The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern. The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final. Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.
The pantoum is derived from the pantun, a Malay verse form - specifically from the pantun berkait, a series of interwoven quatrains. An English translation of such a pantun berkait appeared in William Marsden's A Dictionary and Grammar of the Malayan Language in 1812. Victor Hugo published an unrhymed French version by Ernest Fouinet of this poem in the notes to Les Orientales (1829) and subsequent French poets began to make their own attempts at composing original "pantoums". [2] Leconte de Lisle published five pantoums in his Poèmes tragiques (1884). Baudelaire's famous poem "Harmonie du soir" is usually cited as an example of the form, but it is irregular and the first stanza rhymes abba rather than the expected abab. American poets such as John Ashbery, Marilyn Hacker, Donald Justice, Carolyn Kizer, and David Trinidad have done work in this form.
Harmonie du soir
Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige
Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir;
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige!
Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir;
Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige;
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige!
Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir.
Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige,
Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir!
Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir;
Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige.
Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir,
Du passé lumineux recueille tout vestige!
Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige...
Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir!
— Charles Baudelaire
And the translation....
Evening Harmony
The season is at hand when swaying on its stem
Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
Sounds and perfumes turn in the evening air;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
The violin quivers like a tormented heart;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar.
The violin quivers like a tormented heart,
A tender heart, that hates the vast, black void!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar;
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...
A tender heart that hates the vast, black void
Gathers up every shred of the luminous past!
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...
Your memory in me glitters like a monstrance!
— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Painting inspiration
part 1: Consider a painting filled with many characters engaged in a central action, like Bruegel's "Peasant Wedding." Think about the focal point and perspective of the work of art, the effect of the setting, colors, shapes, textures, the story that the painting is telling, the relationship of the characters and what affections and tensions are developing.
part 2: Take the voice of one of the characters [if you want] and invent that character's past, his/her feelings at the present, and possibilities for the future." [I also mention that you as the writer can describe the effect viewing such a painting might have on yourself or a character.]
Quoted from: "The Peasant Wedding (For a Group), Mary Swander." /The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach./ Edited by Robin Behn & Chase Twichell. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
part 2: Take the voice of one of the characters [if you want] and invent that character's past, his/her feelings at the present, and possibilities for the future." [I also mention that you as the writer can describe the effect viewing such a painting might have on yourself or a character.]
Quoted from: "The Peasant Wedding (For a Group), Mary Swander." /The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach./ Edited by Robin Behn & Chase Twichell. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Summer
Quotes for writing...
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
"In summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams
"A life without love is like a year without summer." - Swedish Proverb
"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
"In summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams
"A life without love is like a year without summer." - Swedish Proverb
3 prompts, 3 quotes
1. Someone wakes up in a strange place. The person observes the place in some detail, then begins to piece together how this happened...
2. Looking down from far above, I see half snow, half grass...
3. I looked out over my city. I had been watching this city for a long time. I decided it was time...
4. “Hear thou from thy dwellingplace…” - 2 Chronicles, 6:21
5. “brown as a the mouths of rivers” - from movie, Angels in America
6. “the world is full of broken wings” - Marvin Bell, “Why,” Georgia Review, Spring 2007
2. Looking down from far above, I see half snow, half grass...
3. I looked out over my city. I had been watching this city for a long time. I decided it was time...
4. “Hear thou from thy dwellingplace…” - 2 Chronicles, 6:21
5. “brown as a the mouths of rivers” - from movie, Angels in America
6. “the world is full of broken wings” - Marvin Bell, “Why,” Georgia Review, Spring 2007
Misattributed Quotations
Think on the variations of this quote below and write on how some of the concepts inspire or interest you.
One of the most enduring misattributions of a work to Emerson is that of an inspirational prose passage called "Success" that appears, most often assigned to Emerson if to anyone, on many Web pages. It goes:
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.
As Joel Myerson demonstrates in "Emerson's 'Success'—Actually, it is not," Emerson Society Papers, 11, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 1, 8, this is not a work by Emerson.
In her 17 November 1990 column, "Dear Abby" (Abigail Van Buren) answered a reader’s question "How would you define success?" with the quote from "my favorite American poet, essayist and philosopher" printed above. However, on 1 February 1992, a chastened Abby printed a letter from Arthur Stanley Harvey, who wrote that the quotation was based on something his grandmother, Bessie Anderson Stanley, had written in 1904, and that had been appropriated for many years by greeting card companies, including Hallmark, which had "erroneously credited Robert Louis Stevenson as the author." Abby then apologized, and printed what she described as the original from the 1904 Brown Book Magazine:
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.
But more research shows another source. In the September 1904, Joe Mitchell Chapple, publisher of the Boston National Magazine, announced he would give $10,000 for "Heart Throbs," which he defined as "those things that make us all kin; those things that endure—the classics of our own lives." The people who sent in the ten best contributions would receive a pile of silver dollars, "one silver dollar placed flat upon the other," as "will measure your exact height"; other major winners would receive twenty-five, ten, or five dollars; and five hundred lucky people (out of a total of 840 winners) would receive a dollar each. The results from this contest were published in a book, appropriately titled Heart Throbs, but it contained nothing by Stanley. Due to the success of this book, a second volume of Heart Throbs was published in 1911, "Contributed by the People," according to the title page. Unlike the first volume, this one contained "the voluntary contribution of thousands," including, on the very first page, "What is Success?" by "Bessie A. Stanley." Significantly, Emerson’s "Good-Bye" is also included (p. 7-8). The proximity of Stanley’s work to Emerson’s suggests that someone might have made the initial misattribution by copying Stanley’s work, then returning to seek the author and mistakenly using Emerson’s name from three leaves later; Stanley’s name appears on the third line of a verso page, Emerson’s on the fifth of a verso page, making such an eyeskip possible.
