{"id":21,"date":"2016-06-11T17:01:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-11T17:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2018-04-22T09:24:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T09:24:24","slug":"form-as-a-dimension-of-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"In the Poem, Music Makes Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"41al+TUI0cL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_\"

The Herbertian Way<\/p><\/div>\n

\"9781447231042Cousin<\/p>\n

How is meaning of a poem heightened by its music? In Bill Herbert’s manual, Writing Poetry,<\/a><\/span> there’s an interview with Sean O’Brien about the composition of O’Brien’s poem, ‘Cousin Coat<\/span>‘.<\/a>\u00a0 We learn from this that early drafts were written not in the rhymed iambic pentameters readers\u00a0know, but in free verse.\u00a0Why the change?<\/p>\n

Sean O’Brien explains that he wanted to bring the form into alignment with its theme. \u00a0The poem explores the enduring influence of the narrator’s northern working-class tradition, and his ambivalence about its constraints and virtues.\u00a0 In choosing a\u00a0final form the poet turns to iambic pentameter \u2013 the historically central ‘clothing’ of poetry in English, the verse equivalent of the ‘coat’ which the narrator cannot but wear.\u00a0 Sean O’Brien says\u00a0he had to work hard at mastering the pentameter line,\u00a0achieving\u00a0strength by means\u00a0of\u00a0constraint.\u00a0 The result is a formal music that powerfully enacts the poem’s verbal meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How is meaning of a poem heightened by its music? In Bill Herbert’s manual, Writing Poetry, there’s an interview with Sean O’Brien about the composition of O’Brien’s poem, ‘Cousin Coat‘.\u00a0 We learn from this that early drafts were written not in the rhymed iambic pentameters readers\u00a0know, but in free verse.\u00a0Why the change?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,6],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetics","tag-bill-herbert","tag-sean-0brien"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7DaEn-l","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":663,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=663","url_meta":{"origin":21,"position":0},"title":"In the Shape of a Hammock: Lyric, Flash, and Poetic Design","author":"afterthebeginning","date":"August 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Poetry occurs in both prose and verse. As does story, though nowadays the dominant fashion is for stories in prose, lyrics (expressing personal or private feelings) in verse. Flash fiction, though, is often both lyric and narrative. Here, for example, is a flash micro attributed (dubiously) to Hemingway: For Sale.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "poetics"","block_context":{"text":"poetics","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/IMG_2059-300x161.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=557","url_meta":{"origin":21,"position":1},"title":"‘Re-visioning Exile’, Review of ‘Afterwardness’ by Mimi Khalvati","author":"afterthebeginning","date":"May 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My review of 'Afterwardness' by Mimi Khalvati reproduced here, was published in The High Window in January, 2020. Mimi Khalvati\u2019s new book is a sustained series of meditations on the theme of exile. For its eloquent deployment of form and the depth of its emotional excavation, I consider it poetry\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Views and Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Views and Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/mimi.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":562,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=562","url_meta":{"origin":21,"position":2},"title":"Review of ‘The Air Year’ by Caroline Bird","author":"afterthebeginning","date":"May 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My Review of 'The Air Year' the new poetry collection (Carcanet) by Caroline Bird reproduced here, was also published in 'The High Window' in May 2020. In her exhilarating how-to essay, \u2018The Discipline of Getting Lost: On the Impossibility of Poems\u2019 (in \u2018Craft\u2019, ed. R,Dastidar, Nine Arches Press, 2019), Caroline\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Views and Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Views and Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?cat=5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/314gbACiSL._SX311_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":585,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=585","url_meta":{"origin":21,"position":3},"title":"Celebrating ‘A Bluebottle in Late October’","author":"afterthebeginning","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm very happy that my new full collection A Bluebottle in Late October is now out with V.Press Because of the lockdown, I can't have a face-to-face launch but here are 5 videos of me reading sample poems. Take a look. Video Day 1. I'm reading 'A Minor Crisis', the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Publications"","block_context":{"text":"Publications","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_1962-802x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_1962-802x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/IMG_1962-802x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?p=4","url_meta":{"origin":21,"position":4},"title":"How to Write a Glosa","author":"afterthebeginning","date":"June 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever imagine that a medieval Spanish poetic form could help you get to grips with poems you admire? I'm exploring the use of the glosa, a courtly form that steals a quatrain from another poet's work to structure a poem of your own, in the course of which you create\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "poetics"","block_context":{"text":"poetics","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.johnwheway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/iu-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwheway.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}