Eratio

Issue 22

 

 

 

Advisory Poems

(from Introduction to Poetry by Burton Raffle)

 

Sean Howard

 

 

 

 

Preface

 

Whatever else, never

touch pebbles with

gloves on!

 

 

 

1. What Poetry Means

 

Definitions,

explanations –

shooting

stars…

 

 

*

 

 

For starters –

cliff-flowers

& larks’ eggs

 

 

*

 

 

Sure sign? The

beautiful

smart

 

 

*

 

 

(Keats,

enduring

meaning!)

 

 

*

 

 

High praise –

haiku-

dos

 

 

 

2. What Poetry Does: Metaphor

 

Breakthrough

prose, ‘words

for windows’

 

 

*

 

 

Hamlet weighing –

Empire

apples

 

 

*

 

 

Wordsworth –

i-

Cloud

 

 

*

 

 

Paperweight

‘If you find the

philosopher’s stone…’

 

 

*

 

 

Enough with ‘Poetry’!

cummings lowering

his case

 

 

*

 

 

Metaphor?

‘Where the truth

doth lie…’

 

 

 

3. What Poetry Does: Other Tools

 

Eros –

touching

logic

 

 

*

 

 

(syntac-

ticians)

 

 

*

 

 

‘Honey?’ Showing

the sleep in our

eyes

 

 

*

 

 

Joyce –

pun

gent

 

 

*

 

 

‘Delicacy’ –

deer, Olympus

crocus…

 

 

*

 

 

Eros –

coming

to terms 

 

 

 

4. The Shape of Poems

 

Evolution –

form ever

content?

 

 

*

 

 

(‘Easy’? Beetles,

rolling stones…)

 

 

*

 

 

Modern –

Grace

full?

 

 

*

 

 

(The poet’s

slow loaf…)

 

 

*

 

 

Spray the couplet from the can –

the puppet master of the man!

 

 

*

 

 

Life & death –

dove-

tail

 

 

 

5. Metrics and History

 

Shelley insisting –

poetry

rules

 

 

*

 

 

Chaucer –

stressed

silk

 

 

*

 

 

(‘Hazards’ – end-

stopped; feet in

mouth; over-

run…)

 

 

*

 

 

Silence –

Wordsworth’s

thrush

 

 

*

 

 

(Jericho

Blake’s

graffiti…)

 

 

*

 

 

Modern ruler (Shelley’s

point) – the Emperor’s

new prose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Howard is the author of Local Calls (Cape Breton University Press, 2009) and Incitements (Gaspereau Press, 2011).  His poetry has been widely published in Canada and elsewhere, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2011 & 2014). 

 

 


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