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  #1  
Unread 01-24-2001, 07:22 PM
Julie Julie is offline
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I hope this topic is appropriate for here. If not, smite me!

When we are reading poetry critically, what effect does rhyme have? Not just its effect within the poem, but does it change our perceptions of the poem? Does rhymed poetry require a sort of critical suspension of disbelief, where we assume that the rhyming word not only rhymes but is the best possible word at that place in the poem?

How much sacrifice of sense do we allow for the sake of rhyme, if any? Do we allow poems to say less as long as they rhyme more?

Julie
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Unread 01-25-2001, 06:16 AM
SiouxieQ SiouxieQ is offline
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quote:

Originally posted by Julie:
I hope this topic is appropriate for here. If not, smite me!
When we are reading poetry critically, what effect does rhyme have? Not just its effect within the poem, but does it change our perceptions of the poem? Does rhymed poetry require a sort of critical suspension of disbelief, where we assume that the rhyming word not only rhymes but is the best possible word at that place in the poem?
How much sacrifice of sense do we allow for the sake of rhyme, if any? Do we allow poems to say less as long as they rhyme more?
Julie


Wow, I could really start to like this place (not so sure if it will like me much...lol)!


As someone who is a self-proclaimed "non-poet", meaning I'm perfectly awful at writing it, am fully aware of that, and prefer to leave it to the professionals, I'd have to say that although some people dislike rhyming poetry, in some cases I find it admirable, just because its DIFFICULT. I think at times some sacrifice IS given, but at the same time, when a rhyme scheme is in a poem, it also adds a new layer into the piece-- something new to figure out. Why is the rhyme there? Is it merely because its a sonnet? Or are the pairs of words rhymed significant? Does a flowing sound change the mood of the piece? Does an unexpected rhyme have an intended effect? Is the rhyme more or less effective than say, another literary device, such as simple asonance or alliteration? I hesitate to quote this piece, as on the "Mastery" board, someone had mentioned that "confessionalist" poetry is disliked here, but I think that a lot of poetry from the confessionalist school is brilliant, so I'm going to do it anyway-- If you look at an example--


Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward
by Anne Sexton
... (Third stanza)
Yours is the only face I recognize.
Bone at my bone, you drink my answers in.
Six times a day I prize
your need, the animals of your lips, your skin
growing warm and plum. I see your eyes
lifting their tents. They are blue stones, they begin
to outgrow their moss. You blink in surprise
and I wonder what you can see, my funny kin,
as you trouble my silence. I am a shelter of lies.
Should I learn to speak again, or hopeless in
such sanity will I touch some face I recognize?


I don't see any sacrifice being made by this rhyme scheme, as its not as hackneyed, as, say, each line ending a sentence with a rhyming word (i.e. I was angry with my friend:/ I told my wrath, my wrath did not end./ I was angry with my foe:/ I told it not, my wrath did grow.-- Blake). I think the rhymes, though found on the ends of lines, seem more internalized when you read with more emphasis on the punctuation, rather than the line breaks, and I think they help to give this "gentle" tone to the poem. And if you look at the particular words that are rhymed, they allow for a more in depth analysis-- "in, skin, begin, kin"-- all of these words have connotations relating to birth; the alternating rhymes-- "recognize, prize, eyes, surprise, lies" are all powerful choices that describe the conflicting emotions of the speaker (the mother) regarding the birth. So in the case of this piece, I'd say that yes, the rhyming words ARE the best words, and no suspension of belief is necessary.

Again, I'm just a novice at this-- with any luck, grad school will sharpen my criticism skills so I can eventually catch up to the level of the rest of you guys! I am having fun though.
Susie

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Unread 01-25-2001, 08:27 AM
Richard Wakefield Richard Wakefield is offline
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This seems to me a good topic for this board, and I thank you both for getting it going.
I feel that poetry presents us with a special kind of balancing act, one similar to that of representational painting: the work is about something, but it also is something. The poem is both an account of something that occurred and a tissue of words intended to be beautiful and memorable on its own merits. Yet as a poet, as a reader, and as a critic I'm always hoping that the beauty of the work itself will somehow correspond to its subject. Sexton's piece is a nice example: looking for herself in the child -- a reflection -- she uses language that "reflects" itself in the only way language can, by echo, rhyme.
The question of how much we let a writer get away with is a good one. When I'm looking at my own work, the answer is "far too much."
Richard
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Unread 01-25-2001, 08:31 AM
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RCL RCL is offline
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Susie, you make good points. Since you're an ambitious student of the craft, on these matters you might take a look at Pinsky's The Sounds of Poetry and Hollander's Rhyme's Reason. Tim Steele's book, of course, covers everything, a bit more technically. Cheers.

------------------
Ralph
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Unread 01-25-2001, 09:36 AM
SiouxieQ SiouxieQ is offline
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Ralph-- perhaps when spring break frees me from my tortuous schedule, I'll have a chance to look over those books-- thank you for the tip!

Robert-- I loved the way you described the composition of a poem in comparison to a representational painting! What a lovely analogy, and I couldn't agree with you more.

I think what's interesting about the rhyme in the Sexton piece is, as I said, the way it gives a tone of gentleness to the poem. Later in the poem, the rhyme scheme continues, when the speaker is obviously trying to convince herself not to become attatched to her child ("and name you bastard in my arms", and later "I tighten to refuse/ your owling eyes" and the almost tortured plea in the last line "Go my child, who is my sin and nothing more"), which seems a harsh concept. I think the rhyme emphasizes the underlying love the speaker is trying to deny herself (the diction and metaphor do the same, but the rhyme adds so much in my own opinion!). At the same time, Sexton, in writing in rhyme, is giving an extra depth to the character of the mother. Hmm... Did that even make sense??? LOL! Ah well. Its all in fun.

I think another example of rhyme only helping, not hurting a poem that is of a very different format would be Carroll's Jabberwocky! What fun would that poem be if it didn't rhyme? The magical brilliance just wouldn't be there! On the opposite end of the spectrum, to use this as an example--

The Onion Memory
by Craig Raine
(Stanzas One and Two)
Divorced, but friends again at last,
we walk old ground together
in bright blue uncomplicated weather.
We laugh and pause to hack to bits these tiny dinosaurs,
prehistoric, crenellated cast
between the tractor ruts in the mud.

On the green a junior Douglas Fairbanks,
swinging on the chestnut's unlit chandelier,
defies the corporation spears--
a single rank around the bole,
rusty with blood.
Green, tacky phalluses curve up, romance.
A gust-- the old flag blazes on the pole.

I don't see the point in the rhyme of this poem, but I find it seems to work anyway. I don't see where it adds any effect, and although I love this piece, I think the rhyme seems extraneous in places-- "together/weather"-- neither of those words add much to the poem. While some of the rhymes work towards a deeper image, some just seem blatantly rhymed without purpose. I think its valid to have the rhyme scheme here, and to allow for sacrifices where stronger words might exist, but only because as a whole, its a great piece of writing, and although extraneous, I don't think that the rhymes that aren't meaningful necessarily detract from the poem.

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