What Everyone Should Know About Selecting a Family Poem
It’s unlikely that you ever sat around the dining room table or in the den with your family discussing poetry, that is unless you have an English professor for a parent which is also rather unlikely. Regardless, poetry is not a mainstream source of entertainment in today’s age and for that reason has waned considerably as a family pursuit. What better way to throw the entire family off balance than to find and share a poem with them.
Family poems Are Different
There is a difference between the kind of poem you might read on your own and the kind you would willingly share at the dinner table. Family poems are not the same breed as traditional poems. There are numerous factors to consider. First, will everyone at the table be willing to invest in a conversation about the poem? It needs to be interesting, slightly provocative but not too complicated.
Second, a family poem should be relatively tame. What child willingly listens to his parents read a poem with suggestive themes. The thought probably makes your ears burn, so why would you put your children through the same? While topics such as loss, politics or academics are interesting and get the family talking, some topics can kill conversation quicker than a misplaced insult. Be wary of how your family will react.
Family Poems Can Also Be the Expected
A family poem can also be related directly to the family itself, a topic which an entire slew of writers have written about in detail. There are poems written directly for specific family members such as Wordsworth’s “To My Sister” that focus on sharing the feelings he has for his closest family member in verse dedication.
Other poets have written at length about how a family member has affected them personally, including the Shelleys, both Mary and Percey Bysshe. A great deal more writers have written about each other as family, crafting family poems about friends that are as close as family. The early 19th century poets of Byron, Shelley, and Keats were all very close friends in this way.
Regardless of their dedication though, a family poem from a master poet is unlike any other poem. It is the same as an especially thoughtful gift or a rarely given hug. For some of us, this might seem more impressive than for others. However, close or no, family poems are a great way to express that hidden or not so hidden love for those closest to you.
Consider Sharing Family Poems Regularly
Why not share a poem every Sunday at dinner? It’s a great way to get your family used to the concept of discussing something other than the latest episode of America’s Next Top Model and force them to be involved. Eventually, if it means not having a say in the conversation every Sunday night should they not, everyone will want to get involved.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Saturday, 3 November 2007
What Everyone Should Know About Short Poems
What Everyone Should Know About Short Poems
Not everything needs to be long and cumbersome to be considered an art form and in poetry, this is especially the case. Poetry has long broken new frontiers in displaying brevity and concision with words as an artistic expression. From the Japanese haiku of only 17 syllables to the short form of a simple limerick, there are dozens of different kinds of short poetry.
Different Kinds of Short Poems
There are hundreds of different formats of poetry – from the classic sonnet to the increasingly rare sestina. However, very short poems are much rarer than one would expect. Traditional poets almost all followed a preconceived format, with a set meter and line format. It might be considered boring by today’s standards, but it was tradition and as a result, short poems were less common. However, there are some examples that break the rules including:
Haiku is the most famous of short poetic forms. Developed by the Japanese, this simple and elegant style has managed to find popularity in numerous cultures and countries.
Triolets are eight line short poems with a very unique rhyming scheme.
Ghazal is a Persian form of poetry that can be as short as ten lines, famously used by Rumi.
Cinquain is similar to the haiku in that each of the five lines is designated a certain number of syllables.
And of course free verse poems in which any format is acceptable
There are dozens of different forms of poetry though in which short poems can be written, using the familiar conventions and tweaking them with the artistic license that all poets have. In the case of some of history’s greatest poets, form was not nearly as important as substance.
Short Poems from History’s Greatest Poets
John Keats often wrote short, yet elaborate poems designed to capture all of the energies of a larger, more intensely styled work without putting its reader to sleep with overabundant metaphors. Though he only lived a scant 26 years, his work has had a profound effect on just about every poet since the early 19th century.
Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island fame also penned his share of short poems, including “To Friends at Home” a very simple yet poignant message to his fellows back home describing how much he misses them. Like many writers of his time, his poetry has been overlooked in favor of his fiction. However, the two are almost equal in volume, and his short poetry is especially well written.
To friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost
The gracious old, the lovely young, to May
The fair, December the beloved,
These from my blue horizon and green isles,
These from this pinnacle of distances I,
The unforgetful, dedicate.
One of the greatest poets to use short forms was Emily Dickinson. Her poems varied in length according to their subjects, be she was not unknown to have used 8 or fewer lines for her most poignant and ultimately best received poems to date. “A Charm Invests a Face” is a great example of this shortened, yet incredibly vivid style:
A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld.
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.
But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,
Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.
Not everything needs to be long and cumbersome to be considered an art form and in poetry, this is especially the case. Poetry has long broken new frontiers in displaying brevity and concision with words as an artistic expression. From the Japanese haiku of only 17 syllables to the short form of a simple limerick, there are dozens of different kinds of short poetry.
Different Kinds of Short Poems
There are hundreds of different formats of poetry – from the classic sonnet to the increasingly rare sestina. However, very short poems are much rarer than one would expect. Traditional poets almost all followed a preconceived format, with a set meter and line format. It might be considered boring by today’s standards, but it was tradition and as a result, short poems were less common. However, there are some examples that break the rules including:
Haiku is the most famous of short poetic forms. Developed by the Japanese, this simple and elegant style has managed to find popularity in numerous cultures and countries.
Triolets are eight line short poems with a very unique rhyming scheme.
Ghazal is a Persian form of poetry that can be as short as ten lines, famously used by Rumi.
Cinquain is similar to the haiku in that each of the five lines is designated a certain number of syllables.
And of course free verse poems in which any format is acceptable
There are dozens of different forms of poetry though in which short poems can be written, using the familiar conventions and tweaking them with the artistic license that all poets have. In the case of some of history’s greatest poets, form was not nearly as important as substance.
Short Poems from History’s Greatest Poets
John Keats often wrote short, yet elaborate poems designed to capture all of the energies of a larger, more intensely styled work without putting its reader to sleep with overabundant metaphors. Though he only lived a scant 26 years, his work has had a profound effect on just about every poet since the early 19th century.
Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island fame also penned his share of short poems, including “To Friends at Home” a very simple yet poignant message to his fellows back home describing how much he misses them. Like many writers of his time, his poetry has been overlooked in favor of his fiction. However, the two are almost equal in volume, and his short poetry is especially well written.
To friends at home, the lone, the admired, the lost
The gracious old, the lovely young, to May
The fair, December the beloved,
These from my blue horizon and green isles,
These from this pinnacle of distances I,
The unforgetful, dedicate.
One of the greatest poets to use short forms was Emily Dickinson. Her poems varied in length according to their subjects, be she was not unknown to have used 8 or fewer lines for her most poignant and ultimately best received poems to date. “A Charm Invests a Face” is a great example of this shortened, yet incredibly vivid style:
A charm invests a face
Imperfectly beheld.
The lady dare not lift her veil
For fear it be dispelled.
But peers beyond her mesh,
And wishes, and denies,
Lest interview annul a want
That image satisfies.
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