Author Information
The Development of Style and Rhythm in Poetry
Folder:
Essays by me by: Jonathan J. Spratt
The creation of your own rhythm and style relies on your ability to learn from your mistakes as well as your will to proceed. The development of rhythm and style in poetry consists of five steps, those being the development of style, the development of rhythm, the dissolving of style, the dissolving of rhythm, and finally the cooperation of both rhythm and style.
The key to development of perfect style in poetry is the exploration of many styles. In finding the underlying style of a particular piece you must observe the movement of the written word as it stands as well as the emotional flow that fallows those words. Perfection comes with practice as, I mentioned previously, and in observation of our mistakes we may learn to overcome them. By focusing on one topic and free writing on that topic we form the backbone of any poem, the words. Then we must organize these words in to lines and these lines into stanzas. The first few times any organizational pattern will suffice, since this is merely for the sake of practice. Reading through the words several times you will begin to feel how each word fits in its assigned place. If a word does not fit, it must be moved. When all words seem to be in their proper place then it is necessary to memorize the piece. Memorization is necessary because in order to memorize the brain must first organize and relate each word to the words around it. After memorization, rewrite the words in the style which they appear to be organized through the process of memorization. Comparison between the two styles will give you insight into where your mistakes lie. Another way in which to perfect your style is to observe the styles of other poets and attempt to recreate them using your own words. The more you practice these exercises, the stronger your style will become.
Eventually the formation of style will come automatically and development of that style will be applied as you write. You will begin to notice that there is little to no difference between the memorized style and the written style. You will also begin to adapt and interchange your words to fit any style without sacrificing meaning. When this goal has been accomplished, perfection has been reached and the development of rhythm must fallow before style is lost.
Rhythm conveys emotion, speed of spoken word and depth of voice. It is essential for the poet to develop the use of rhythm to enhance the text of their poetry. Rhythm can be developed in much the same way as style. That is by the observation of other works and the attempted use of the rhythm that appears in those works to suit your words. Music can be helpful in developing rhythm as well. By listening and observing the effect of certain songs on both your emotions and on your mind you begin to understand how rhythm works to accomplish convection of emotion, speed of spoken word and depth of voice. Again practice is the only way to perfection.
Let me now take a moment to explain the problem that many poets face. Through observation of countless amateur poets it is my opinion that a great deal of them lack either the perfection of rhyme or the perfection of style. It is not enough to perfect one without the perfection of the other. Like yin and yang they go hand in hand to counter balance the poem. Let me also say that the perfection of both does not guarantee the perfection of poetry. The final tree steps must be attained. I have seen the perfection of both rhythm and style and it is restricted in its movement and flow by the rigidity of rhythm and style. While rhythmically and stylistically the poem may be perfect, it also is without life. Nothing natural is perfect and therefore a poem must remain dynamic in order to appear real. The necessity for creation of a dynamic poem leads us to the necessity of the next two steps in development of style and rhythm.
Dissolving style is among the more difficult tasks. You must unlearn everything and begin to allow your poetry to absorb more than one style. Producing a poem with multiple styles is among the first steps in dissolving style all together. More modern poets tend to develop their poems with little to no style. Observation of these poets could assist in the destruction of your own style. I have little to no suggestions as to how to break style but I will remind you that practice is the key to development and that you will only learn by doing.
Dissolving rhythm posses much the same problems as did dissolving style. Again I will suggest the observation of many resent poets and their writings. Contemporary American poetry tends to focus on the absence of rhythm and style as an affirmation of the life within a poem. A poems realness does not exist in its ability to leave out style and rhythm. To dissolve rhythm means simply to not allow yourself to be overcome by the perfection of rhythm in a poem so much so that you sacrifice the realness of that poem. Always remember that the power of poetry lies in its ability to relate to its audience.
