Table Of ContentPOETRY HANDBOOK
Poetry Handbook
For Readers and Writers
DINAH LIVINGSTONE
M
MACMILLAN
© Dinah Livingstone 1993
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1993 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-54207-1 ISBN 978-1-349-22398-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22398-5
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Copy-edited and typeset by Cairns Craig Editorial, Edinburgh
This book is dedicated to Camden Voices Poetry Group
and to poetry workshops and poets everywhere
fumbling, fretting and fighting
for appropriate forms of freedom
and a city of communion
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction xiii
1 Rhythm, Stress Metre 1
Rhythm 1
Stress 2
Word-Stress 3
Sentence-Stress 3
Alternation and Degrees of Stress 4
Silent Stress? 5
Stress-Timing and Sprung Rhythm 6
Stress-Syllable Metre 9
Iambic 11
Anapestic 11
Trochaic 11
Dactylic 12
Irregularities 12
Rising and Falling 14
The Foot and the Musical Bar 15
Counterpoint Rhythm 16
Pure Syllabic Metre 18
Quantitative Metre 18
Rhythmic Refreshment 18
Finding a Rhythm 20
Rhythmic Inheritance 22
Rhythmic Association 23
Examples 25
2 The Sounds of English 32
Vowels and Consonants 33
Phonemes 33
English Vowels 34
Front Vowels 34
vii
viii Contents
Central Vowels 34
Back Vowels 35
Diphthongs 35
Distinguishing Front and Back Vowels 36
Vowel Order 36
Vowel Length 36
English Consonants 37
Consonant Pairs 37
Consonant Kinds 37
Stops 38
Fricatives 38
Nasals 38
Lateral 38
Semi-Vowels 38
List of Consonants 40
Sound Patterns 40
Consonant Patterns (Consonance) 42
Alliteration 42
Consonant Rhyme 43
Vowel Patterns 44
Assonance 44
Vowel plus Consonant Patterns 45
Rhyme 45
Full Rhyme 45
Near Rhyme 46
Sound Association 47
Examples 48
3 The Poem's Shape 55
Lines 55
Shape and Pattern 55
Some Traditional Stanza Forms 56
Four-Line Stanza or Quatrain 56
Ballad Stanza 56
Rubai 57
Three-Line Stanza or Tercet 57
Terza Rima 57
Two-Line Stanza or Couplet 58
Patterns using Repetition of Words or Ideas 58
Refrain 58
Contents ix
Parallelism and Antiphony 59
Traditional Poem Forms 59
Villanelle 59
Sonnet 60
Verse Paragraph 62
Form in Contemporary Poetry 62
Examples 64
4 Content 68
Economy and Intensity 69
Particularity: Images 70
Ideas and Feelings 71
Scope 75
Allusion 77
Words 81
Economy and Freshness 82
Poetic Vocabulary/Diction 83
The English Word Hoard 84
English has Few Inflections 85
Extending the Use of Words 86
Paradigm and Invention 86
Handicapped Paradigms 87
Puns 88
Word Association 89
Figurative Language 90
Metaphor and Simile 90
Other Figures of Speech 92
5 Poetry in Society 96
Poetry in the Past 99
Poetry's Repercussions: a Somerset Example 101
Questions for Poetry in Britain Today 103
Poetry in a Different Society: Nicaragua 111
6 Translating Poetry 125
Three Kinds of Poetry Translation 126
Literal Translation or Crib 127
The Completely Free Version or Imitation 127
The Middle Way: Translation with 'Some Latititude' 129
Voice 129
x Contents
Poetry as Incarnate Word 130
Translation Difficulties and Challenges 132
Metre 132
Sound 133
Word Order 134
Puns and Anagrams 136
Humour 136
Images, Symbols, Associations 137
Weather and Seasons 137
Plants 137
Institutions 139
Parts of the Body 139
Swear Words 140
The Whole Poem as a Body of Words 141
Translations of Rilke 142
Translations of Apollinaire 144
Translations of Cardenal 147
Translation of Philippe Jaccottet 149
Translation of Paul Celan 149
Conclusion 153
Short List of Addresses and Publications 156
Index 159
Acknowledgements
I'd like to express my warmest thanks to the Department of
Phonetics at University College, London, where I learnt phonetics
with great enjoyment, and particularly to Dr Susan Ramsaran, my
principal teacher, and Professor John Wells, who read the first three
chapters of this book and gave me very useful help.
My warmest thanks also to the poet Julio Valle-Castillo for telling
me a lot about Nicaraguan poetry.
The author and publishers wish to thank the following for
permission to use copyright material.
Anvil Press Poetry Ltd. for extracts from 'Fete' and 'A la Sante'
from Apollinaire: Selected Poems, translated and introduced by Oliver
Bernard, 1986;
Anne Beresford for extracts from 'The Question' from The Sale of
the Morning, Agenda Editions;
Carcanet Press Ltd. for an extract from 'Rubaiyat' from In White
Ink by Mimi Khalvati;
Curbstone Press for extracts from 'Elvis' from Flights of Victory by
Ernesto Cardenal, translated by Marc Zimmerman, and 'Nicaragua
Water Fire' from Eve's Rib by Gioconda Belli, translated by Steven
F. White;
Steve Duffy for an extract from 'Intelligence' from Balloon, Mat
tock Press;
Michael Hamburger for an extract from 'Death Fugue' from
Poems of Paul Celan, translated by Michael Hamburger, Anvil Press,
London, 1988;
Hearing Eye for extracts from 'Nawroz: The Kurdish New Year
21st March 1985', 'Is Love the Word?' and 'Daphne' from Witness
to Magic by Kathleen McPhilemy, 1990;
David Higham Associates on behalf of the author for extracts
from 'Titus and Berenice', 'Turnham Green' and 'Plato and the
Waters of the Flood' from Collected Poems by John Heath-Stubbs;
Libby Houston for extracts from 'For the Record' and 'The
Quarry' from Necessity;
John Lyons for extracts from 'Nicaragua Water Fire' by Giaconda
Belli, translated by John Lyons, Greville Press;
Menard Press for extracts from 'Return' from The Proper Blessing
xi
