Mary Oliver wrote in A Poetry Handbook that she routinely revises her poems 41 times each! I have found this illuminating and encouraging, although I’m still probably only revising around five times a piece. I marvel that I don’t always find the time for it. I have said often that writing creatively is one of my greatest joys. This point, perhaps, bears an entire blog post by itself.įor my own poetry work, I have been rather productive, creating and revising almost every day. In some ways, we have become better image crafters, but that cannot be all a poem is. I fear that some modern poets are losing the rhythm that is so much a part of good poetry. Fry encourages poets to “not draw attention” to the rhyme.
For me, it imparts just that right level of musicality without being downright chant-like. I’m also a big fan of slant rhyme in poems, especially when both words do not come at the end of lines and when not overdone.
That’s not to say that Oliver advocates against form, but it’s clear that she is much more accepting of free verse.Īlthough I’ve experimented recently with syllabic verse, Fry has now introduced me to the idea of accentual verse, originating from Old English poetry, that focuses on the number of accents only (and does not concern itself with the number of unaccented syllables). And his arguments for form in poetry, though perhaps not altogether in current “fashion,” are hard to ignore. Fry, an English actor and accomplished author, is much more of a traditionalist when it comes to meter. Both are marvelous books for opening up the nuances of what it means to read and write poetry, although the authors come at it from decidedly different perspectives.
I read through Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook twice, which is full of inspiration, and I am halfway through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled, which is more comprehensive. I’ve read anthologies and journals, as well as books by Mary Oliver, Michelle Mathees and Galway Kinnell. I have been writing and reading in this area a great deal. Although I am proceeding steadily with preparing the next two chapter books for publication, in the last few months, I have begun again to pursue my first passion – poetry.