Sunday, December 24, 2006

The Craft of Poetry

This blog will focus on the craft of poetry.

Special attention will be given to poetic forms. My focus will be on how to create the best work within the strict limitations of rhyme and meter.

Early posts will focus on the basics, paving the way for more advance techniques.

Although I've written in most of the popular poetic forms, my expertise is in ottava rima. Over the course of three years (2001-2003) I wrote Valentino: a play in verse, a 2008-line poem in ottava rima, composed in the form of a verse drama.

Valentino will be published in January 2007, and has been selected for the Fifth Annual College of the Canyons New Works Festival.

For more on this project, read my Valentino blog.

A sample scene from the play is available at my website.

2 comments:

steadydrip said...

As a poet who works exclusively in free verse, I would assume that I am "one of those" that bug someone line yourself who works primarily in rhyme and meter. I just wanted to say congratulations with your work, Valentino. I admire "you people" who do work so passionately in strict form. Someday I will start being brave enough to explore other forms than my small uneducated sphere.

David Wisehart said...

Steadydrip:

Thanks for the comment.

While I don't write free verse, I often enjoy reading it. The avoidance of rhyme and/or meter can certainly yield strong poems. But it requires a different kind of mastery.

Also, I write and read more prose than poetry, so I have no problem with the avoidance of rhyme, when intentional.

What I don't like are poems that attempt to rhyme, and execute it poorly. This also bothers me in pop songs and rap music.