One of the most enduring misattributions of a work to Emerson is that of an inspirational prose passage called "Success" that appears, most often assigned to Emerson if to anyone, on many Web pages. It goes:
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this is to have succeeded.
As Joel Myerson demonstrates in "Emerson's 'Success'—Actually, it is not," Emerson Society Papers, 11, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 1, 8, this is not a work by Emerson.
In her 17 November 1990 column, "Dear Abby" (Abigail Van Buren) answered a reader’s question "How would you define success?" with the quote from "my favorite American poet, essayist and philosopher" printed above. However, on 1 February 1992, a chastened Abby printed a letter from Arthur Stanley Harvey, who wrote that the quotation was based on something his grandmother, Bessie Anderson Stanley, had written in 1904, and that had been appropriated for many years by greeting card companies, including Hallmark, which had "erroneously credited Robert Louis Stevenson as the author." Abby then apologized, and printed what she described as the original from the 1904 Brown Book Magazine:
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction.
But more research shows another source. In the September 1904, Joe Mitchell Chapple, publisher of the Boston National Magazine, announced he would give $10,000 for "Heart Throbs," which he defined as "those things that make us all kin; those things that endure—the classics of our own lives." The people who sent in the ten best contributions would receive a pile of silver dollars, "one silver dollar placed flat upon the other," as "will measure your exact height"; other major winners would receive twenty-five, ten, or five dollars; and five hundred lucky people (out of a total of 840 winners) would receive a dollar each. The results from this contest were published in a book, appropriately titled Heart Throbs, but it contained nothing by Stanley. Due to the success of this book, a second volume of Heart Throbs was published in 1911, "Contributed by the People," according to the title page. Unlike the first volume, this one contained "the voluntary contribution of thousands," including, on the very first page, "What is Success?" by "Bessie A. Stanley." Significantly, Emerson’s "Good-Bye" is also included (p. 7-8). The proximity of Stanley’s work to Emerson’s suggests that someone might have made the initial misattribution by copying Stanley’s work, then returning to seek the author and mistakenly using Emerson’s name from three leaves later; Stanley’s name appears on the third line of a verso page, Emerson’s on the fifth of a verso page, making such an eyeskip possible.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Claire Danes
When I was a senior in high school the television series MY SO- CALLED LIFE felt like the mirror of my adolescence. I identified with Angela Davis but I also recognized parts of the teenager's experience being what was missing in mine. I related but was also jealous. We both had dangerous crushes on Jordans. We both had a wildflower whimsical but also troubled best friend who had a difficult parent and home. And the grounded and solid friend who we were growing distant from. I thought and felt a lot in my head. I over-analyzed. 1994-1995.
Now, early 2014, I've finished watching three seasons of HOMELAND, where Claire plays the super-intelligent, intuitive CIA agent Carrie, who also copes with bipolar disorder. I see an occasional Angela in Carrie's emotionally distraught scenes, but Carrie is mature, fiercely independent, and can trust her guy when it comes to people, even when everyone else seems to believe otherwise. Claire has also grown up -- married and mother of one son -- and I still find myself relating to her television characters. I am not bipolar, but I do think if myself as independent, intuitive, intelligent though I falter and doubt myself when I shouldn't, and I am envious of Carrie's attire and city life. Claire plays the role of a strong woman, both feminists, and I feel that the adolescent Angela was looking forward to becoming a strong-willed respected individual.
Claire and I both are in our 30s, both looking forward to what it brings. She's already opened the marriage and motherhood doors; those May or may not be in my future. But there are many prospects ahead, and I hope to continue seeing Claire Danes portray characters I am drawn to and relate to in each phase of my life.
Thank you, Claire, for being such a fantastic actress and person.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Now, early 2014, I've finished watching three seasons of HOMELAND, where Claire plays the super-intelligent, intuitive CIA agent Carrie, who also copes with bipolar disorder. I see an occasional Angela in Carrie's emotionally distraught scenes, but Carrie is mature, fiercely independent, and can trust her guy when it comes to people, even when everyone else seems to believe otherwise. Claire has also grown up -- married and mother of one son -- and I still find myself relating to her television characters. I am not bipolar, but I do think if myself as independent, intuitive, intelligent though I falter and doubt myself when I shouldn't, and I am envious of Carrie's attire and city life. Claire plays the role of a strong woman, both feminists, and I feel that the adolescent Angela was looking forward to becoming a strong-willed respected individual.
Claire and I both are in our 30s, both looking forward to what it brings. She's already opened the marriage and motherhood doors; those May or may not be in my future. But there are many prospects ahead, and I hope to continue seeing Claire Danes portray characters I am drawn to and relate to in each phase of my life.
Thank you, Claire, for being such a fantastic actress and person.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
New Year's Wish
"I hope that in this year
to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making
mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things,
learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your
world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more
importantly, you're Doing Something.
So that's my wish for you,
and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make
glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry
that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art,
or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're
scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next
year and forever."
- Neil Gaiman, from his blog entry "My New Year Wish" 12/31/2011:
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