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 A place for discussion on poetry, reviews, contests, etc. |
On Playing the Piano Again at Age 70! A few years ago I decided to start Playing the piano again In my earlier life I had delusions I could become A professional musician A piano player A composer And a rock star I flunked out of Oberlin And realized I would not make In the cruel music world But I continued playing Occasionally as a hobby And now that I am retired I find playing the piano Very day Helps center me Calms me down And is a fun hobby I know I will not be Become professional But that is okay So every day I play a bit And get better Rocking the blues away Keeping dementia And the dreaded Alzheimer’s at bay. Just as the conductor of a symphony orchestra controls the tempo and power of the music with a delicate nuance, a poet guides the pace and force of the poem by manipulating sounds through word selection and arrangement. As we noted in Lesson 2, line breaks are one way to control the flow and set the mood along with the images presented. Short, staccato lines generate a sense of dramatic intensity, while longer lines produce a more composed, flowing effect. Punctuation is another tool the poet uses to manage the pace of the poem. Commas, periods, colons, and dashes signal the reader to pause briefly and absorb the significance of an image or thought. By using punctuation, the poet can end a thought in the middle of a line (called “caesura”) or carry a thought over into the next line (called “enjambment”). The caesura is useful in breaking up the cadence of a strict metrical pattern. Enjambment is often used to create a sense of forward motion in the rhythm of the language. The techniques introduced in Lessons 4 and 5 are also employed in designing a rhythm to complement the theme of your poem. That rhythm may be smooth or choppy, fast or slow, measured or free, depending on the effect you are trying to create. The rhythms in the language of your poetry serves the same purpose as the background music in a movie, putting the viewer/reader in the right frame of mind to receive your images with the greatest impact. A dictionary and good thesaurus are valuable tools for any writer. The thesaurus should be used not to find exotic synonyms that you think will make your work sound more eloquent, but to retrieve the whole spectrum of common words which have the meaning and sound you need to maximize the effect you are trying to achieve. Careful design of the word selection and arrangement, the length and density of each line, and the breakdown of stanzas provide a natural rhythm. That is, through much toil in search of precise language, experimentation with lines and stanzas in various forms, and extensive revision, the poet carefully crafts a piece of work that appears and sounds natural, authentic, and convincingly spontaneous to the reader. |
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