Experimental Poetry 12: Deliberate Malapropism

A malapropism is an error in speech or text where a similar sounding word mistakenly replaces the correct word. There are numerous examples. Have you ever been taken for granite? 

The term malapropism derives from Mrs. Malaprop, a comic character who appears in the 1775 play The Rivals, by Richard Sheridan. She is constantly prone to using the wrong words in her conversation. She mixes up allegory with alligator, and illiterate with obliterate.  However, there are plenty of earlier incidences of comic word mangling in literature, including several found in the work of William  Shakespeare. 

Modern day malapropism can be hilarious... did you know that medieval cathedrals were supported by flying buttocks? Or that the fun we have in childhood is incomparable to the fun of adultery? 

Here's a recent poem posted in Invisible Poets. The poem is I am a Warrior by Chiledu Ohagi, and this is the first stanza...

I wedge a war against my feelings
pulling down strongholds
breaking the chains of depression
My pages, my battleground
My pen, my mighty weapon
and my ink's my ammunition

It's a very good poem, but it contains a small typographical error. I wedge war should be I wage war. The error was pointed out by another member, but when you think about it, wedging war certainly sounds surreally poetic. It's on a par with writing that you'll skew for peace, or astounding the alarm. I don't think he should correct it.

Method 20: Deliberate Malapropism. This got me thinking... how surreal and experimental can you get by using deliberate malapropisms? The trick is to make the error obvious, and create a phonetic switch. Wedge sounds like wage, just as skew sounds like sue, and as astounding sounds like sounding. These are instantly recognisable as phonetic switches, because the phrases are familiar. 

Waging war is a commonly used phrase. Wedging war is not. How do you wedge a war? It's a jarring word to use, and that makes it interesting, manifesting all sorts of images. Wedging is more poetically inventive than waging. How do you skew peace? Can you astound an alarm? Again, the text suddenly becomes a little more intriguing, because the meaning now needs to be sought out. 

Method 21: Reiterative Malapropism. What words can you use that are homophones (sound like another word) or similarly sounding, but with a distinctly different meaning? Can you strengthen your existing poems by changing words with other words that sound similar, or pun-like, and enhance the meaning of the poem?

If you deliberately use phonetic errors such as malapropisms in your poetry, you're bound to attract some attention. Just be prepared to correct the correctors when they scrawl out from under their woks to point out your 'era'.

Steve Wheeler 

Previous posts in this series

Experimental Poetry 1: Found Poetry
Experimental Poetry 2: Stream of Consciousness
Experimental Poetry 3: Fake Translations
Experimental Poetry 4: Overlapping Voices
Experimental Poetry 5: Random Prompts
Experimental Poetry 6: The Movie Method
Experimental Poetry 7: Unexpected End Rhymes
Experimental Poetry 8: Calligrams
Experimental Poetry 9: Anarchic Poetry
Experimental Poetry 10: Timed Writing
Experimental Poetry 11: Paraphrasing

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Writing Italian & English Sonnets

 

In the battle of the bards concerning supersonic sonnets… let us consider the styles of Francesco Petrarch and William Shakespeare … progenitors of the Italian and English sonnets we use even today.

The intricacies of writing sonnet forms spans various variations that far exceeds the space of one blog. Here I expose the tale of the tape, if you will, in this contest of approaching Italian and English sonnets

The word sonnet comes from the Italian word sonetto, meaning “little song.”, and dates back to Italian courts of the thirteenth century, as well as the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. Italian sonnets became popular by the works of Francesco Petrarch (the above man on the left). Though he did not create the form, such popular poets as William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Browning, and Sir Thomas Wyatt came to use  it to splendid effect. 

The English sonnet of course was blown out of the water when set to pen by William Shakespeare  (the handsome fellow on the above right) at the end of the Elizabethan era in the late 1500s. English sonnets are most likely the simplest and most used of them all.

The most notable difference between Italian (Petrarchan) and English (Shakespearean) is the rhyme layout. 

The Italian sonnet is divided into two stanzas with a rhyme scheme of an octave (eight line stanza) of ABBAABBA and a sestet (six line stanza) of CDCDCD- or sometimes even CDECDE.

