I fell in love with the cadence of the Scriptures. There are also some poems that have a cadence that effects me in ways that I can not describe in an adequate way.
I don't really have training in how to use meter. I try to do what sounds good. I don't know if I ever know how to do it. Maybe someone could start an exercise with one meter and we could practice just a sentence or more if we like until everybody. Then, we could go to another meter. We could go back to the other too if someone wanted to do so.
I don't know where to start. Maybe someone with training will get us started.
When it comes to rhythm and cadence and the like, I focus usually on number of syllables. That tends to work better for me than to force a thought into a set meter. Of course, I am not trained in poetry.
Perhaps before we start, we should include some definitions and descriptions so we can "practice" them.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
That is so hard for me to focus on counting syllabels. But I need to practice it! Sometimes Rayb will have a beat to his poetry that I rather like! Maybe he could weigh in here.
Ray, I need to be more careful how I word things. You seem to have a sense of humor that would fit right in with my family1
I have been practing counting and it is just so taxing for me to count one stanza let alone do one to fit it. I think I will just have to do things the way I have been doing them or I will never be able to write poetry.
I think stress is more important than the actual number of syllables, since you can slip a couple unstressed syllables into a meter where there would normally be just one, and it still flows with the rhythm, even though you will technically come out with an extra syllable. But then, I'm a big fan of that multiple-unstressed-syllable pattern... duh duh DUH duh duh DUH duh duh DUH duh....
Every word with more than one syllable has a beat. Even single syllable words have varying degrees of beat when put next to other words of single syllable. Some words are simply stronger than others. Conjunctions, for example, are typically not strong single syllable words... BUT! the word but can be...) Often I find I want to string together ideas but the rhythm is just off... Sometimes I don't care, sometimes I do. :big shrug:
For me if it doesn't come to me right away I'll just forget about it and run with it, though occasionally I'll go back and tweak and tweak and tweak... It's kinda like a crossword puzzle or wordgame... I also love spelling and words in general. It drives my wife crazy because she often pronounces words slightly different and uses words like "boughten" and "tooken" which I think are really cute... and become the names of fairies in my stories. :)
Here's a cute little couplet that I thought would make an interesting poem about grandparents, but I didn't get around to finishing it because I am just too busy work, work, working all day long...
Wisdom is a fickle beast Arriving when you want it least.
Poetry, for me is a chance to have fun. I match the number of syllables sometimes, but the beating thing is, for me, often more trouble than its worth. I tend to use it when I'm trying to match the perfect words, but in the above couplet's case, I could read the syllables of each phrase differently depending on how and where you put the emphasis.
More interesting to me is hiding a message in the mundane, or layering a poem with multiple layers of meaning. I like this in poetry perhaps moreso than in novels, because it is short and therefore quantifiable. One can get really analytical about it, and that's fine too, but it's still just a poem.
In stories, i think many of the hidden meanings that come out, do so not because the author intended it, but because stories tend to mirror life and life inherently has meaning.
--Ray
-- Edited by rayb at 16:59, 2007-07-02
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
