Comment on this- Free Verse

Ingreedience by Graeme King

Luigi loved to feed upon spaghetti,

and served it at his wedding feast, of course,

insisting it be thrown as though confetti -

his first step on the long road to divorce.



Lu Pang enjoyed the tang of fiery chili,

and crushed it into everything he ate,

but adding it to coffee? That was silly.

No wonder that he died at twenty-eight.



Old Jock abhorred the shocking price of stilton,

they asked too much for such a modest cheese,

he strode into the store without his kilt on,

and showed them all some Highlands expertise.



As Sikhar ate his chicken au Tandoori,

the neighbors all discussed his missing wife,

the recipe could not convince the jury,

so now he's in a Bombay cell for life.



When Dixie mixed elixir out of Pepsi,

she noticed that it caused her throat to melt,

deciding it was simply epilepsy,

she laughed it off and took another belt.



Poor Dougie's spicy nuggets in a bucket

had got him running hard, his throat in flames,

he broke the record: New York to Nantucket,

you'll see him in Beijing's Olympic Games.



Ali prefers his tea brewed in a turban,

he squeezes it till just the leaves remain,

washed down with several shots of Gypsy bourbon,

he says he reads the future in the stain.



Jemima mixed up lime and green banana,

then fed it to her fish, who quickly died,

she smoked a half an ounce of marijuana,

then sat through Finding Nemo till she cried.



A crippled long-haired hippie craved a pigeon,

to put into a pie with fried raccoon,

he looked into the sky and found religion,

he preaches every Saturday, at noon.


This is a free verse poem marked by constant caesura, breaks in thoughts in the poem. The purpose of this is to show the wide variety of ways in which people both interact with and get in trouble as a result of their food. Each stanza is marked by a definite divide in thought process. It seems as though the author was trying to make many points all within the structure of one poem. This style reminds me of reading "Song of Myself in the summer. That was certainly far longer than this but was similar in regards to fitting so many ideas into one poem.

Favorite Poem

"Here I Am" By Roger McGough
page 1046 in Norton

Yes, I just can't get enough of these shape poems."Here I Am" is interesting to me because it reminds me of the motto of the gym where I work out, "What is worse? The pain of hard work, or the pain of regret?". Many people feel that regret is the most painful of all human emotions. In the opinion of McGough, it most certainly is. He lists all the things that he's never done and comments on how dull his life was. Very cynical, but also true. I think that when you're in the moment it's hard to appreciate the oppurtunities that are available to you. It's only after they're gone that you are able to truly know what you had. Cliche, yes, but certainly applicable here.
The shape of the poem was also quite interesting. After analyzing closely and reading the comments of others, I think the poem forms an hour glass. Regret after regret slowly build up to form what we are all working against in the end; time. It's easy for the author to reflect on times gone by now that he is "getting on for seventy".

Favorite Poem

"Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe" by Helen Chasin
page 1035 in Norton

As I've stated earlier, I love unconventional poems. "Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe" can certainly be considered a little different. Although seemingly completely random, I think that there is more meaning than a few simple "la la"s. The words and sounds within the poem emphasize how random life can be. There is no real rhyme or reason to the words which make up the poem. Despite the lack of organization within the words, the poem as a whole forms a perfect square. I take this to show that although we can be random in our own worlds, all people are still confined to the universe in which we live. There is a limit to the true spontaneity of life. Of course, that is no reason not to just be happy sometimes.

External Structure

[Buffalo Bill 's] by E.E. Cummings

Once again I really enjoy poems that take a different shape. I think that Frost and Cummings are my favorite poets at this point. The build up and breakdown in length of the poem makes me think that it represents life. In the beginning, there is just a name, and in the end there is death. After being given a name, a person builds up who they are through their actions and lifestyle. This is reflected in the poem when it talks about his riding a stallion and shooting pigeons. As life goes on it slowly deteriorates back into the abyss in which it started. In the poem the end has exactly as many words as the opening, two. Very existentialist poem in my opinion.

External Structure

[l(a] by E.E. Cummings

I love it when poets mix up their style from the norm. It really adds another dimension to the meaning of the poem. In this instance, at first glance, I notice that the poem is in the shape of a 1. So going in I expect the poem to have something to do with the "1" theme. I then read "leaf falls one", in my interpretation. One leaf falling makes me think of autumn, as the last leaves are falling off of the trees in dreary weather, just before winter. The "1" seems to indicate loneliness. Something about a single leaf falling seems dreary and alone to me, as if all the other leaves left together and only one was left behind. The shape indeed indicates the meaning of the poem before it is even read.

External Structure

"When our two souls stand up erect and strong..."by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

When our two souls stand up erect and strong,Face to face, silent, drawing nigh and nigher,Until the lengthening wings break into fire At either curvèd point,---what bitter wrong Can the earth do to us, that we should not long Be here contented? Think! In mounting higher, The angels would press on us and aspire To drop some golden orb of perfect song Into our deep, dear silence. Let us stay Rather on earth, Belovèd,---where the unfit Contrarious moods of men recoil away And isolate pure spirits, and permit A place to stand and love in for a day, With darkness and the death-hour rounding it.

In this poem the rhyme scheme is used to signal the changing of purpose. In the first half of the poem there is an ABC AABCA patter. In the second half of the poem the rhymes shift to an DEDFDE pattern. This helps the reader shift from one thought to another. At first the reader is presented with the conditions of passion on earth. It is explained that the soul is free on Earth, but in the second section it is proclaimed that under Heaven's expectations of perfection, this is not the case. On Earth, "the unfit contrarious moods of men...permit a place to stand and love in for a day". These ideas are more clearly presented through the use of alternate rhyming patterns.

External Structure

"Nuns Fret Not"

In "Nuns Fret Not" by William Wordsworth the external structure most visible in the poem is the rhyme scheme. In Italian Sonnet style, the poem is divided into two main thought patterns. One explains how people can be happy to where the are bound, ex. the nuns. The other ties that thought to the author's purpose, which he states is to convey his finding solace in the sonnet. The rhyme scheme divides these two thought patterns so that they can be understood separately and then put together to deliver the message of the poem.