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Craft of Poetry, dversepoets, FormForAll, Gay Cannon, haiku, Modernism, poetic form, poetry sharing, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams
The idea of modern poetry has been “haunting” me for a while. What is “modern”? Does it define a period much like “art deco” or “fauvism”. Do we relegate it to the period from roughly 1895 to 1945? Or do we, who are writing poetry now, consider ourselves modern? My first college course in advanced poetry used Louis Untermeyer’s combined text titled Modern American & British Poetry. Untermeyer was much concerned with the criticism of his time and in his blurbs regarding each of the poets he presented, he passed judgment on each one’s “worthiness”. Some of his thinking has since been debunked; yet the poets and the poems he gave me in that book instilled in me a desire to write and write in a novel way. I wonder now if “modern poems” may be defined as those that are bound by the covers of that book.
The art world particularly during the period between the two world wars was fascinated by technology, communications, and the changing social structure of those times. I think the word “modern” was bandied about a good deal and modernism seemed the thing to strive for; a need to break from a past that was constrained by agrarian ideas, and Puritan ideals.
It seems to me, writing in the twenty-first century, there is a need to examine all sorts of styles and forms which we’ve been doing in this forum from the beginning. I believe the only way to be truly “modern” or novel is to find one’s own voice and experience. That is not to say one cannot use one’s imagination or write fantastically but those poems built on the fancies that lie in one’s own ideas are more likely to produce something unique. Nevertheless, it is useful to know what others created to see if a particular form or set of forms suits our own imagination and voice, and to know we are not replicating ideas or expressions already invented by our predecessors.
The Triversen poem form was invented by William Carlos Williams. Williams considered himself a “modern” poet. He based a good deal of his manifesto regarding poetry on the ideas and ideals regarding poetry advanced by Ezra Pound. He believed the Triversen poem to be the “native” (not in the sense of American Indians) American voice. It certainly had an effect on writers of his time and since.
Lewis Turco states in his article regarding Des Imagistes 5/12/2007:
“Of the five levels of poetry — the typographical, or visible level; the sonic, or level of language music; the sensory, or emotional level; the ideational, or thematic level, and the fusional, or architectonic level — it was the third that Ezra Pound in 1912 decided was primary. On the sensory level patterns of imagery — figurative language, tropes — come to the fore, and the five external senses of taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing are expressed, as is the internal “sense” of emotion. However, for this last “sense” would be substituted an “idea,” the “objective correlative” of T. S. Eliot, which was nothing more than the “vehicle” or object of a metaphor, for if one were to choose exactly the right “object” (read “image”) and place it in the perfect language context, that object would correlate with the “tenor” or subject of the metaphor, an idea or a thought which need not even be mentioned in the poem because it would be contained in the image itself.
To say that Ezra Pound and the Imagist poets were influenced not only by Walt Whitman’s prose poetry but also by Japanese poetry — especially the haiku — is to utter a truism, but the argument can be made that Williams deliberately invented an American accentual stanza in his “triversen” that is the equivalent of the Japanese haiku — or, more exactly, the three-line katauta. In effect, in his earliest poems — those to be found in the first volume of his Collected Poems — Williams adapted to American poetry the syllabic prosody of the haiku and katauta by transmuting it: syllables became stresses; the seventeen syllables of the haiku and the nineteen syllables of the katauta, arranged in three lines of 5-7-5 or 5-7-7 syllables, became a “variable foot,” to use Williams’ terminology, also arranged in three lines.”
The Triversen then is:
- Accentual. The rhythm of normal speech, employing 1 to 4 strong stresses per line.
- Stanzaic, written in any number of tercets. Each tercet is one sentence broken into independent clauses, a kind of natural breath.
- Grammatical. The sentence is broken by line phrasing or lineating or sense units. There should be 3 units. L1 is a statement of fact or observation, L2 and L3 should set the tone, imply a condition or associated idea, or carry a metaphor for the original statement.
- Unrhymed
- Alliterated. Alliteration contributes to stress.
I used a summary of this form from information found at Poetry Magnum Opus
“The prosody Williams developed from Japanese sources has become widely dispersed among American poets since its early appearances in short, haiku-like poems written by the Imagists. Williams himself soon used it as a stanza pattern. “In Williams’ work there are literally dozens of poems that fit this description. The triversen stanza first showed up in section VII of the 1923 Spring and All, and thereafter it occurred with increasing frequency in his work, though it cannot be claimed that it became his mainstay strophe.