The English sonnet is divided into four stanzas with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG… three quatrains (four line stanza) and a couplet two line stanza) Some alternative rhyme schemes you may like to give a shot could be ABAA CDDC EFFE GG or even ABBA ABBA CDCD CD. Changing up rhyme schemes with English sonnets makes for a fresh challenge, and can often turn up fantastic results you may not have come up with otherwise!

Both English and Italian sonnets are similar in that they are fourteen lines long, employ end rhymes, and are in iambic pentameter (unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable).

The English sonnet generally has ten syllables, though both sonnets generally allow for eleven as the poet feels it. French allow up to twelve! Why not…? C’est La vie.

Sonnets also contain a bit of a poetic touch known as a volta (or “turn” in Italian). The volta is essential to the poem, because it reverses or complicates the narrative of the first half of the poem. The meaning starts after the ninth line of an Italian style, and just before the end two lines (couplet) in English. See if you can identify them in the following works…

Here is an example of an Italian Sonnet by originator Petrarch himself!

O joyous, blossoming, ever-blessed flowers!
’Mid which my pensive queen her footstep sets;
O plain, that hold’st her words for amulets
And keep’st her footsteps in thy leafy bowers!
O trees, with earliest green of springtime hours,
And all spring’s pale and tender violets!
O grove, so dark the proud sun only lets
His blithe rays gild the outskirts of thy towers!

O pleasant country-side! O limpid stream,
That mirrorest her sweet face, her eyes so clear,
And of their living light canst catch the beam!
I envy thee her presence pure and dear.
There is no rock so senseless but I deem
It burns with passion that to mine is near.

                                       —

Here is an example of an English sonnet by the immortal bard William Shakespeare. Notice the similarities and differences.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

  And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
  As any she belied with false compare.

These two sonnet forms are easy to begin with as far as jumping into the sonnet form pool. There are a number of others, with various line and rhyme patterns. However, these two are the best ones to start on, equally potent and just as relevant as the other with the proper application.

Matt Elmore

Using Elizabethan English

Language is always evolving. As Jeff Lynne once said 'It's a living thing...' English is a particularly rich and complex language that has drawn upon multiple sources and ages to bring it to its present state. 

Elizabethan English (EE) seems to be a version of English that many poets are drawn to. Perhaps they wish to draw inspiration from the Stratford Bard himself, William Shakespeare, whose poems and plays span 1580-1610; or maybe they wish to echo the poetic scriptures of the King James Bible, first published around 1611.

Whatever the motivation, when it's done well, a modern poem written in Elizabethan English (more accurately Early Modern English) can be quite impressive. When it's done badly, it can be an absolute disaster. I have witnessed many poets, who don't quite have a full understanding of EE, struggling terribly to try to articulate their ideas.

So, for those who would love to write this archaic form of poetry, but don't yet have the skill, here is a crash course in how to do it...

Let's start off with the simple phrase 'You have made it.' It's a past participle phrase. It has been made, and it was you who made it. You could articulate it like this:

Thou hast made it. 

...or better still ...

Thou hast fashioned it

...or the ultimate...

It hath been fashioned by thy hand.

Some of the archaic EE words can be brought to bear to transform a mundane phrase into something special. Here's another example:

You will, as time passes, see yourself differently

...becomes...

Thou wilt, as time passeth, see thyself differently.

Remember the following common verbs...

Has = hath (he/she) or hast (thou)

Shall = shalt

Will = wilt

Can = canst 

Does = doeth 

Are = art

... and other verbs that can often be extended by the suffix '-eth', e.g. walketh, maketh or sleepeth. 

...and for the use of the first person...

You = thou or thee

Your = thy

Yours = thine

These are merely the rudimentary rules of EE grammar. There's plenty more to be learnt. I hope this helps you if you're intent on writing poetry in the archaic style of Elizabethan English. I wish thee good fortune. 

Steve Wheeler 

Image from Wikimedia Commons 

Poetic devices 17: Antithesis

An antithesis is the opposite to a thesis. A thesis is an idea, a theory, a concept - something that explains your world to you. The anthesis of good is evil. They are opposed. They are in opposition to each other. They are antithetical. 

In poetry antithesis is a device used to show how two objects or ideas are different to each other. Antithesis can also be used to reinforce the tempo of a poem. Let's explore how this works...

