WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.100 --> 00:00:02.780 align:middle line:90% I have thought about this a lot. 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:05.000 align:middle line:84% I've thought about this subject a lot. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.119 align:middle line:84% I have written a book called The Sounds of Poetry. 00:00:08.119 --> 00:00:11.300 align:middle line:84% In the book, I propose that, that distinction is not as 00:00:11.300 --> 00:00:14.570 align:middle line:90% clear cut as you are making it. 00:00:14.570 --> 00:00:17.870 align:middle line:84% Many people read Shakespeare's iambic pentameter 00:00:17.870 --> 00:00:20.180 align:middle line:84% or Milton's iambic pentameter and are not 00:00:20.180 --> 00:00:22.490 align:middle line:90% aware that it's verse. 00:00:22.490 --> 00:00:25.550 align:middle line:84% Many people identify rhyme with verse. 00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:29.480 align:middle line:84% Traditionally, rhyme has been scorned as low class, 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:33.620 align:middle line:84% and Ben Jonson has a wonderful poem called "The Fit of Rhyme 00:00:33.620 --> 00:00:39.110 align:middle line:84% Against Rhyme," in which he very brilliantly in rhyme says how 00:00:39.110 --> 00:00:42.080 align:middle line:84% rhyme is this vulgar after all the Latin poets and the Greek 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:44.300 align:middle line:84% poets, who were the models, did not rhyme. 00:00:44.300 --> 00:00:48.880 align:middle line:84% Rhyme was used only for comic effect like in the Ars Poetica, 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:52.130 align:middle line:84% Horace says that the mountain brings forth a ridiculous mouse, 00:00:52.130 --> 00:00:53.980 align:middle line:84% and ridiculous mouse comes out of all 00:00:53.980 --> 00:00:55.940 align:middle line:90% of this rhetorical heaving. 00:00:55.940 --> 00:01:00.400 align:middle line:84% Any poem that is well written is in rhyme. 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:04.180 align:middle line:84% You may not be as aware of the like and unlike sounds. 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:08.120 align:middle line:90% 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:09.980 align:middle line:84% It is possible to write a poem that 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:17.240 align:middle line:84% obeys the laws of iambic pentameter and its meaning-- 00:01:17.240 --> 00:01:18.950 align:middle line:90% the form is inadequate. 00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:20.790 align:middle line:90% It's meaningless. 00:01:20.790 --> 00:01:24.830 align:middle line:84% It is possible to write a free verse poem that 00:01:24.830 --> 00:01:28.250 align:middle line:84% is extremely rhythmical, in which the form is extremely-- 00:01:28.250 --> 00:01:32.390 align:middle line:84% as Eliot says, no verse is free if you want to do a good job. 00:01:32.390 --> 00:01:35.000 align:middle line:84% I agree with you that the pervasiveness 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.760 align:middle line:84% of so-called free verse is partly because people don't know 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:43.895 align:middle line:84% how to write verse, and it's too easy, but let 00:01:43.895 --> 00:01:45.270 align:middle line:84% me read to you-- this by the way, 00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:49.070 align:middle line:84% is my security blanket that I have in my hand. 00:01:49.070 --> 00:01:54.847 align:middle line:84% It's-- it's the best thing I do as a teacher. 00:01:54.847 --> 00:01:56.430 align:middle line:84% My wife, when she taught eighth grade, 00:01:56.430 --> 00:01:57.597 align:middle line:90% asked her students to do it. 00:01:57.597 --> 00:02:00.630 align:middle line:84% I asked PhD students to do it at Berkeley. 00:02:00.630 --> 00:02:04.110 align:middle line:84% The assignment is type up with your own hands, 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:07.680 align:middle line:84% or write out with your own fingers, an anthology, 30, 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.690 align:middle line:90% 35 pages of what-- 00:02:09.690 --> 00:02:12.030 align:middle line:84% by example, the definition of what you mean when you say 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:13.020 align:middle line:90% poetry. 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:16.890 align:middle line:84% And I don't judge it-- nursery rhymes, song lyrics, whatever, 00:02:16.890 --> 00:02:19.230 align:middle line:84% but because they're self portraits, people often 00:02:19.230 --> 00:02:21.030 align:middle line:90% make them very, very good. 