This exercise has two parts: five pairs of unrhymed iambic pentameter, with the first line being end-stopped and without caesuras, and another five pairs with enjambment and caesuras.
Elements of Eloquence Review
For breaking down rhetorical figures, showing them in use, and highlighting how they appear and affect the reader, Elements of Eloquence is a valuable primer and reminder.
Poetry Practice, Exercise 2
This exercise was intended to be twenty lines of unrhymed, unrelated iambic pentameter.
The Ode Less Travelled Review
If you do it properly, you will produce poetry from reading this book. Not good poetry, necessarily, not something you labor over for days and intend to publish to immortalize your name as the next great poet of the 21st century, but poetry nonetheless.
Beowulf Review
It can be read, outside of some of the trappings and language, as a kind of historical-fantasy tale with which plenty of people today are familiar. We still tell monster tales, albeit usually not in alliterative verse.
The Nibelungenlied Review
I am hesitant to draw significant conclusions about the work itself based on the transliteration, but I’ll draw a few for the purposes of this review. Most significant: why was Seigfried murdered?
The Knight in the Panther’s Skin Review
These must be some of the most emotional, nay, emotive knights. To an even greater extent than Arthurian champions, the knights in The Knight in the Panther’s Skin are deeply and vocally emotional.
Star Maker Review
Despite its brevity, this is not a book you should plan to whip through – it’s one of those you really must sit with and contemplate, both while actively reading and afterwards, if you want to appreciate it properly.
Speeches as Poetry
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to give a short speech at a large event. Maybe it could have been more distinctive if I’d had this thought before the speech, instead of about two hours later: I should have treated the speech like poetry.
An Oblique Approach to Reality
Thinking of poetry as an oblique approach to reality reframes my understanding of poems and helps explain why I’ve always struggled with writing original poems, but it doesn’t mean I can suddenly write poetry.
IGC Publishing 