Year: 2024
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The Beauty of the Sestina
Ferrick Gray — The sestina is not the most popular form to write to these days. However, a book of sestinas was published in 2014 which sparked an interest in the form. Admittedly it is a form that takes some time to fully appreciate.
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Why is this Poem so Obscure?
Ferrick Gray — As a reader of poetry, no doubt you have come across one or more poems that troubled you in the manner that you found them quite obscure. In other words, you had difficulty understanding what the poet was on about or actually writing about. Rest assured you are not alone.
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The Importance of READING Poetry
Ferrick Gray — For decades children have been taught to read silently. One can understand the reasons for this exercise, but it certainly does not help us understand or necessarily appreciate what we read. The advantage is that there is silence, but there are many disadvantages associated with this common and insistent practice.
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Points from T. S. Eliot’s “Ezra Pound: His Metric and Poetry”
Ferrick Gray — Scott-James commented on Pound’s work that he used unfamiliar meters whilst scorning the limitations of form and meter. However, this was what Pound was all about. One needed to practice the adaptability of meter to mood. Not only this, one required a trained ear and to use a variety of meters with…
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More Riming Couplets Please!
Ferrick Gray — It is without a doubt that the riming couplet has been a useful construct in formal (classical) poetry. It has been altered and adapted over the centuries, but today there is a tendency not to give a great deal of praise or time to this once popular form.
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What is Poetry?
Ferrick Gray — In all honesty, this is the age-old question for which there is no answer. Many people have tried, but no-one has succeeded. Yes, all have failed. The point where failure begins is when personal opinions come into the discussion, đebate or in some cases argument.
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Comments on Eliot’s “Reflections on Vers Libre”
Ferrick Gray — Eliot’s essay concerning vers libre is extremely important. One may even say that it is ground-breaking because it puts to rest the so-called free verse movement. At least I would have thought so, but the believers still push on in their ignorance, thinking that if you make enough noise then someone will…
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Whāt Has (Mother) Nature Done?
Ferrick Gray — The Spenserian sonnet is unique in that the quatrains are interlocked by their rime. The rime scheme is given by abab bcbc cdcd ee with the volta always occurring at the final couplet. The sonnet is sometimes classified as Italian because it only has five rimes. However, the Italian sonnet does not…
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The Rape of the Lock—Canto I
Ferrick Gray — This analysis uses the version from: The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope General Editor: John Butt Volume II — The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems The Five Canto Version of 1714 Edited by Geoffrey Tillotson The Broadwater Press Ltd, 1963
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Thoughts of Eliot’s “Shelley and Keats”
Ferrick Gray — I am a great admirer of Mr. Eliot’s work (Eliot from now on), both poetry, prose and critical essays. Albeit I do not find the enthusiasm for Wordsworth as he does, or at least to me appears to have, I hold great interest in work. I do find his comments about Shelley…