“To list examples of the triversen stanzas and of pseudo-haiku in the work of other Imagists would be an endless task, but one other poet who did fine things in the Japanese tradition — was Wallace Stevens who not only wrote a poem in triversen stanza, he glossed Williams’ Imagist credo as well in his poem “Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing Itself”.
NOT IDEAS ABOUT THE THING BUT THE THING ITSELF
At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.
He knew that he heard it,
A bird’s cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.
The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow…
It would have been outside.
It was not from the vast ventriloquism
Of sleep’s faded papier-mâché…
The sun was coming from the outside.
That scrawny cry–It was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,
Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality.
© — Wallace Stevens
I’d be interested in what you consider “modern”, what defines poetry in your own constructions, and what you consider the “how” of poetry. You can respond in the comments. Feel free to write your own Triversen and link with Mr. Linky.
Welcome to the pub today. It’s a little noisy. It’s time to fix up a few things so the painters are sprucing up outside. We have the windows open and the traffic is going by. We hear people talking, horns honking, and all the energy and movement of summer. Join your energy to ours; read and write and let us know what you think about the “modern” world and the place of poetry in it. Looking forward to reading what you link.
Gay, I thoroughly enjoyed your article. I have been looking for a new challenge and think this may be it. I have a quiet day at work, perfect for losing myself in writing. Thank you.
Looking forward to anything you write. This form feels “natural” I think. It should accommodate you well.
Wow, Gay. I’m having a little dizziness problem today, and, girl, you’ve added to it! :0) I love the ideas in this form. You really know how to challenge us out of our comfort zone. Thanks for all the hard work and attention you put into your posts that truly do educate.
Oh dear Victoria. This makes me worry. I don’t think it’s as difficult as it might at first seem. Here’s another example by W.C.Williams http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-gay-wallpaper/
I think this one technically gets the boot because it rhymes. But it’s still a good poem.
You’re right – it does rhyme. I think I got caught up in the poem itself. Maybe I just wanted to share it. P.S. I deleted it, it is a good poem but not an example for us today!
Wonderful example…but once I took my time and read it carefully, it wasn’t so bad. Don’t worry about it being too much…I have the bad habit of skimming things from time-to-time…especially something that really interests me. Don’t know if I did it quite right with the stresses and all, but was just happy to write something new.
Re: modernism. I think the term evolves to keep current with what’s relevant at any given time in history, so I see it as a bit vague and evolutionary. For me, a lot of the poems I read here fit that definition. I think of Claudia and Brian who play with shape and caps and so forth, or Anna M. and Zongrik who take us to the edge of the universe with some scientific, quantum concepts, and many of us who just let it rip from time-to-time. I’ve written some experimental stuff that I haven’t posted…maybe it’s time to loosen up a bit.
I agree, Victoria, that I consider those poets you mentioned “very modern” and breaking ground in different ways. Claudia uses verbs in such a transforming way. I’m ever in awe of that. Joy Jones crafts very carefully – her words interact so adroitly that they not only say, but do something novel, unlike anything else I read. Sam Peralta’s work always so precise whether free or in form! His work makes me question everything I write. Likewise other poets here seem to take their poetry to a place where other poets left off – I think of Henry and Arron particularly and Anthony who are not afraid of new expressions of rawness and exposure.
For me it’s a little hard to let it “all hang out”. But I’m with you Victoria, it’s a challenge to try.
Notwithstanding that note – countless poets here – so fine, such a list too long to note, have such personal ways of self expression, such unique use of style, form, precise language – – so many and ever new people that I long to read every week whose work is personal, new. It frames their personal voice, and that in itself surely is as “modern” as the time we are living and writing in. I want to name them all but the list would surely extend to the number who link regularly every week here.
You’re so correct. The list could go on and on. I just mentioned the first few who came mind.
Here is spirit if not in words! Looking forward to pondering this article once released from the real world confines…
Hi Ms. Natasha! Hope it releases you to the ether soon. My poem today is about that “real world”. Ha.
