Heard Melodies Are Sweet/ But Those Unheard Are Sweeter

Meter is the music in poetry. What's that? You can't hear it, you say? Listen to the sound of the words. Read your poetry aloud. Re-read it, sounding each word as you say it. You'll hear it. Most often, meter is more subtle than the instruments used to create the rhythm in songs. At least in good, serious poetry (I know, I'm J. Evans Pritchard-ing), it doesn't lead us into a sing-song game or a funeral march. The use of meter is more impressive when it's unnoticed, like a good referee at a basketball game, who recognizes the flow of the game and calls his game accordingly. He's NOT showboating or making the big game-changing calls. Meter functions in the same manner. Subtle, but strong.

Anyway, I'm afraid that I could go one defending and explaining the poet's use of meter forever without converting a soul. I will leave you with a link to meter so you might better understand it. But there's going to be some "sock-knocking" action some day when I break out my favorite rhythmic poems.

Here's the page (click) that gives you tons of examples of iambs, trochees, dactylls, and anapests.

You are interested, you say? Read (aloud) the pneumonic verse by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. His trochee lines are trochaic, his "slow Spondee [line] stalk." Awesome.

Trochee trips from long to short;
From long to long in solemn sort
Slow Spondee stalks; strong foot yet ill able
Ever to come up with Dactylic trisyllable.
Iambics march from short to long -
With a leap and a bound the swift Anapests throng.

Ok, this is just cute. A nice juggling act. What about using meter to sustain real emotion? To compliment the sweetest words a guy ever did say to his gal, Willy Shakespeare (a JEPritchard's fave) chose good ol' iambic pentameter.

Even though you might not be able to scan the meter, you CAN hear how this rising rhythm accentuates the beauty of the poet's words, and in doing so, adds a deeper tribute to the poet's subject. But you can HEAR it only if you read it aoud. Once, twice, three times, more, sound the words to yourself. Go ahead.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Now wouldn't you like it if someone went through all of this trouble just for you?

Observations on March Madness

Other than writing a book about the history of St. Mark's (that's right, good ol' SMHS), I think there's a book in me about or set during March Madness, the Mardi Gras of basketball excitement that grows bigger each year. As much as I enjoy the basketball, my book would chronicle the rest of the hoopla, too. I think I might go the fiction route, with plans to take my story to the big screen.

Here's are some working notes to my novel, to which you can respond. Hey, I might even steal your ideas, and of course, credit you as a source.

Here goes:

*Cinderella effect--Once they get the invitation to the dance, teams from mid-major conferences have proven that they can play with and beat teams from the power conferences. Good players in these conferences, too, sometimes outshine consensus All Americans from the power conferences.
*Jilted effect--teams that think they should have been in the NCAA usually lose in the NIT tourney
*Microscope effect--close games, close calls, and buzzer beaters are magnified exponentially under the watchful eyes of millions.
*Cliches, Anyone?--without Vitale's own Diaper Dandy and PTPer, we'll hear the old standards like coaching "chess matches," "survive and advance," "that's going to be a war," and guys with "a lotta heart."
*The Underdog effect--People root for virtually unknown schools like Albany, Winthrop, and Northwestern State.
*Addition by Subtraction effect--without the over-the-top presence of Dick Vitale, the games and plays speak for themselves. And surprisingly, no one feels a need to mention Mike Krzyzewski and Duke during the Gonzaga/Indiana game.
*Anti-Fools Rush In effect--less rabid and drunken college fans means no mobbing of center court after big wins.
*Sorry, I'm Busy that Weekend--relationships take a hit during the tourney unless your significant other is a hoop lover like you.
*Chicks Dig the Sousaphone Player--lots of television close-ups of susaphone and tuba players jamming away.
*Nerd Alert--I know this is borderline mean, but March Madness becomes maddening when people who don't know basketball try to sound knowledgable by parroting what they've read and heard.
*Old Folks Home--the game has passed by TV announcers Billy Packer, Vern Lundquist, and Bill Raftery. It could be worse (Duke Vitale, Mike Patrick, Bill Walton, Brent Musberger)
*Nothing New in the IPod? --the CBS/March Madness music is beginning to sound old, too.

Rock Riffs: Juggling to the Music

Click here to watch Chris Bliss juggling to the medley of songs (Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End) that end the Beatles' Abbey Road album (you might need to download the Google video player).

Now if I can only find a poem that matches this performance!

Remember, "what a poem means" cannot be separated from "how a poem means."

Links to Thesis Statement Sites

Here are the promised links, along with a photo of Diana Hacker, research paper style goddess. You can find at least as much info at www.dianahacker.com as you would find in your MLA style book, the little book that is buried somewhere at the bottom of your locker.

Regulation of cell phone usage is needed because drivers are seriously impaired and because laws on negligent and reckless driving are not sufficient to punish offenders.
Full model paper is available at http://www.dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-Daly-MLA.pdf

Because snowmobiles create both noise and air pollution and because their use in the park strains the already lean budget of our park service, recreational snowmobiles should be banned from Yellowstone National Park.
Full model paper is available at http://www.dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-Lund-MLA.pdf

The Owl at Purdue (here you'll get help in writing different kinds of thesis statements)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Dealing with Extremes

At least three of our poem-prayers (Prayer of St. Francis, reading from Ecclesiastes, Irish blessing) pray for our ability to deal with the ups and downs, twists and turns, and the highs and lows of everyday life.

And now even the weather is raining opposites on us. Sweltering yesterday. No, we're not turning on the air conditioning. Deal with it. Shivering today. No, we're not going to turn up the heat. Deal with that, too.

Our prayers have taught us that there is "a time for every purpose under heaven." If the crazy weather this week has taught us anything, it's that 1. March weather is unpredictable and 2. we have to learn to deal with extremes by keeping cool when things get hot, staying warm when the March winds blow. And yes, I'm speaking metaphorically.

Therefore, it makes even more sense that we follow the advice in Kipling's poem If.

Success (or being a man, my son) will come "if you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two imposters just the same . . . ." Keep cool. Stay warm. If you really think about it, the two phrases only differ by a few degrees.

The Wearing of the Green

No, I'm not blogged out as much as I am "golfed out," and I haven't even swung a club yet. Coaching the golf team isn't real work, I know, but it is three hours less a day that I could be doing other things, like "blogging." So until I make the transition from winter to spring (which will coincide, I think, with the arrival of warm weather), I expect that I'll not be typing away at this site all too much.

When I get home at 6:30 these nights, it takes about a half hour to thaw out, another hour or so to eat, clean up, etc., and by then, it's 8 o'clock and time to do some serious school work. Writing poems about coffee mugs is serious school work? Sure is, even though I wrote that poem last year. Serious school work these days also involves grading Cuckoo's Nest essays, not exactly a chore that gets the blood pumping. After reading a few, I'm ready to hit the hay.

But the blood will start pumping when I've smashed my first 300+ yard drive by "Lefty" Onesi and "VJ" Donnelly and I've sunk my first winning putt to crush their spirits (am I dreaming right now?). By then, I think I will have gained the energy to start blogging more regularly, writing about the more exciting, seasonal thoughts that spring seems to invite.