It is important at this stage of development to realize that often a poet will be overcome by the freedom that dissolving style and rhythm allows. The distinction of style and rhythm makes poetry easier to write, and often harder to understand. Many contemporary poets are held up at this stage of development simply because they are blinded by the purity of life that this stage allows the poetry to posses. We must remember that while nature is random it does follow rules and it does contain structural elements that govern life.
To disallow style and rhythm to rule over the poem and keep it chained is to dissolve the style and rhythm of the piece. You must learn to allow the poem to rule itself and to use style and rhythm only when it works to enhance the poem. This concept is the cooperation of rhythm and style. Used effectively these elements yield formless form which lends realistic life to a poem making it not only an emotionally effective tool but also a work of art.
example
this is a poem that I absolutely love by edna st. vincent millay
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I do not think I would.
Because I love this poem so much i memorized it.
Perfect poetry to me is when you think of one part of the poem or one word in the poem and the rest of the poem naturally flows out or follows from that word or part. I will now rewrite the poem as i would normally recite it.
love is not all: it is not meat, nor drink,
nor slumber, nor a roof against the rain;
nor yet a floating spar to men that sink,
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath;
nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone.
yet many a man is making friends with death,
even as i speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a different hour,
pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
or nagged by want past resolutions power,
i may be driven to sell your love for peace;
or trade the memory of this night for food.
it well maybe. i do not think I would.
If you pay close attention you can see and hear the difference between the two. While this poem is nearly perfect in my mind, it still has one or two flaws. These flaws present themselves when we cross examine the two poems. Know that I'm not trying to be pretentious or rude to anyone. I really don't even want anyone reading this. I only write it so that I can come back and know what I was thinking at a certain place and time. I use different punctuations when I recite the piece. this is not to say that my punctuations are better or worse, they are only different. The poem may be perfect when Edna recites it. For me it is close to perfect but not exactly. I also replace the word difficult with different. I think this comes from my own experience that difficult situations never change my opinions or thoughts, but the passing of time sometimes does.
This essay seems to be confusing to a few people. First of all let me say that I belive poetry is defined by it's poet. If you have read my bio or my essay on the indifinability of poetry then you probably relize my views on the subject. This essay was not meant as an instructional tool for the writing of poetic works. It's sole purpose is to inform my readers of the process which I myself have gone through in the development of my own poetic style and rhythme. I agree with Ruth's methods of writing mainly because they work well for her, however, when I attempt this form of writing, it yeilds a poem with less thought, content, and creativity. I have written this way in the past and it usually takes me no more than five minutes to produce what most would call a rather good free form poem. For me this is too easy. This is not to say that Ruth should our does find the same form easy. Perhaps the form which I choose to write most of my poems in is far to easy for her. We all use what work for us and we all develop our own rhythm and style for our poetry. Meagan, Your poetry is, without a doubt, poetry. This is simple so try not to be so confused. Poetry does not neccesarily have to have rhythm. There are many words that can not be defined. The indefinability of poetry lies not in it's lack of a definition. Clearly it has a definition, in fact, it has many. It's indefinability stems from the definitions inclusiveness and it's ability do apply to an infinate collection of things. So when you ask yourself if something is a poem, the answer must always be yes because the poem is considered such when the question is asked of it. In other words, if it is a poem in the mind of at least one then it must be a poem because of the broudness of the definition. simply asking the question means you are thinking that it is possible for the poem to be a poem and in doing so you have in fact made a poem. If you still don't understand then I'm not explaining something correctly, or perhaps you need a few courses in philosophy. I hope this was a least somewhat helpful.
..then I have a qustion. Is my poetry not poetry? You said poetry is whatever the poet thinks it is or makes it to be. That poetry doesn't have a definition. If it doen't have a defintion does that mean that there is no particular way to write? Like if I don't think that poetry has to have rhythm then it doesn't?? I'm so confused...
meagan
Jonathan I know you mean well with this explanation,but for myself, I prefer to write what I feel as I feel and think about things. Formality makes things too stiff,I say go with the flow of the moment as you write because things will fall into their natural place...