Blank Verse

[Brownlie]

There once was a verse that was blank
No rhyming, just fill in the blank
To have to conform
To so formless a form
Is a prospect so bleak that it's blank

Take it to the limerick! Also, Milo did a good job with his use of jam, enjambment and so forth.

[rayheinrich]

Take it to the limerick!

If writing blank verse is your hanker
Written straight it will bore like a banker
You bend it and yank it
And tear, even spank it
The blank's written best by a wanker

[Brownlie]

Take it to the limerick!

If writing blank verse is your hanker
Written straight it will bore like a banker
You bend it and yank it
And tear, even spank it
The blank's written best by a wanker

I don't know, Robert Frost wrote some beautiful things in Blank Verse, I think the slow drawl of the style demands that one must pay attention, of course that is not excuse to ramble repetitively and writers of blank verse may be wankers.

[billy]

Take it to the limerick!

If writing blank verse is your hanker
Written straight it will bore like a banker
You bend it and yank it
And tear, even spank it
The blank's written best by a wanker

excellent


if blank verse without rhyming is good
to use hanker and banker one should
use the limerick form
as the poetic norm
before resting or beating one's wood

[rayheinrich]

If writing blank verse is your hanker
Written straight it will bore like a banker
You bend it and yank it
And tear, even spank it
The blank's written best by a wanker

I don't know, Robert Frost wrote some beautiful things in Blank Verse, I think the slow drawl of the style demands that one must pay attention, of course that is not excuse to ramble repetitively and writers of blank verse may be wankers.

Yes, Robert Frost wrote many beautiful poems using blank verse.
And that's because he was a wanker not a banker.
He knew how to vary the blank verse instead of writing it straight.

Here's an example of his wankerness:

One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

You can find the complete poem here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173524

[Brownlie]

If writing blank verse is your hanker
Written straight it will bore like a banker
You bend it and yank it
And tear, even spank it
The blank's written best by a wanker

I don't know, Robert Frost wrote some beautiful things in Blank Verse, I think the slow drawl of the style demands that one must pay attention, of course that is not excuse to ramble repetitively and writers of blank verse may be wankers.

Yes, Robert Frost wrote many beautiful poems using blank verse.
And that's because he was a wanker not a banker.
He knew how to vary the blank verse instead of writing it straight.

Here's an example of his wankerness:

One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

You can find the complete poem here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173524

Damn Right Ray! I love that poem.

[just mercedes]

Night rain


The pattering across my roof last night
not cats or possums - rain, above my bed.
Enslaved to wakefulness, I lay, eyes closed,
ears opened to the dark. The passing trains
made my cold bed feel warm, a safe cocoon
while gentle heartbeat murmur from the beach
exactly matched my pulses’ beating thrum
until I slept again. The morning brought
bright sunshine, grass still holding drops of dew
that wet my morning ankles wide awake.

[Leanne]

At first filled with comforting images, the reader's sense of quietude is subverted with the last line and we realise that the "roof" is most likely a railway bridge and the bed is cold not because its occupant hasn't been in it for long, but because it's probably made of concrete.

To my ear, L5 lapses into trochee and therefore becomes half a foot too long. The problem is, I can't see a solution because this is such an important line.

L6 -- murmurs?

L9 -- is it still called dew when it's residue from the rain?

[Achebe]

Damn damn damn .... Until reading Leanne's crit the penny didn't drop. This is sensational. One of the best I've read. Belongs in the hogboard.

[just mercedes]

Thanks Leanne - I can hear the trochee now, Maybe 'rough pallet'' instead of 'cold bed feel' would do it?

Murmur of the waves - murmurs of the waves? Either. But yes, 'murmurs' sounds better there.

No, it's only called 'dew' here because I could! Left-over rain doesn't sound good. Though it may have been dew, and guttation, too.

[Leanne]

I think 'rough pallet' would make it too obvious. The subtlety is what makes this brilliant. I will think though, because I hate leaving a problem unsolved

[Achebe]

Ok, the morning after:
Can improve on 'enslaved', 'gentle', 'exactly' and 'bright' - they stand out like sores.

[Leanne]

'lend warmth to my cold bed'?