Poetry – “the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts”. I can’t say that I’m either a lover or a hater of poetry. I suppose I don’t have a great deal of understanding or appreciation of poems. I certainly would not be able to recite any of the literary classics by the likes of Burns, Byron, Blake, Keats or Wordsworth. Nevertheless I do enjoy the descriptive nature and romantic spirit of a poem. Poems often give me a sense of enchantment. inciting my imagination and creating visual images. Even shorter poems can tell a great story. Take Wilfred Owen, for example, one of the leading poets of the First World War. He wrote of the horrors of the trenches and gas warfare, invoking the imagination of vivid and graphic scenes of fear, destruction and impending doom.
Dulce et Decorum est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer,
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” – William Wordsworth (19th century poet laureate).
There is a discernible connection between poetry and music. The two art forms have been intertwined for thousands of years. In ancient times, poems were often sung and when the great bards were performing their poetry it would be accompanied by music.
Lyricists and poets are closely related. Both are trying to tell a story with words. A poet can easily become a lyricist if they write their poetry to be incorporated into a song and music is often regarded as melodic poetry.
Bob Dylan is a perfect example of this and is regarded as one of the greatest songwriters ever, incorporating his political, social, philosophical, and literary influences into his music. Many of his early songs, adapted the tunes and phrasing of older folk songs.
The Pulitzer Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power“. In 2016, Dylan was awarded the The Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” – (Ref: http://www.Wikipedia.org)
“Music is the Poetry of the Air” – Jean Paul Richter.
In complete contrast to Dylan, and in a whole different music genre, another great storyteller and musical poet is Eminem. I’m not a big fan of rap and I don’t love all of his music but I think he is a genius writer. He is one of the best-selling artists of all time with estimated sales of over 220 million records. Among too many accolades to mention them all, Eminem became the first artist to have ten consecutive albums debut at number one in the US and one of six artists to have released at least ten US number-one albums. The Slim Shady LP has been certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Unusually Eminem structures his songs around the lyrics rather than writing the words to the beat of the music. Although he was influenced by several MCs, he studied their different rapping techniques to sculpt his own. His style of writing is described as “using complex rhyme schemes, bending words so they rhyme, multisyllabic rhymes, many rhymes to a bar, complex rhythms, clear enunciation and the use of melody and syncopation” – (Ref: http://www.Wikipedia.org).
In 2002, the BBC referred to Eminem as a “modern-day William Shakespeare”
“When he wrote verses, he wanted most of the words to rhyme; he wrote long words or phrases on paper and, underneath, worked on rhymes for each syllable. Although the words often made little sense, the drill helped Eminem practice sounds and rhymes” – Josh Eels, “Eminem on the Road Back from Hell” (Rollingstone.com Nov 2010).
His work is centred around a number of alter egos, Slim Shady probably being the most well-known. This allowed him to express his anger with lyrics about drug use, sexual acts, mental instability and violence, political views and, in a wider sense, themes of dealing with poverty and family difficulties. His characters often spanned more than one album giving the effect of an anthology.
He has been involved in controversies with public figures, including former US presidents George W Bush and Donald Trump. He has been accused of racism and homophobia but has defended himself against such accusations on many occasions.
Contrastingly, Eminem is a friend of gay singer Elton John and publicly supports gay rights.
When talking about his duet with Eminem at the 2001 Grammy Awards, Elton John stated “Eminem is a true poet of his time, someone we’ll be talking about for decades to come. He tells stories in such a powerful and distinctive way. As a lyricist, he’s one of the best ever. Eminem does for his audience what Dylan did for his: He writes how he feels. His anger, vulnerability and humour come out.”
There have been many other lyrical feuds with other artists – Christina Aguilera, Will Smith, Mariah Carey, Machine Gun Kelly, Vanilla Ice, Ja Rule and Limp Bizkit, to name just a few!
Like him or loathe him, there’s no denying that this man has exceptional talent, inventiveness, acumen and wisdom. In many ways he has risen above his misfortunes in life and used them to spread messages with his heart. Maybe the truth is too much for some….
Another artist whose career began as a poet and novelist is the great Leonard Cohen, whose music career didn’t begin until the 1960s when he was in his early thirties. Amongst others, literary influences during his time at Gill University included Irish poet and writer William Butler Yeats (or better known as W. B. Yeats). His earlier music was mainly folk but he later blended his acoustic style with jazz, East Asian and Mediterranean sounds.
“Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, and sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss.” – (Ref: http://www.Wikipedia.org).
