In “A Poetry handbook” Mary Oliver discusses verse in the chapter “Verse That Is Free.” It explains free verse, and that it doesn’t exactly mean what it sounds like. “It is free from formal metrical design, but it certainly isn’t free from some kind of design.” Nobody can say exactly what the free verse design is, because it varies from poem to poem. The free-verse poem creates a premise for itself, and then responds to this premise by the end of the poem. Rhythm patterns, sound, line, and length are not metrical or strict, but they do emphatically use stresses. Free-verse poems do not need to rhyme, scan, follow particular stanza formations, or follow the “old rules” necessarily.
The author discusses the tone and content that is present in free-verse poetry. She discusses how it has developed over time and how the change of centuries has changed the tone of the poems. “As small towns and farming settlements grew into the west, with their distance from and independence from tradition, the idea of author-as-lecturer, as a member of an educated, special class, was scarcely applicable.” Mary Oliver discusses the type of line that needs to change in order to change the feeling of the speech. Walt Whitman is known as the first poet to use free-verse. Stresses and mutes were also described in this chapter, along with how and when to use them.
No comments:
Post a Comment