Every time I walk away from the computer, I think of other d’verse poets whose work I’d love to discuss, whose raison d’etre I’d like to hear about. Now I’m sorry I named some and omitted others. It really is what I yearn to hear though, to know what inspires you, why you write as you do…all of you. So many many poets like you Natasha. So proud of you and your getting published. So many more that I’ve seen start out as fledglings who’ve spread their wings and fly so high. It’s so heartening.
What a challenge!
Do your worst with mine, Gay 🙂
[She said, trembling]
I’m doing it ‘normal’ first and then worked from there.
Checked for alliteration and just preserved one internal rhyme.
You do keep us on our toes, don’t you.
I’ll be by shortly, Aprille. Though I have to admit, I haven’t a clue what “normal” means about anything!
alright gay, i made it…ha…sorry my break came a bit later than i thought…it took me a bit of processing to get this one…thanks for the extra examples….learning to enjoy these form challenges…getting there…smiles…
and victoria….hope you are feeling better soon…ack
I seem to have posted umpteen times with a range of posts but meant to repost a poem I did after January when I first discovered this form
Sorry you had difficulties. There are two linked. I commented on one. Will look at the other after while.
Thanks and in answer to your, What the fandango is this? It was down to clumsy thumbs posting the wrong poem as Roller-coaster is not an example of the form!
OK then. Everyone is on multiple devices. I can get to sites on my phone, but I can’t maneuver well enough to read – it is only a semi-smart phone after all. I must upgrade one day. Thanks John!
You’ve definitely challenged me, Gay. I’ve read that Stevens poem who knows how many times and not realized it was a form–so thanks for letting me see what was under the hood. I will see what I can come up with.
Victoria–hope you get rid of the vertigo soon–I hate it–so tiring.
Looking forward to yours, I know it will be something special.
Thanks, hedge…I’m better now. It comes and goes.
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You played right into my hand, Gay! I copied a comment I made on your poem, Amarillo, a few days ago, and was able to to turn it into one of these here Trio… trive… ummm… what you said. I don’t know if it fits the form, but from the sounds of what you said, it probably don’t matter. Enjoy!
I left you a long note. Enjoyed the piece very much.
It is my birthday today, and your challenge is quite the gift to the cortical fibers still intact. I must say that I really do not grasp the “triversen” concept, but “prosody” does appeal to me, so all could do was lurch ahead, letting the stanzas pile up; well, I had fun regardless, and something poetic and “modern” has emerged.
hey cool…happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Gle-enn… happy birthday to you…smiles….enjoy the day!!
Yes, Glenn – Happy Birthday to you!
I think your poem is very modern. I also think you’ve done exactly what all the poets writing at the time did. Williams corresponded with many poets of his time and his correspondence with Wallace Stevens is well documented. Artists of the period were much concerned with “bringing something new” to the table. Dickinson (who had been published late) was a big influence, Frost so much a New England entity with his demand to keep to place and write in plain speech was very much an influence. Pound, Yeats, Eliot with their pronouncements also influenced writing and thinking of the period.
Poets both in the US and Europe were setting out manifestos just as their painter and sculptor peers were doing. They wrote, they published their thoughts, they discussed what made things new, changed the old thinking, the old forms into new ones.
This triversen form seemingly so native to English speech was easily adapted. I think all the strictures that might have been mentioned were not always used – only the ones that worked for a given poet, or a particular poem. You poem very much fits that definition.
Happy Birthday, Glenn!!!
happy birthday man!
Happy birthday, Glenn!
this is a wonderful article gay…just coming home from a business trip and already late over here..so no chance to write something today but hope to be back tomorrow…
i know you got it in you claudia…smiles…get some rest…we will see what comes on the morning…
See you tomorrow, Claudia. Get some rest.
What a neat form. Love the emphasis on images. Can’t wait to give it a shot.
Please do, Valerie. We’re all here to share.
Fab post! Couldn’t really get something going for the form, but so it goes.
The great thing about hanging out with this crowd is you learn something new everyday! An excellent article, Gay, and I must say you hit on a form – the triversen – that I’d forgotten about.
“Modern” is, I think, a relative term. Every generation believes that the poetry it writes, and the forms it invents, is “modern”. In art there are conventions that label works as “modern” and even “post-modern”, but I’m not sure there are the same conventions in poetry. Perhaps a more apt word is “contemporary”.
