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  #11  
Unread 05-03-2002, 08:52 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is online now
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The quoted line is indeed from Tennyson, but Keats wrote often of bees, and in a minor poem he wrote to his brother George he even spoke of the bees murmuring:

That the still murmur of the honey bee
Would never teach a rural song to me


I agree, though, that neither quote seems to have much to do with quantitative meter or ghazals. If I were looking for some Keats lines that evoked (however vaguely) such things, I'd turn to "To Autumn," where these lovely lines appear:

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies


The first of these lines in particular, with "small gnats mourn" seeming to be three words that each takes up the same amount of stress and breath, evokes some quantitative pleasures....though I wouldn't push that point. (I'd make the same point about "light wind lives" which occurs two lines later). The "feel" of these lines, though, and their minute and contemplative observation of nature, seem to have a ghazal-like magic to them.

--Bob
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  #12  
Unread 05-03-2002, 01:36 PM
Freda Edis Freda Edis is offline
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Sorry, Dick. I see my dozy memory's acting in full force again. These days, I should check back for the facts. On the rest, I wasn't so much answering the question about quantitative metre, but expanding on Nigel's point about the use of sonics in Arabic and in some ghazals. The misquote was just to illustrate that and wasn't put up as a ghazal-like line in its own right,

Freda

[This message has been edited by Freda Edis (edited May 03, 2002).]
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  #13  
Unread 05-03-2002, 04:09 PM
Dick Davis Dick Davis is offline
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Frida, as soon as I'd sent my message I realised you weren't claiming the line you quoted was anything to do with quantitative verse - my apologies for reading your message too hastily. Dick.
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  #14  
Unread 05-07-2002, 10:58 AM
graywyvern graywyvern is offline
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a number of years ago* i tried naturalizing the
ghazal with syllabic lines of 13 or 15 count;
the latter eventually won out, because they less
readily fell into ballad-like rhythms. and i used
final assonance rather than rhyme; such as a long
OO sound, which otherwise would be absent from the
lines.

----

Last night I wandered the place, dousing the bulbs imbued
with space-filling fire that promised but weak insurance.

When I stopped at the single remaining, what it made
of the rough-plastered wall behind, for the first time fused

feeling and context, where I'd been and all the specters
I ever desired or fled as possible futures.

I thought: now I'm really here. (Whatever that implies.)
And this morning tying tie, I felt the peculiar

snag of serrated dead fingertip-skin against silk.
And I knew then mine was a madness that would be cured.

1.22.87



[This message has been edited by graywyvern (edited May 12, 2002).]
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