The 1920 poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost is a classic example of antithesis: 

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

The juxtaposition of fire and ice as two opposing concepts has a dramatic effect on the reader. It creates a tension in the comparisons. It allows the poet to elaborate on the ideas, melding them into a metaphor for love and desire, and also as a device to express his observations on life. It's a rhythmic triumph in the use of antithesis.

Another well known example of antithesis can be found in Hamlet's soliloquy, from the classic play by William Shakespeare. In it, Hamlet is contemplating a perennial antithesis: the meaning of life and the finality of death.

To be or not to be, that is the question

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind

To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles.

Again, it's very dramatic, and as the soliloquy progresses, it reveals the turmoil present in Hamlet's mind as he battles with his conscience.

Another example of antithesis is present in a famous poem called If, by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same...

This is a rather interesting approach to antithesis, because the poet identifies several binaries - opposing ideas like triumph and disaster, and then tells the reader that in reality, they don't really matter - because the character of the person is much more important than the fate that befalls him. It's not so much what happens to you, but how you respond to it that is the key to your success. 

Steve Wheeler

Image used by Creative Commons licence from Flickr

Previous posts in this series:

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Repetition and refrains
4. Alliteration
5. Assonance
6. End Rhymes
7. Internal Rhymes
8. Rhythm and Tempo
9. Enjambment

10. Allegory

11. Metonymy

12. Cacophony

13. Calligram

14. Personification

15. Paradox

16. Euphony

Poetic devices 12: Cacophony

Cacophony, which means 'bad sound', is the opposite of euphony (good sound) and occurs in speech where there is a mix of harsh and/or inharmonious sounds. 

In poetry, cacophony refers to the use of words with sharp, harsh, sibilant (hissing) and especially unharmonious sounds – usually in the consonants of words – the poet uses to create an effect, emotion or atmosphere. Cacophony should not be confused with onomatopoeia which Matt Elmore has already elaborated upon.  A classic example of cacophony in poetry is Jabberwocky by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, even the title sounds discordant. 

Read the words out loud:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe. 

Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 

The frumious Bandersnatch!

Yes, they are largely nonsense words, but the brilliance lies in the mix of the sounds and the way they discordantly flow to create the narrative. The use of the coined or made-up words creates sounds (or phonics) that imbue meaning into the elements Carroll is describing. Slithy toves are not ordinary toves - they are very slithy, and that sounds unpleasant. The jubjub bird sounds like a very irritating bird, because its name denotes the repetitive noise it makes... and so on. 

The tragedy Macbeth, written by Stratford-on-Avon bard William Shakespeare, is full of cacophonous passages of dialogue to depict descent into madness, and of course, this famous soliloquy, spoken immediately after a brutal and bloody murder:

Out! Damn spot! Out I say! One, Two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

The last line in particular is quite chilling not least because of the cacophonous nature of the preceding texts. But it is the explosive and discordant nature of the first sentence that truly sets up and darkens the entire speech. The Bells by dark romantic poet Edgar Allen Poe is another example of how words can be used explosively to create not only terrific alliteration, but a full cacophony effect:

Hear the loud alarum bells– 

Brazen bells! 

What tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! 

In the startled ear of night 

How they scream out their affright! 

Too much horrified to speak, 

They can only shriek, shriek, 

Out of tune

Note the use of words such as scream and shriek - sibilant words that might put you on edge when you hear them! Poe depicts turbulence in so many ways in this one short passage of text. There are numerous other examples of cacophony in poetry, which I'm sure you will be on the look out for! 

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Repetition and refrains
4. Alliteration
5. Assonance
6. End Rhymes
7. Internal Rhymes
8. Rhythm and Tempo
9. Enjambment

10. Allegory

11. Metonymy

Image from Pixabay 

Poetic Devices 11: Metonymy

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! 

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. 

The evil that men do lives after them. 

The good is oft interred with their bones.

So goes the famous soliloquy speech of Marc Anthony in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. Notice that Shakespeare uses the phrase 'lend me your ears' to indicate demanding attention. The word 'ears' is used as a substitute for the act of listening. In poetic and literature terms, this is known as metonymy - using a single word to indicate a larger idea or context. Metonymy is quite simply a concept or idea that is referred to by a word that is closely related to it. It's a stand-in or substitute word for a much larger idea. 

