You Can Write Poetry - Jeff Mock [54]
Keep in mind, though, what Denise Levertov said, "The poet does not use poetry, but is at the service of poetry." We cannot finally know the value of our own poems. We cannot even gauge accurately who the best poets of our time are. Future generations will make that judgment. Then generations after them will judge again. William Stafford offered this bit of advice: "What one has written is not to be defended or valued, but abandoned: Others must decide significance and value." What we have is the work and pleasure of writing and, finally, the responsibility. Our responsibility is simple: to write the best poems we can. We write because we have to, the urge to create pushing us on. We make art of what we do.
GLOSSARY
All terms appearing in bold type in the text and index of this book are defined in this glossary.
abstract term: a word representing an idea or quality that is conceptual rather than tactile; pride, honor, love and beauty are abstract terms. Contrast with concrete term.
alliteration: the repetition of identical consonant sounds: "She scarce could see the sun" (from "The Blessed Damozel" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti).
anapest: a metrical foot consisting of three syllables—two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (ta-ta-DUM).
apocopated rhyme: a type of slant rhyme in which true rhyme sounds fall on a stressed and then an unstressed syllable: bow (BOW) and fallow (FALlow).
assonance: the repetition of identical vowel sounds: "But, as he walked, King Arthur panted hard" (from "Idylls of the King" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson).
ballad: a poetic form, originally sung; the ballad stanza is written in alternating lines of iambic tetrameter (first and third lines) and iambic trimeter (second and fourth lines). The second and fourth lines rhyme. The ballad is primarily a narrative form.
blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.
cacophony: a combination of harsh sounds that grate on the ear. Contrast with euphony.
cinquain: a five-line stanza.
concrete term: a word describing a quality that appeals to one or more of the senses: cold, hot, soft, hard, bland and spicy are concrete adjectives; book, table and car are concrete nouns. Contrast with abstract term.
connotation: the emotional and intellectual suggestions a word carries in addition to its denotation.
consonance: the repetition of similar consonant sounds in words with dissimilar vowel sounds: beard and board.
couplet: a stanza of two lines. Originally, couplets were rhymed and their grammatical structure and idea complete within the two lines.
dactyl: a metrical foot consisting of three syllables—a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (DUM-ta-ta).
denotation: the dictionary definition of a word. Also see connotation.
dimeter: a line of poetry consisting of two feet. See meter.
dramatic monologue: a poem in which the speaker, often a persona, relates a dramatic moment in his or her life. The dramatic monologue is primarily narrative.
end rhyme: rhyme occurring at the end of two or more lines.
end-stopped line: a line of poetry in which both the grammatical structure and the sense are complete. "Come live with me and be my love" (from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe) is an end-stopped line, complete in both its grammatical structure and sense. Contrast with enjambed line.
enjambed line: a line of poetry in which the grammatical structure and the sense are not complete but continued in the following line. "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard" is an enjambed line; the following line is "Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on" (from "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats). Contrast with end-stopped line.
euphony: a combination of sounds that please the ear. Contrast with cacophony.
extended metaphor: a sequence of metaphors, based on a single association, that runs throughout