"All I know...is if you don’t figure out something then you’ll just stay ordinary, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a work of art or a taco or a pair of socks! Just create something new and there it is! And it's you, out in the world, outside of you and you can look at it or hear it or read it or feel it and you know a little more about...you. A little bit more than anyone else does. Does that make any sense at all?"

Sunday, January 24, 2010

5. One-Liners are not Heroic

I don't know if I can say I have a favorite type of stanza, or anything like that. I was...confused by the concept of a one-line poem. I guess it takes a lot of effort and talent to convey something in one line, where every single syllable counts, but I also don't feel that you can say a lot in one line. At least, nothing substantial? I guess I just feel that you need a couple of stanzas (or, rather, several lines considering a single stanza is acceptable). Of course, nothing is as dreaded as the prose poem I dislike so much!

If I have to pick a type, I'm most interested in the potential of heroic couplets. In the stanza packet we read it says, "it was a form in which a high subject matter could be written." I think you could play with that idea a lot, through irony or some other means. On nationhumanitiescenter.org it says: "What happens in poems has a lot to do with what is going on in a particular society at a particular time." That fits, too...how 21st century is it to take something nearly perfected in the past, something so classic, and pick it up and turn it on its head while keeping the essence of it? I don't know, but I just love the entire concept behind that.

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2 comments:

  1. Deborah BedellJanuary 27, 2010 at 6:01 PM

    I agree. What can you say in one line? I have always thought that, but then again, some of the couplets I read are awesome, and they consist of one sentence. Maybe it just takes practice?

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  2. AshleyLynnMinerFebruary 5, 2010 at 8:11 PM

    I completely agree. We need the past to use as inspiration. History can be rewritten. I'm mystified that collectively, we have the ability to completely alter the future's perception of previous generations. However, I'm not sure that can be done in one line, as you mentioned.

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