Re: Anne Waldman poetry

> George J. Dance wrote:
> Mr Zodiac wrote:
> 
>> Pharaoh
>> 
>> The pharaohs are dead.
>> Their sarcophagi lie in modern museums,
>> their bodies ground for philters long ago.
>> No candle charms this pharaoh's eye
>> and no elixir draws him to my flame.
>> Oh, I may wrap my limbs in myrrh and linen,
>> chant my mantras on and on for years
>> and never bring him nearer.
>> 
>> My magic fails me,
>> I have no skill with spells or pentagrams.
>> The dead are dead,
>> and he will molder more
>> before I ever pull him back.
>> 
>> -Anne Waldman
>> 
>> Outstanding poetry from one of my favorite Beat poets....!
>> 
> 
> 
> Yes, that's a good poem. Rather than ask you to tell me why you think it's good, I'll tell you why I think it's good. Not everything, of course, but the one skill I think is most important.
> 
> We all learned Shakespeare as kids, and that's when we learned iambic pentameter (IP) or 5-beat verse; as we grew older, we encountered it in other poetry, too: sonnets and heroic couplets, mainly. It's the standard for solemn, formal, deeply meaningful or important verse.
> 
> Waldman's writing free verse; but (1) she wants her poem to have that solemn, etc. feeling or mood to match the content. At the same time, (2) she wants her speaker to sound like someone thinking the content or telling it to a friend, not like a Shakespearean actor reciting lines.
> 
> So she keeps the free verse for the sake of (2), especially in the all-important first two lines (which define the meter) - but for the sake of (1)  she then starts adding lines of IP:
> 
> L3 - their bodies ground for philters long ago.
> L5 - and no elixir draws him to my flame.
> L6 - Oh, I may wrap my limbs in myrrh and linen,
> L7 -  chant my mantras on and on for years (headless IP)
> L10 -  I have no skill with spells or pentagrams.
> L 11-12 - The dead are dead, / and he will molder more
> 
> That's a lot of IP, so skillfully buried in the free verse that a reader wouldn't notice it unless he looked, but still there working to get the right mood across.
> 
> That's what I mean by "Buried IP". It's a powerful way to add solemnity, etc., to free verse poetry.



Well put, your critique was as good a read as the poem itself.

😏


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