Metonyms occur more frequently in every day speech and conversation than we realise. And thus, they also appear in poetry and literature a lot. The actor Marlon Brando once said 'Most of the successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings.' He was of course using Hollywood to refer to the entire movie making industry, including actors, directors, writers and so on. 

Musicians Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney once sang a wonderful refrain in a song they performed:

Ebony and ivory 

Live together in perfect harmony 

Side by side on my piano keyboard 

Oh lord, why don’t we?

Ebony is a metonym that refers to black culture and people from Afro-Carribbean origin, while ivory refers to white culture and Caucasian heritage people. The piano-keyboard is a metaphor that reflects life in general and in this case is a political statement. What they are really asking is why can't black and white people live peacefully and respectfully together? Why does there have to be such hatred? It's a colourful, poetic way of referring to racial tension in a community without overtly stating the problem. The fact that the two musicians were from two different ethic cultures spoke volumes, but the lyrics were even more powerful. 

Examples in poetry are many. Just remember that a single word can have as much power as an entire phrase in poetry. You might for example describe someone who is bleeding to death, as 'the life slowly drained out of him. The metonym used is 'life.' You might refer to the entire presidential administration of the United States of America as the 'White House' or 'Washington', or the Royal Family and household of the United Kingdom as the 'Crown'. Using a change of word to denote something larger, can change the perception of the reader or the tone of the poem, and make it even more memorable. 

Steve Wheeler

Previous posts in this series

1. Simile
2. Metaphor
3. Repetition and refrains
4. Alliteration
5. Assonance
6. End Rhymes
7. Internal Rhymes
8. Rhythm and Tempo
9. Enjambment

10. Allegory

Image from Blue Diamond Gallery used via Creative Commons Licensing

Poetic devices 4: Alliteration

Hedgehogs hogging hedges! Martians munching marshmallows! Zombie zebras in the zoo! Fair is foul and foul is fair (from Macbeth by Shakespeare, of course).... What's it all about .... beyond the crazy wordplay?

The poem Astrophobos by Howard Phillips Lovecraft contains the following stanza:

Mystic waves of beauty blended
With the gorgeous golden rays;
Phantasies of bliss descended
In a myrrh’d Elysian haze;
And in lyre-born chords extended
Harmonies of Lydian lays.

What is so special about this passage of poetry? Well, there are plenty of features including allusion, and the lyrical tempo, both of which I will deal with in future posts. But you may notice that there are two instances of words with the same initial consonant sounds in close proximity - beauty blended and gorgeous golden - that add a mystical and magical quality to the work. This is known as alliteration, and is an often ignored poetic device that should attract more attention. 

There are numerous examples of alliteration in poetry, both throughout the ages. One of the most impressive recent pieces I've seen is by illustrious English spoken word artist Harry Baker (whom I saw perform live earlier this year). It's a piece that travels through the entire alphabet of alliteration, to bring a truly delightful confection of wonderful, stellar images. The poem, called The A-Z of Time and Space is performed below by Harry with copious use of his hands (some serious semaphore) and facial expressions (grimacing, grinning and gurning). See what I did there?

What does alliteration do for poetry? Well, it's a phonic technique to emphasise an idea. It relies on similar consonant sounds to help the poem flow and make sense (or not in the case of some nonsense poetry).  Used effectively, alliteration can add that extra something special to make your poetry stand out from the crowd. 

Try some alliteration in your own poetry. How could you use it to emphasise your themes, or bring additional dimension or meaning to your writing? Please post potential poems in the comments section below!

Previous posts in this series

1: Similes
2: Metaphors
3. Repetition and refrains

Steve Wheeler

Image by Emile Education 

Writing Sentimental Poetry

This writing gig is getting personal. But hey, when you’re a poet… what isn’t personal?!

Love assumes many forms. It can be hurtful to healing, vulnerable to impregnable, intimate to stone cold, longing to “get away from me!”… it is the most diverse dichotomy in our emotional repertoire. 

Love love love… it is both the answer to a question and a question to an answer. Like the old adage… can’t live with em, can’t live without em… it presents quite the confusing allure that haunts us all. 

