with the aggressive end-stopping). But the 'Tontoisms' in this case are the product of going for a particular effect, not cheats to bring the metre into line, and in most of the poem, the articles are most definitely included.

Quincy

[Rose Kelleher]

In 99% of cases, dropping the articles sounds awkward and Tonto-esque. But there are cases - and I'm hoping some scholarly types can help me out with this - where it's done elegantly, to good effect. I think it's done when the noun refers to some general thing. Offhand, I can't think of any examples, but I know they exist. Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[R. Nemo Hill]

Yes, Rose, I do know what you're talking about. And I was going to post some such examples when, damn it all, if I couldn't call them up at will either. Mind like sieve.

A hard and fast rule either way would be a mistake.

Nemo

[This message has been edited by R. Nemo Hill (edited March 31, 2008).]

[Roy Hamilton]

"Ever since the Romantics," okay, never mind about Longfellow.

[This message has been edited by Roy Hamilton (edited March 31, 2008).]