[Lewis Turco]

I was born a "metrist," Annie.

Lew

[annie nance]

DOes that mean there's no hope for me?

[Frank Hubeny]

I figured I might as well invent something. This is call the Pi Prosody.

There are many, infinitely many, poems that can be written in this prosody. You count words rather than syllables. Each line has the number of words that the corresponding digit of the decimal expansion of Pi has.

For example, assuming your poem is to be 6 lines long, the first line would have 3 words, the second 1 word, the third 4 words, the fourth 1 word, the fifth 5 words and the sixth 9 words, because the decimal expansion of Pi to six positions is, I think, 3.14159. If there happens to be a 0 in the decimal expansion of Pi, then you insert a blank line (0 words) on that line. There are no constraints on the title and there are no other constraints.

Got it?

Here's an example:

Cutie

Her hair is
twenties
blond. Her face is
forties
old. There is no ring
upon her hand though men with her were bold.

[Michael Cantor]

This is a
stupid
waste of good time -
mechanically
depending on a simple formula
to eliminate the need for talent, skill or creativity.
Any poet
with half a brain can fill
in simple, faux-poetic crap
and string it
down the page as quickly
as he googles pi to the eleventh place.
Only a fool would spend his time on this.



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited April 22, 2008).]

[Alex Pepple]

Originally posted by Michael Cantor:
This is a
stupid
waste of good time -
mechanically
depending on a simple formula
to eliminate the need for talent, skill or creativity.
Any poet
with half a brain can fill
in simple, faux-poetic crap
and string it
down the page as quickly
as he googles pi to the eleventh place.
Only a fool would spend his time on this.

Michael,

It's OK to express your opinion, however, hostility such as this is unwarranted.

...Alex

[Philip Smith]

Lewis. An interesting thread. Thanks.

Following on from Frank I tried the exercise of writing something with fixed line lengths in each stanza (though not related to any magic number).

Trying very hard to avoid spurious enjambments (and failing in some cases) but breaking lines where it seemed a pause could be justified, while also trying to avoid artificially compensating for the fixed word count with accentual metrics (and failing again sometimes) I came up with 9 stanzas that made some sort of sense and sounded OK.

Actual poem edited out

Not a poem I would commend in its own right and entirety but I think the bits that worked at all were exactly where I "failed" (fell into accentual rhythms and lent heavily on alliteration in the absence of syllabics).

But I don't think the exercise was a failure entirely. I think it made me think in a different way.

As for someone inventing such a new prosody which will catch on and become part of poetry lore it would be interesting to see.

Thanks again for the stimulating thread.

Phil

[This message has been edited by Philip Smith (edited April 25, 2008).]

[annie nance]

I think the reason Turco's two examples work is becasue the form so perfectly fits the content of each poem. The form helps the reader understand the poem or it underscores what the poem is saying. It's not just a stupid formula - not just an arbitrary way to lay the words out on the page. Unless of course I've missed something and Frank's poem somehow has something to do with pi. I'm no mathematician.

[Frank Hubeny]

Hi, Annie.

The Pi Prosody is just a way to layout the words on the page. The example I provided has nothing to do with Pi to my knowledge, but I'm no mathematician either. In this prosody, form has nothing to do with content, as I think you have already noticed. If you think about it, why should it?

It occurred to me that I could expand this into a generic Decimal Prosody, but I will have to think about that a little more. What about lines with more than 9 words? I would have to group consecutive digits together somehow.

[Joshua Coberly]

Hi Alex,

Re: your reply to Michael -

Michael,

It's OK to express your opinion, however, hostility such as this is unwarranted.

...Alex

I get the feeling he's less being hostile and more couldn't resist the opportunity to plant his tongue firmly in his cheek.

Only a fool would spend his time on this.

Anyway, nobody needs to reply to this - J