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:22.410 align:middle line:90% This is mine. 00:02:22.410 --> 00:02:25.860 align:middle line:84% This is about-- every so often, I print it out. 00:02:25.860 --> 00:02:28.110 align:middle line:84% I have a file on my computer that I dump anthology-- 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:31.560 align:middle line:84% the pages aren't numbered, but I guess this is a couple hundred 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.560 align:middle line:90% pages of my favorite poems. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.890 align:middle line:84% And here's a poem more or less at random. 00:02:37.890 --> 00:02:40.180 align:middle line:84% I just went to the William Carlos Williams section. 00:02:40.180 --> 00:02:43.970 align:middle line:84% Here's a poem by William Carlos Williams-- 00:02:43.970 --> 00:02:47.930 align:middle line:84% "Fine Work With Pitch and Copper" 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:51.820 align:middle line:84% "Fine Work With Pitch and Copper." 00:02:51.820 --> 00:02:54.910 align:middle line:84% "Now they're resting in the flexed light separately 00:02:54.910 --> 00:02:57.610 align:middle line:84% in unison like the sack of sifted stones 00:02:57.610 --> 00:03:01.900 align:middle line:84% stacked regularly by twos about the flat roof, ready after lunch 00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:05.170 align:middle line:90% to be opened and strewn. 00:03:05.170 --> 00:03:08.530 align:middle line:84% The copper in eight foot strips has been beaten lengthwise down 00:03:08.530 --> 00:03:12.280 align:middle line:84% the center at right angles and lies ready to edge the coping. 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:16.300 align:middle line:84% One still chewing picks up a copper strip and runs his eye 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:17.830 align:middle line:90% along it." 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:19.180 align:middle line:90% Let me read the first two-- 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:20.830 align:middle line:90% three stanzas to you again. 00:03:20.830 --> 00:03:24.430 align:middle line:84% First stanza is, "Now they are resting in the fleckless light 00:03:24.430 --> 00:03:26.620 align:middle line:90% separately in unison." 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:30.820 align:middle line:84% There is the same vowel in each of the lines. 00:03:30.820 --> 00:03:33.940 align:middle line:84% "Now they resting in the fleckless light separately 00:03:33.940 --> 00:03:34.990 align:middle line:90% in unison." 00:03:34.990 --> 00:03:39.400 align:middle line:84% And that "eh" vowel is in a very subtle and effective 00:03:39.400 --> 00:03:41.710 align:middle line:84% relationship to the sibilance, the S's. 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:44.860 align:middle line:84% "Now they're resting in the fleckless light separately 00:03:44.860 --> 00:03:46.000 align:middle line:90% in unison." 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.900 align:middle line:84% Second stanza-- "like the sacks of sifted stones stacked 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:51.730 align:middle line:90% regularly by twos." 00:03:51.730 --> 00:03:55.960 align:middle line:84% "Like the sacks of sifted stones stacked regularly," 00:03:55.960 --> 00:04:00.490 align:middle line:84% and there's the vowel sound from the first stanza comes back 00:04:00.490 --> 00:04:01.570 align:middle line:90% in "regularly". 00:04:01.570 --> 00:04:05.650 align:middle line:84% "Like the sacks of sifted stones stacked regularly by twos." 00:04:05.650 --> 00:04:08.200 align:middle line:84% And the very last word of the stanza is a new sound, 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:09.310 align:middle line:90% "by twos". 00:04:09.310 --> 00:04:10.960 align:middle line:90% You know, the high pitch. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:15.610 align:middle line:84% "By twos about the flat roof, ready after lunch to be opened 00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:17.760 align:middle line:90% and strewn." 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:21.240 align:middle line:84% "By twos ready after lunch to be opened and strewn." 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.320 align:middle line:90% Read it to you again. 00:04:24.320 --> 00:04:27.200 align:middle line:84% "Now they're resting in the fleckless lights separately 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:30.530 align:middle line:84% in unison like the sacks of sifted stones stacked regularly 00:04:30.530 --> 00:04:34.080 align:middle line:84% by twos about the flat roof ready after lunch to be opened 00:04:34.080 --> 00:04:34.580 align:middle line:90% and strewn". 00:04:34.580 --> 00:04:37.160 align:middle line:90% 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.305 align:middle line:90% Most poets are not so good. 00:04:39.305 --> 00:04:41.970 align:middle line:90% 00:04:41.970 --> 00:04:47.750 align:middle line:84% Most-- you know, that-- he's very, very good. 00:04:47.750 --> 00:04:50.357 align:middle line:90% He's not writing in pentameter. 