Mary Oliver once more bewilders me in her control of poetry and the mechanisms that she recognizes while writing poetry in a particular style. Prior, she surprised me with her use of tone and specific lines, and even more now when speaking of free verse poetry in specific. She defines free verse poetry as “fluid” or “organic”, which made me wonder how something with no specific scheme could exactly be declared as “fluid” and transitional. “Free verse is not, of course, free. It is free from formal metrical design, but it certainly isn’t free from some kind of design. Is poetry language that is spontaneous, impulsive ? Yes it is.” (Page 67)
I never really considered free-verse poetry to have a specific metrical design that kept it moving - only believed it to be a writing of verses of perhaps a specific length but with no certain specifics in its creation. Oliver’s divulging words once more make me consider the makings of a poem and the necessary pieces that need to go into each. She touches on tone and content and provides examples (though many of them small) that show the basis that is needed in the construction of a strong and well-done free verse poem despite its size. Depth is the question and the manner it can be surpassed through time and the variation of interpretation between individuals. She also discusses the importance of punctuation (such as enjambments) or in some cases, the lack of - something that has been a question of mine for quite some time - all of these I never originally understood before.
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