I love pretty much all versions of what was probably one of his best known songs ‘Hallelujah’ but my personal favourite Cohen song has to be ‘Treaty’ from his posthumous album ‘You Want it Darker’ (2016), a hauntingly beautiful track with a deep level of emotion. If you’ve never heard this song, check it out. It will linger with you long after it has finished playing.
“For six decades, Leonard Cohen revealed his soul to the world through poetry and song—his deep and timeless humanity touching our very core. Simply brilliant. His music and words will resonate forever.” — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, 2008.
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash”. – Leonard Cohen.
On a lighter note, I absolutely love a bit of children’s poetry. One of my most treasured books as a child was ‘Silly Verse for Kids’ by Spike Milligan (first published in 1959). I could recite by heart the nonsense verse “On the Ning Nang Nong” around the age of 8 or 9 years. “In 1998 it was voted the UK’s favourite comic poem in a nationwide poll, ahead of other nonsense poems by poets such as Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear” – (Ref: http://www.wikipedia.org).
On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can’t catch ’em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!
I still love it!
“I thought I’d begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine.” – Spike Milligan (1973).
Much later when I had small children of my own I loved to read rhyming stories to them. Favourites were Dr Seuss and Lynley Dodd. Our children had box sets of both authors and the most read were without doubt ‘The Cat in the Hat‘ and ‘Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy’ respectively.
The works of Dr Seuss include many of the most popular children’s books of all time. Over 600 million copies have been sold and were translated into more than 20 languages during his lifetime. In 2000, Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the best-selling children’s books of all time and of the top 100 hardcover books, 16 were written by him.
Dame Lynley Dodd is a New Zealand children’s author and illustrator. Her ‘Hairy Maclary and Friends’ series has sold over five million copies worldwide. Her work earned her the honour of Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009.
Earlier on I mentioned ‘anthology’ which is any printed collection of literary pieces, songs, works of art, etc. a ‘trilogy’ refers to a set of three works that are connected and share an ongoing theme. But did you know the names of other series that have more than three parts?
A series of 2 books = Duology
A series of 3 books = Trilogy
A series of 4 books = Tetralogy
A series of 5 books = Pentalogy
A series of 6 books = Hexology
A series of 7 books = Heptalogy
A series of 8 books = Octology
A series of 9 books = Ennealogy
A series of 10 books = Decology
A series of 11 books = Undecology
A series of 12 books = Dodecology
A series of 13 books = Tridecology
A series of 14 books = Tetradecology
The term anthology originates from the Greek word ‘anthologia’ meaning ‘a collection of flowers’.
Onomatopoeia: I looked up the meaning of onomatopoeia and the definition made it sound much more complicated than it is so instead I’m just going to say it’s words that sound like what they mean, for example, crash, bang, thud and buzz or plop, whoosh, hiss, crackle and sizzle!
If you think of the Kellogg’s cereal ‘Rice Krispies’ which has a long advertising history with the tagline ‘Snap! Crackle! Pop!’, it is marketed on the basis of the noises it produces when milk is added to the bowl. Interestingly there are a number of variations from different countries, such as ‘Piff! Paff! Puff!’ (swedish), ‘Cric! Crac! Croc!’ (french) and ‘Pif! Paf! Pod!’ (dutch).
Many onomatopoeic words are used to describe animal sounds, such as meow, cuckoo, chirp, cluck and croak. In fact a relatively large number of bird names arise by onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia can help to bring a story or poem to life. It is also often used to add humour because the words usually sound quite strange or are fun to say.
‘Storm’ by William Thomas Dodd
“A cacophonous cannonade of thunder, doesn’t it make you wonder? blasting buss of blunder, pitter-patter rain, pouring under, streets awash like tumult tundra, lucid lightning flash, clip-clop heels as people dash“
Some words are so strange that you might think they are made up! For example, shenanigans (mischief), discombobulated (confused) and skedaddle (to run away hurriedly). Then there are words that are made up of more than one other word, such as fabulicious (fabulous and delicious) and fantabulicious (fantastic, fabulous and delicious)!
Not an onomatopoeia but I also love words like flavoursome (a full rich pleasant flavour; tasty) which makes my mouth water just hearing it!
“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.” – Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese-American writer and poet).
Alliteration: the commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter, or put more simply, when words start with the same sound, for example, angry ants, brilliant brains, giggling ghosts, kicking kangaroos.
