It took me awhile, but I have just finished reading all of the poems in this post, and what a treasure trove it is! These 'liberated verses', beginning with the outstanding 'Fascination With Light' are all truly fascinating examples of how to write free verse that is unmistakably poetry and not prose in disguise. A marvellous achievement!
Martin, I truly appreciate your time to read the entire collection. I was a fan of E. E. Cummings at age 15, when I was cutting my poetic teeth, so I have always felt "liberated" to break any rule at any time. I find it interesting that I sound like different poets at different times, probably due to my wide range of influences, from Hebrew prophets and Anglo-Saxon scops, to formalists like Robert Frost, to rhapsodes like Hart Crane and Dylan Thomas, to avante garde poets like Cummings, to singer-songwriters like Sam Cook, Bob Dylan, Carole King, John Lennon, et al.
'Liberated verse' should not, in my opinion, be just a piece of prose chopped into bite-size pieces that give it the appearance of real poetry. I think that free verse, without any music in it isn't poetry at all. But all the poems you've included here are true poetry, and poetry at its best, for that very reason. You simply have a great musical ear!
Poets should keep in mind that the two foremost early English language modernists, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, wrote musical poetry. Pound advocated a musical cadence over what he called the "metronome" but he wasn't writing prose with line breaks.
I like both Eliot and Pound, and I especially love Pound's translation of "The River Merchant's Wife." It’s one of my favourite poems. And it shows that good translators can make a poem better than the original by having a great ear for language.
That is a good translation by Pound, although from what I understand it may be closer to what I call my "loose translations/interpretations." My favorite Pound original is his lovely Kensington Garden poem, in which he near-perfectly captured the heart of the English caste system. A masterpiece, in my opinion.
Oh, I totally agree. I just love that particular poem. It is indeed a masterpiece. Pound could be terrific at times. It's a pity he got lost in the Cantos and wasted most of his talent.
I believe Pound admitted the chaos of his Cantos, later in life. But I think he will be remembered for a small handful of stellar lyrics, including our two favorites and his Metropole quasi-haiku.
Even so, it's an impressive handful. And those Chinese translations were ground-breaking in their time because he made them modern, like you do with Sappho's poems and fragments,
It took me awhile, but I have just finished reading all of the poems in this post, and what a treasure trove it is! These 'liberated verses', beginning with the outstanding 'Fascination With Light' are all truly fascinating examples of how to write free verse that is unmistakably poetry and not prose in disguise. A marvellous achievement!
Martin, I truly appreciate your time to read the entire collection. I was a fan of E. E. Cummings at age 15, when I was cutting my poetic teeth, so I have always felt "liberated" to break any rule at any time. I find it interesting that I sound like different poets at different times, probably due to my wide range of influences, from Hebrew prophets and Anglo-Saxon scops, to formalists like Robert Frost, to rhapsodes like Hart Crane and Dylan Thomas, to avante garde poets like Cummings, to singer-songwriters like Sam Cook, Bob Dylan, Carole King, John Lennon, et al.
'Liberated verse' should not, in my opinion, be just a piece of prose chopped into bite-size pieces that give it the appearance of real poetry. I think that free verse, without any music in it isn't poetry at all. But all the poems you've included here are true poetry, and poetry at its best, for that very reason. You simply have a great musical ear!
Poets should keep in mind that the two foremost early English language modernists, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, wrote musical poetry. Pound advocated a musical cadence over what he called the "metronome" but he wasn't writing prose with line breaks.
I like both Eliot and Pound, and I especially love Pound's translation of "The River Merchant's Wife." It’s one of my favourite poems. And it shows that good translators can make a poem better than the original by having a great ear for language.
That is a good translation by Pound, although from what I understand it may be closer to what I call my "loose translations/interpretations." My favorite Pound original is his lovely Kensington Garden poem, in which he near-perfectly captured the heart of the English caste system. A masterpiece, in my opinion.
Oh, I totally agree. I just love that particular poem. It is indeed a masterpiece. Pound could be terrific at times. It's a pity he got lost in the Cantos and wasted most of his talent.
I believe Pound admitted the chaos of his Cantos, later in life. But I think he will be remembered for a small handful of stellar lyrics, including our two favorites and his Metropole quasi-haiku.
Even so, it's an impressive handful. And those Chinese translations were ground-breaking in their time because he made them modern, like you do with Sappho's poems and fragments,