WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.190 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.190 --> 00:00:05.430 align:middle line:84% By way of complete contrast, I'd like 00:00:05.430 --> 00:00:13.380 align:middle line:84% to read you a number of more experimental poems, 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:16.800 align:middle line:84% starting with the one that led me into this area. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:21.030 align:middle line:84% I was invited some time ago by little magazine 00:00:21.030 --> 00:00:27.780 align:middle line:84% in England called Ambit to write a prose piece about metre. 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:30.210 align:middle line:84% I began to put together my stock of ideas about metre. 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:32.310 align:middle line:84% And they weren't going very far, so I 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:35.190 align:middle line:84% seized on a very useful property of verse, i.e. 00:00:35.190 --> 00:00:37.660 align:middle line:84% that the lines are shorter than in prose. 00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:39.660 align:middle line:84% So instead of writing a prose piece about metre. 00:00:39.660 --> 00:00:42.000 align:middle line:84% I wrote my verse piece and filled up the four pages 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.850 align:middle line:90% they needed very conveniently. 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:46.380 align:middle line:84% The piece incidentally was reprinted 00:00:46.380 --> 00:00:48.510 align:middle line:84% in an American textbook on prosody. 00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:50.460 align:middle line:84% So I like to think of it as poisoning 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:53.970 align:middle line:90% the minds of a generation. 00:00:53.970 --> 00:00:56.385 align:middle line:90% "What Metre Is." 00:00:56.385 --> 00:00:59.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:59.300 --> 00:01:03.320 align:middle line:84% It is a matter of counting, five syllables in the first line, 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:06.420 align:middle line:90% four in the second, and so on. 00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:10.160 align:middle line:84% Or we can change to seven words in the first line 00:01:10.160 --> 00:01:12.170 align:middle line:90% six in the second. 00:01:12.170 --> 00:01:14.750 align:middle line:90% Is that arbitrary? 00:01:14.750 --> 00:01:16.370 align:middle line:90% Prose is another possibility. 00:01:16.370 --> 00:01:18.290 align:middle line:84% There could be three sentences in the stanza. 00:01:18.290 --> 00:01:21.200 align:middle line:84% This would be an example of that. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.560 align:middle line:84% Which, on the other hand, we could lay out 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:27.110 align:middle line:84% by a letter count, as, this by the way 00:01:27.110 --> 00:01:29.740 align:middle line:90% is free verse, without metre. 00:01:29.740 --> 00:01:32.420 align:middle line:84% Pro- se is another possi- bility. 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:36.260 align:middle line:84% There could be three sen- tences in the s- tanza. 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:39.810 align:middle line:84% This would be an exam- ple of that. 00:01:39.810 --> 00:01:42.500 align:middle line:84% I mean it is a matter of mathematics. 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:45.440 align:middle line:84% Intervals between the words, three to a line 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:46.670 align:middle line:90% is the rule here. 00:01:46.670 --> 00:01:51.080 align:middle line:84% It results in the same as having words, four to a line. 00:01:51.080 --> 00:01:54.890 align:middle line:84% In the mind of the poet, though, it makes a difference. 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.680 align:middle line:84% White spaces, now it is two spaces, 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:03.290 align:middle line:84% are just articulation, space, words, no it is one. 00:02:03.290 --> 00:02:05.820 align:middle line:90% Mean something. 00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:09.050 align:middle line:90% Now-- it-- is-- 00:02:09.050 --> 00:02:14.180 align:middle line:84% words, and no it is not music either. 00:02:14.180 --> 00:02:16.640 align:middle line:84% Internal rhyming, though sometimes 00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:21.680 align:middle line:84% the kernel of new ideas, is a matter of timing. 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:30.650 align:middle line:84% The same is true for rhythm, the beat, two to a line it is here, 00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:33.080 align:middle line:84% only becomes like a rhythm when as here it 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.900 align:middle line:84% moves with a regular dactyl or two to a line. 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:41.360 align:middle line:84% If slow now spondees make lines move, 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:44.090 align:middle line:84% stiff rhythm is metre, in dactyls again, 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:47.180 align:middle line:84% but rhythm is usually not like this. 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:50.330 align:middle line:84% In a word it can escalate, drop, do as it pleases, 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:52.610 align:middle line:84% move freely, look out I'm coming. 00:02:52.610 --> 00:02:57.950 align:middle line:90% Stop at a stop and so on. 00:02:57.950 --> 00:03:03.710 align:middle line:84% Assonance that semblance, except in Owen, a, when it works, 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:06.590 align:middle line:90% echo of awkwardness is OK. 00:03:06.590 --> 00:03:12.410 align:middle line:84% But not for me, nor is lively alliteration 00:03:12.410 --> 00:03:18.410 align:middle line:84% leaping long, lean, and allusive through low lines. 00:03:18.410 --> 00:03:21.260 align:middle line:84% It becomes a matter of going back to metre. 00:03:21.260 --> 00:03:24.260 align:middle line:84% Ending with-- its most irri-- tating, 00:03:24.260 --> 00:03:28.520 align:middle line:84% perhaps, mani-- festation this inarticulate-- mechanical 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:29.910 align:middle line:90% stut-- ter. 00:03:29.910 --> 00:03:32.540 align:middle line:84% It is the voice of the type-- writer. 00:03:32.540 --> 00:03:35.840 align:middle line:84% It is the ab-- dication of in-- spiration. 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:37.490 align:middle line:90% I like-- it. 00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:42.470 align:middle line:84% It is the log-- ical ex-- pression of itself. 00:03:42.470 --> 00:03:44.885 align:middle line:90% [MAKES EXAGGERATED 'F' SOUND] 00:03:44.885 --> 00:03:49.500 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:50.000 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.410 align:middle line:90% I'll come again.