Gander my eyes take in the scene so swimming into the deep dive of flight into river’s run and the ripples heal my troubled soul with light that you write with clarity. I am moved to be with your vision and experience the rise and fall. The flight of the current world to reach a place where silence is supreme.
You've got his rhythms exactly. People say that his secret is sprung rhythm, where you only count the stressed syllables. And he himself seems to suggest that's the case. But in fact it's much more complicated than that, and probably relates to Hopkins' Welsh ancestry. I think the reason for the sheer magic of his rhythms is the double stress which is then surrounded by a lot of unstressed syllables - uuu//uuu - in that sort of way. It actually gives a feeling of flying, or leaping, or springing. It's something you commonly find in Welsh poetry. But is very difficult for anybody but the Welsh to master, it seems. I've certainly never managed it. The nearest I can get to a double stress is when the last syllable of a line falls on a stress and the first syllable of the next line falls on a stress. But for some reason it doesn't seem to have quite the same magic.
When people do attempt 'sprung rhythm' it more often looks that they don't know how to get their lines to scan than that they're doing anything Hopkins might have approved of.
I'm afraid each of us has to find our own way of livening up iambic pentameter. It can be done. And success in doing so is a sign that you're a real poet. Complete abandonment of it merely leads to the pretentiousness of a Carlos Williams or Charles Olson.
Actually if you count the number of syllables in WCW's 'So much depends...' you'll find they come to twenty. If you then arrange the poem in two lines of ten syllables each you'll find it comes to an almost perfect iambic pentameter couplet. Now the big question is: Did WCW actually know this? Or was the Muse merely taking her revenge?
Love it!
Merci mon ami!
Gander my eyes take in the scene so swimming into the deep dive of flight into river’s run and the ripples heal my troubled soul with light that you write with clarity. I am moved to be with your vision and experience the rise and fall. The flight of the current world to reach a place where silence is supreme.
Thanks for taking a gander at this, Ricardo
Sunrise as a “morning magnus,” what an image.
Thanks Stan
I know 'Th Windhover' by heart and the sheer fun and inventiveness of your piece made my smile.
Thanks, Martin -- you're the ideal audience for it!
Love how this sings!
Thank you, Patris
Oh, so good! I can't stop reading back over it. Masterpiece inspiration, shimmeringly painted new.
Thanks, Mark
Strange wild planet
And that crow
Perfect photo
What's good
For the Goose
Is Ok with the Gander
Thank you David
and orange-black mirrors of the air
Splash, mash the sun
(and when I read this, I feel like I just emerged
blinking in disbelief
from the hatch of my spaceship on)
this strange wild planet
🔥🌍🔥
Marvelous comment, thank you Ann
A true show of flow, Jonathan. This is so good and so much fun to read and listen to.
Thank you, Rod
You've got his rhythms exactly. People say that his secret is sprung rhythm, where you only count the stressed syllables. And he himself seems to suggest that's the case. But in fact it's much more complicated than that, and probably relates to Hopkins' Welsh ancestry. I think the reason for the sheer magic of his rhythms is the double stress which is then surrounded by a lot of unstressed syllables - uuu//uuu - in that sort of way. It actually gives a feeling of flying, or leaping, or springing. It's something you commonly find in Welsh poetry. But is very difficult for anybody but the Welsh to master, it seems. I've certainly never managed it. The nearest I can get to a double stress is when the last syllable of a line falls on a stress and the first syllable of the next line falls on a stress. But for some reason it doesn't seem to have quite the same magic.
You just answered the exact question that’s been nagging at me about sprung rhythm. And I think you’re right. Thank you!
When people do attempt 'sprung rhythm' it more often looks that they don't know how to get their lines to scan than that they're doing anything Hopkins might have approved of.
I'm afraid each of us has to find our own way of livening up iambic pentameter. It can be done. And success in doing so is a sign that you're a real poet. Complete abandonment of it merely leads to the pretentiousness of a Carlos Williams or Charles Olson.
Actually if you count the number of syllables in WCW's 'So much depends...' you'll find they come to twenty. If you then arrange the poem in two lines of ten syllables each you'll find it comes to an almost perfect iambic pentameter couplet. Now the big question is: Did WCW actually know this? Or was the Muse merely taking her revenge?
That left me mesmerised 💛
Thank you, Fotini
Tremendous riff off The Windhover. Rivalling Hopkins is no mean feat!
Thanks, Thomas