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Unread 09-12-2001, 09:01 PM
Rhina P. Espaillat Rhina P. Espaillat is offline
Honorary Poet Lariat
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,008
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Easy question: I dislike them. If you're going to use repetition, the interval between repetitions should be consistent enough to allow a pattern to develop, even if the ear perceives it only subliminally. Somewhat irregular repetitions tease, which is still a pleasure; but wildly irregular repetition is not a design anymore, but disorder, and that doesn't please, because the discomfort goes beyond mere teasing. Free-verse sestinas don't build any "box" they can threaten to get out of, so what's the game?

I find DeRoche's variations in the center lines a pleasur-able tease: they threaten to go too far, but never do. For my ear, at least. And the "threat to escape" in the center lines is always contained by the orderly outside lines that persist in getting you back to the obsessive thought.
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