00:04:50.357 --> 00:04:51.440 align:middle line:90% He's not writing in iambs. 00:04:51.440 --> 00:04:53.060 align:middle line:90% He's not writing an end rhyme. 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:55.610 align:middle line:84% He's got the sounds going very, very well, 00:04:55.610 --> 00:04:58.580 align:middle line:90% and many a poem that says-- 00:04:58.580 --> 00:05:02.150 align:middle line:84% many a poems written in rhyme that's strict. 00:05:02.150 --> 00:05:05.300 align:middle line:84% Every word has been so carefully picked and it's doggerel. 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:06.890 align:middle line:90% It's no good. 00:05:06.890 --> 00:05:09.290 align:middle line:84% You can do it well or ill in either mode, 00:05:09.290 --> 00:05:11.390 align:middle line:90% the rest of the song-- poem is-- 00:05:11.390 --> 00:05:14.870 align:middle line:84% "The copper in eight foot strips has been beaten lengthwise down 00:05:14.870 --> 00:05:18.560 align:middle line:84% the center at right angles and lies ready to edge the coping. 00:05:18.560 --> 00:05:21.390 align:middle line:84% One still chewing--" and there practically is end rhyme, 00:05:21.390 --> 00:05:22.640 align:middle line:90% though, its grammatical rhyme. 00:05:22.640 --> 00:05:25.220 align:middle line:84% Ready to-- "The copper in eight foot strips 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:28.190 align:middle line:84% has been beaten lengthwise down the center at right angles 00:05:28.190 --> 00:05:30.410 align:middle line:84% and lies ready to edge the coping. 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:33.650 align:middle line:84% One still chewing, picks up a copper strip." 00:05:33.650 --> 00:05:37.430 align:middle line:84% So the first word in the line, the last word in the line rhyme. 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:41.480 align:middle line:84% "Picks up a copper strip and runs his eye along it." 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:46.760 align:middle line:84% And the speed of, "runs his eye along it", is part of it. 00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:50.660 align:middle line:84% I don't know if you're familiar with the blank verse of Robert 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:51.200 align:middle line:90% Frost. 00:05:51.200 --> 00:05:56.030 align:middle line:84% Robert Frost was a great great writer of blank verse. 00:05:56.030 --> 00:06:00.050 align:middle line:84% Here's a poem I commend all the ambitious poets in the room 00:06:00.050 --> 00:06:03.300 align:middle line:90% to get by heart. 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:06.570 align:middle line:84% It's an amazing piece of blank verse because of the rhymes 00:06:06.570 --> 00:06:09.930 align:middle line:84% in the quote-- "un-rhymed" end quote poem, 00:06:09.930 --> 00:06:14.550 align:middle line:84% "An Old Man's Winter Night" "All out of doors looked darkly 00:06:14.550 --> 00:06:18.180 align:middle line:84% in at him through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, 00:06:18.180 --> 00:06:22.410 align:middle line:84% that gathers on the pain in empty rooms. 00:06:22.410 --> 00:06:25.590 align:middle line:84% What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze 00:06:25.590 --> 00:06:29.250 align:middle line:84% was the lamb tilted near them in his hand. 00:06:29.250 --> 00:06:32.220 align:middle line:84% What kept him from remembering what it was that brought him 00:06:32.220 --> 00:06:35.610 align:middle line:90% to this creaking room was age." 00:06:35.610 --> 00:06:37.905 align:middle line:84% Let me point out the vowels and consonants in that 00:06:37.905 --> 00:06:39.930 align:middle line:90% un-rhymed-- those four lines. 00:06:39.930 --> 00:06:43.830 align:middle line:84% And also, the broken parallelism of the two two-line units. 00:06:43.830 --> 00:06:45.150 align:middle line:90% Are you with me? 00:06:45.150 --> 00:06:49.710 align:middle line:84% There's two-- "what kept his eyes from giving back the gaze". 00:06:49.710 --> 00:06:52.140 align:middle line:84% Eyes, gaze, it's a kind of a rhyme. 00:06:52.140 --> 00:06:56.690 align:middle line:84% "What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze was the lamp 00:06:56.690 --> 00:06:59.240 align:middle line:90% tilted near them in his hand." 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:00.920 align:middle line:84% What kept him from remembering what 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:06.815 align:middle line:84% it was at the end of the line, so eyes gaze was. 00:07:06.815 --> 00:07:09.315 align:middle line:84% "What kept him from remembering what it was that brought him 00:07:09.315 --> 00:07:11.640 align:middle line:90% to this creaking room was age." 00:07:11.640 --> 00:07:14.100 align:middle line:84% What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze, 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:17.910 align:middle line:84% so gaze and age have the same vowel. 