We are not meant to be alone.

This theme provides the very fabric of a poets being… whether professed for nature, a person, a place, or even a thing… I’ve written love poems about ice cream for heavens sake! Yet is also has a dark side, that potent fault that pricks our very souls. Yes, the love to hate. 

Dark poets love Lord Byron… he is always one of my go to poets for dark inspirations with a glimmer of light. His poem “Darkness” illustrates this perversion of all that beautiful and true, yet remains a draw upon us all… take the ending of this magnificent blast…

“…the waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, 

The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before; 

The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air, 

And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need 

Of aid from them—She was the Universe. “

Byron takes cruel manifestations of the human condition … mankind’s passions, selfishness, death, evil intent, war… mixed with elements of nature, and formulated a hope for love defined as the infinite range of texture it weaves.

William Shakespeare was never one to miss a poignant dart no matter how sweet its intention… demonstrated within this excerpt form “Sonnet #40”…

“I do forgive thy robb’ry, gentle thief,

Although thou steal thee all my poverty;

And yet love knows it is a greater grief

To bear love’s wrong than hate’s known injury.

    Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows,

    Kill me with spites, yet we must not be foes.”

Master at turning a phrase, the immortal bard knows his damage control! He’s saying we have to talk it out before it destroys us! 

Intricate poet code… this is what we use, isn’t it? I often have to explain what I’m writing about when my writing may throw my woman into fits… saying one thing meaning another. 

Of course there is the drippy, sappy, overtly romantic poetry that is reminiscent of the sunsets, candle light dinners, and sweet professions our hearts desire. Love poems. So many of them. But they all go to the same place… the heart. Let’s look at “A Red Red Rose” by Robert Burns and prepare for the collective “Awwwwwe!!!!”…

O my Luve is like a red, red rose 

   That’s newly sprung in June; 

O my Luve is like the melody 

   That’s sweetly played in tune. 

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

   So deep in luve am I; 

And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

   Till a’ the seas gang dry. 

Yep… works every time!! Who can resist?

Yet there are so many forms… so many loves. It can go so many places that as poets I am not sure we can ever find the shore of where it all ends as to what can be written of this feeling. “In My Heart Leaps Up”, William Wordsworth sets his adoration to existence itself within the ultimate cinemascope of life itself within his beautiful references to awe inspiring aspects of our natural world…

My heart leaps up when I behold 
   A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began; 
So is it now I am a man; 
So be it when I shall grow old, 
   Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

I myself hit upon this vein as I realized it is my mothers birthday today, and in haste scribbled her out a poem addressed within a birthday card I had bought as a just in case affair. I placed it on her favorite chair to be found when she wakes up. Direct and simple, when she read my book, she said she liked the poems that meant what they said and said what they meant. Easy to understand. This was fine by me because I’m not Wordsworth! So I wrote this out before I hastily headed out the door to work this morning…

you are the music to my song

always here and never gone

for in my mind it’s you I see

and in my heart you’ll always be…

Simple, direct, and to the point. No poetic code there… just a simple statement of a tender hearted son to his sweet mother on her 83rd birthday. 

Sentimental poetry remains one of my favorite to write. Its surface simplicity hints at the complex currents that run so deep at the water’s edge. It is there always, as a constant muse in its many shapes… inviting poets of all ages, classes, and colors to dive into the universal beauty and even ugliness of its universal truths.

Matt Elmore

The impact of poetry and how it affects us

Poetry is a powerful art form that has the ability to move us emotionally, challenge our assumptions, and expand our perspectives. Through the use of language, imagery, and sound, writers of all kind are able to create works that are beautiful, meaningful, personal and haunting. Poetry has a rich history and tradition that spans cultures and time periods, and it remains relevant today as a way to connect with others and find meaning even in the modern age. Whether you are a poet or a reader of poetry, it is clear that this art form will continue to inspire and enrich many lives for generations to come. Poetry has even had profound effects unto the reestablishment of the English language by writers such as William Shakespeare. Poet and musician James Douglas Morrison once penned “As long as there are people, they can remember words and combinations of words. Nothing else can survive a holocaust, but poetry and songs.” 

How does poetry affect your journey of life?     

By: Brandon Adam Haven 

Image free for fair use by Pixabay