Alliteration is often used in poetry, advertising, event campaigns and newspaper headlines to grab attention. Most commonly alliteration is used to make tongue twisters and there are a few well-known ones. They are a great way to practice and improve pronunciation and fluency. You might know ‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper’ or ‘She sells seashells on the seashore’. When my children were young we used to say ‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream’
Here’s one that always makes me giggle….
I’m not a pheasant plucker. I’m a pheasant plucker’s mate. I’m only plucking pheasants. Cos the pheasant plucker’s late! Try saying that after a few glasses of wine!
It’s not just a pub challenge, it is actually a rhyme which dates back to an 18th century village called Letworth nestled in the heart of English folklore and is one of the most beloved and challenging tongue twisters.
“A playful challenge of verbal dexterity, this rhyme has its roots intertwined with the story of Tom Fletcher, fondly known as “Fletcher the Pheasant Plucker.” Tom, a gamekeeper by profession, was renowned throughout Letworth for his exceptional speed and skill in plucking pheasants.
It was during one of the village’s grand pheasant festivals that a wandering bard, Elias, captivated by Tom’s rhythmic plucking, composed this catchy rhyme. The locals, enamored by this wordplay, found it to be a source of endless amusement, especially in the taverns after a pint or two.”
Spoonerism: “a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect.” Also known as a ‘slip of the tongue’. For example, ‘Jober as a sudge’ (sober as a judge) and ‘Track of all jades’ (Jack of all trades).
“Spoonerisms are named after a British professor who is believed to have had a tendency to mix up his words — or wix up his mords. The Reverend Archibald Spooner (1844-1939) was an esteemed English language scholar who served for more than 20 years in a leadership role at Oxford’s New College.” (www.yourdictionary.com)
Over the years comedians have entertained us with spoonerisms.
Rod Hull (seventies children’s entertainer) wrote:
“Ronald Derds (or was it Donald Rerds)?
Was a boy who always wixed up his merds.
If anyone asked him,. ‘What’s the time?’
He’d look at his watch, and say, ‘Norter past quine.”
By far the best I have ever heard has to be by Ronnie Barker (one half of the comedy duo ‘The Two Ronnies’ and sometimes referred to as the ‘king of spoonerisms’) – the story of ‘Rindercella and the Sugly Isters’. Filled with innuendo and bad language, it has amused many generations!
“Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion. Rindercella worked very hard frubbing scloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot. At the end of the day, she was knucking fackered. The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forrible huckers; they had fetty sweet and fetty swannies. The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.
Suddenly there was a bucking fang and her gairy fodmother appeared. Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian. She turned a pumpkin and six mite whice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandy ronkeys who had buge hollocks and dig bicks. The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimnight otherwise, there would be a cucking falamity. At the ball, Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve. ‘Mist all chucking frighty!!!’ said Rindercella and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks and losing her slass glipper.
The very next day, the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella’s door and the sugly isters let him in. Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fassive mart.
‘Who’s fust jarted?’ asked the prandsome hince.
‘Blame that fugly ucker over there!’ said Mary Hinge.
When the stinking brown cloud had lifted, he tried the slass glipper on both the sugly isters without success and their feet stucking funk. Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers. This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on. He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly.
Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The pransome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury and Rindercella lived hers with a follen swanny!”
My favourite version is on YouTube and is particularly funny. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it and shared it but it’s more than a few! – https://youtu.be/rU5ZjR2m3eA?si=rm3cUu12NcA56ZJ4
A malapropism is very similar to a spoonerism except that it is an unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one of similar sound, for example, “I am not under the affluence of alcohol!” It is where an incorrect word is put in place of one that is similar in pronunciation.
My dear Nan was particularly ‘gifted’ at doing this although she was oblivious to her skills! The best one was around 1988 when my brother was in hospital following an accident on a building site. He was on traction for several weeks to realign a badly broken femur and was in hospital over the Christmas period. Back then the rules in hospital wards were far more relaxed and I doubt we would have had the same privileges we had in a similar situation nowadays. So on Christmas Day several members of our family trooped into the hospital to see him. My dad took in a bottle of wine and went to find out if any of the nurses had a bottle opener handy! My Nan turned round to me and said “Look at your dad fertilising with the nurses!” Of course she meant ‘fraternising’! I don’t know which is more shocking, my nan’s malapropism or the fact we took alcohol into a hospital with the intention of sharing it with a patient!
So much of learning is about meeting a word count or target, but poetry teaches us the impact of saying a lot in few words. In an age of tweets and hashtags, the conciseness of a poem should be the perfect art form for students of today.
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” – Edgar Allan Poe (American author and poet).
Hoping for a Happy Ever After 