00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:23.520 align:middle line:84% Gaze, wise, and was, have the same consonant sound. 00:07:23.520 --> 00:07:26.160 align:middle line:84% And it just comes out so naturally like talking. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.080 align:middle line:84% "What kept his eyes from giving back the gays 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:30.450 align:middle line:84% was the lamp tilted near them in his hand. 00:07:30.450 --> 00:07:33.300 align:middle line:84% What kept him from remembering what it was that brought him 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:35.760 align:middle line:90% to this creaking room was age. 00:07:35.760 --> 00:07:39.970 align:middle line:84% He stood with barrels around him at a loss and having scared 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:42.070 align:middle line:84% the cellar under him in clomping here, 00:07:42.070 --> 00:07:45.250 align:middle line:84% he scared it once again in clomping off, 00:07:45.250 --> 00:07:48.430 align:middle line:84% and scared the outer night, which has its sounds, familiar, 00:07:48.430 --> 00:07:53.350 align:middle line:84% like the roar of trees and crack of branches, common things, 00:07:53.350 --> 00:07:57.040 align:middle line:84% but nothing so like beating on a box." 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:00.220 align:middle line:84% Not end rhyme, but rhymes like mad. 00:08:00.220 --> 00:08:01.270 align:middle line:90% I'll skip to one other-- 00:08:01.270 --> 00:08:02.562 align:middle line:90% I don't want to go on too much. 00:08:02.562 --> 00:08:05.380 align:middle line:84% I'll give you one other sentence from that poem. 00:08:05.380 --> 00:08:09.115 align:middle line:84% Every pause in the sentence ends with "p", a dental. 00:08:09.115 --> 00:08:12.390 align:middle line:90% 00:08:12.390 --> 00:08:14.710 align:middle line:90% Give me a second. 00:08:14.710 --> 00:08:17.068 align:middle line:84% It's so hard to pick up somewhere, 00:08:17.068 --> 00:08:18.360 align:middle line:90% not to do it all in one strand. 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:21.910 align:middle line:90% 00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:26.170 align:middle line:84% "A light he was to no one but himself where now he sat, 00:08:26.170 --> 00:08:30.730 align:middle line:84% A quiet light, and then not even that." 00:08:30.730 --> 00:08:32.860 align:middle line:84% And the length of the different units. 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:35.860 align:middle line:84% "A light he was to no one but himself where now he sat." 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:38.080 align:middle line:90% That's longer than a line. 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.750 align:middle line:84% "A light he was no one but himself" line ending. 00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:45.010 align:middle line:84% "Where now he set, concerned with he knew what, 00:08:45.010 --> 00:08:49.800 align:middle line:84% a quiet light, and then not even that." 00:08:49.800 --> 00:08:52.480 align:middle line:84% You have to say these things aloud to hear them. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.710 align:middle line:84% Some people are very frustrated by my book, The Sounds of Poetry 00:08:55.710 --> 00:08:58.470 align:middle line:84% because it doesn't have any little basins and javelins 00:08:58.470 --> 00:09:01.560 align:middle line:84% in it, and parts of the words are never 00:09:01.560 --> 00:09:03.120 align:middle line:90% in all caps or italics. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.923 align:middle line:84% You just-- I just say, listen, the way 00:09:04.923 --> 00:09:06.090 align:middle line:90% I'm just talking to you now. 00:09:06.090 --> 00:09:07.548 align:middle line:84% I'd say you have to listen to this. 00:09:07.548 --> 00:09:09.370 align:middle line:90% You have to hear. 00:09:09.370 --> 00:09:12.970 align:middle line:84% The free verse, so-call it free verse of Wallace Stevens 00:09:12.970 --> 00:09:16.900 align:middle line:84% and of William Carlos Williams and of Elizabeth Bishop is more 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:19.900 align:middle line:84% musical, more formally exacting, more stringent, 00:09:19.900 --> 00:09:22.720 align:middle line:84% more beautiful than a lot of verse that is written 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.725 align:middle line:84% technically, A-B-A-B with end rhyme. 00:09:26.725 --> 00:09:28.600 align:middle line:84% The guy who asked the question just did this. 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:30.508 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:30.508 --> 00:09:31.008 align:middle line:90%