With a sigh, the war begins.

I have decided to make this blog a little more pointed in its purpose, specifically with poetry. I got a book last semester called The Teacher's and Writer's Handbook of Poetic Forms. It is a handy introduction to various poetic forms and styles. What I would like to do is go through the the book, using other reference points along the way, giving examples and explanations of poetic forms, as well as trying my hand at each one along the way. With this in mind, I wanted to start today with the acrostic poem.

An acrostic poem, in broad terms, is a poem in which the first letters of each line spell a word or phrase that gives deeper significance to the poem as a whole, indeed sometimes giving the complete context. You may remember my earlier (ill concieved) poem Annagraneto as an example of an acrostic, but there are far more professional examples that I could cite.Wikipedia cites Poe's poem simply titled An Acrostic.

Elizabeth it is in vain you say
"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.

In general I will try to cite "real" sources rather than Wikipedia, but between my book and having learned about acrostics in class I feel fairly confident to use loose references.

As is common with poetry, writers have attempted to stretch the boundaries of the acrostic. Poetic Forms gives an example of a double acrostic,

Many times I

Yelled across the cosmoS

Not knowing to whoM

And/ or what everlasting top bananA

Men had sought in faR

EternitY

Using the first and last letters of each line brings significance to the otherwise convoluted poetry.

Acrostics have been around for a while. There are nine acrostic psalms in the Bible: 9-10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119 and 145. Psalm 119 is the most complete acrostic psalm. for more about these psalms click here

  For some of the poetry I wrote during my creative writing class I was required to make multiple revisions to the first drafts. I wanted to show in some way the process which I was made to do this in tandem with the post's theme. Following are all of my revisions of the acrostic poem SIGH.

Sigh – First Draft

Singing at first

I start to scream

Given the worst

Heavily breathing

Sigh – Second Draft

Singing loud at first

I lose my breath

Going past the hearse

Heaving silent death

Sigh – Third Draft

Screaming

Inside

Grieving

Hide

Sigh – Fourth Draft

Screaming

Inside. My

Grieving I

Hide

Sigh – Fifth Draft

Settled screams

Inward illness

Greeting grief

Hidden horror

Sigh – Final Draft

Settled screams

Inward Illness

Graven grief

Hidden horror

Sigh is not very complicated, and i only picked the word sigh to keep the poem short. I wanted to evoke the physicality of respiration alongside with the sadness of desperation that pervades loneliness.

That's the gist for this week, tune in later for another poetic form!

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As with my last post i want to throw something interesting in the end here. I so love the song that i posted last time, a song which i found due to a video game trailer, that i decided for the next three posts (this one included) to be a series of three of the best video game trailers ever posted, mostly due to the music. Specifically, Gear of War 1-3.  Rather than post the music videos with a link to the actual trailers, I'm going to post the actual trailers which speak in a different artistic form than the songs or videos alone. Without further adue,

They only get better from here.....

Not exactly tea and crumpits, but Crumpit nonetheless.

                It's been quite some time since my last post, this was mainly due to a single class that I had last semester: Creative Writing. Although the class was not great it did help me to learn a way to edit my poetry, other than just re-reading it. I started writing posts a few times, but ultimately I wanted to wait until I had as much new materiel as possible before I started posting again, so that I could write, review, and edit my materiel.

                 In the end, I'm really excited about some of the things I came out with, and I want to start with what I consider one of my best products of the semester.

"Mount Crumpit"

Above the town

The Grinch heard

On the north wind

The fervent cheers

Of the town below.

“Never are we alone!”

They cried.

“Never are we alone.”

He sighed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the fifth draft of this poem. I may post the original draft or some other versions later, but this is what I really decided in the end was the best use of the fewest amount of words, which is what my professor said was the goal of poetry. I'm not sure if that's entirely true, but I can see the power in it. 

For Mount Crumpit I was really trying to get to the heart of the lonely and abused. Everyone knows what it's like to "be alone in a crowded room" (as Attack! Attack! puts it). I couldn't think of a character who exemplified this more than The Grinch. The last four lines are really the clinch of the whole thing, the poem could really be just those lines, but I like the expanded influence that the reference has. Few things accentuate pain more than the oblivious joy of others. And nothings makes a person feel more alone than seeing other people, knowing that he or she cannot partake. Perhaps misers are miserly for a reason. 

I'm not sure what this says about the rest of the story. Maybe all that people need is to find out that they are genuinely cared for, as the Jim Carey rendition suggests. Theodor Geisel's original script is a bit more vague however. The Grinch was sad because the Whos (whose?) were enjoying themselves with Christmas, but when he learned that they loved each other (or Christmas rather) just for love's sake his heart changed. Is it enough to see that people are really loving to take away a person's lonely bitterness? Are the two versions really so different? It's hard to say, and ultimately not really what this poem was touching on. I hope that there is hope, but if not perhaps people can at least connect through the mutual misery that Mount Crumpit attempts to capture.

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           In the past I have left behind songs and music videos that have particularly impressed me. I would like to perhaps make this a permanent attribute of the blog. If not videos or music, then other things of beauty that I have seen or heard, beauty being in the eye of the beholder as it is. This week perhaps more than others.

This video, i think, is beautiful. I first heard this song in a trailer for the game "Assasin's Creed: Revelations" (Which incidentally is a mesmerizingly beautiful piece of art as well that you can view here) 

I won't ruin to much, cause I think you should just drink it in. Please enjoy,