It’ll be interesting to see what people come up with!
I’m going to post one you may have seen before… but I think it’s a good example.
I haven’t tried the challenge yet, but I want to address the wonderful essay you wrote, Gay. I love your examples from imagist/objectivist poets, and I love your summing up, though I might call it “contemporary” instead of modern, but who cares?: “I believe the only way to be truly “modern” or novel is to find one’s own voice and experience. That is not to say one cannot use one’s imagination or write fantastically but those poems built on the fancies that lie in one’s own ideas are more likely to produce something unique.” Novelty is not something that a Shakespeare ever sought after. Isn’t that odd? I think by novelty you and I mean, truth individually detailed?
I see modernism (in art and theatre) as the adventuresome “isms” that broke away from photographic realism. That’s an old story now, but we can still write in those styles, surrealism, impressionism, futurism, dadaism, etc. More interesting– POST-modernism is already old–is the deliberate breaking of and mixing of form into other form, now expanded into mashing and absence of authority. I think my writing, mostly stream of consciousness (Joyce), is modern as in “old-fashioned” with cadence, comparisons, and allusions. . . . It may even be older-fashioned as in romanticism with a religious twist. I am happy with that right now– despite adoring Stevens and Williams who helped me to see reality in new ways:
Landscape With The Fall of Icarus
by William Carlos Williams
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near
the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings’ wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
Thank you so much for this addition to the discussion, Susan. So happy you added that poem by Carlos Williams. I haven’t read it in a long time and I’m happy to see it again.
I believe you and Sam are correct: today we think of the word “contemporary” – it’s a word that floats along in time probably better than “modern” does. I had the idea that perhaps the word modern really isn’t applied to current works; but I don’t know. I have no idea what is being said in poetry and literary criticism classes any more. Nor do I have a sense of the current poetic heros. But the poets we’ve been talking about today have stood the test of a century and still sound fresh to my ears, still teach me about language and its uses.
I’m leaving my comment here because I think Susan addresses the complexity of your question, ‘What is modern?’ I too think that contemporary and modern are two different things, in the sense that contemporary art is not necessarily modern art, and I agree with Susan that even Post-Modernism is now “old” in the sense that what we call post-modernism can be found alongside modern art from as far back as the middle of the 19th century. I’ve been thinking about this question for a long time, and it’s way too complex to address in a comment box, but over time I’ve been noticing a larger pattern – that the corpus of attitudes, ideas and forms which constitute the modern include a larger renaissance than the classical Renaissance; this larger one fuses ancient and so-called “primitive” forms with classical ones. It seems to me that Baudelaire is a good place to start in thinking about what modern art is – both his essays and his poetry.
How very interesting Mark. I wish I could hear you speak about this more. This has been a subject that intrigues me and interests me. When I belonged to a writer/poet workshop these were the kind of “after-hour” discussions we had. We each brought ideas, and sets of information to them, but it seems even as we were speaking things were changing.
I thank you for this comment and would eagerly read anything else you might write or choose to share on the subject.
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As always, a challenge… and I thank you for that, Gay!
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Ok..I gave it a try.. Thank you, Gay, for bringing a very interesting form to my attention. I like the fact that it’s “haiku like”.
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alright i am back in after a family break and catching up on the last 5 or so….some really strong responses earlier…so can not wait…
An interesting article and very challenging prompt!
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Welcome to the bar Gay – as far as I can recall, I don’t think I’ve seen you here in this capacity before … what a great article and, as others have said … a uniquely challenging prompt … I’m not sure I rose to the challenge but would like to try it more than once and will enjoy seeing what others have done … again, thanks for this – it was informative and fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly
http://leapinelephants.blogspot.ca/2012/06/we-are.html
Oh and I’m happy to see you too! Yes, I regularly host here once a month trading off with Sam Peralta every other week. The other two weeks we share the pub with Victoria and
Charles who host Meeting The Bar – a different twist on what we do on FormForAll. I’ll look forward to reading it tomorrow. I’m afraid it’s quite late now and must go to bed. Will be up to read more tomorrow. I’m leaving four in the box and will expect to see more on my morning rounds!
So goodnight – if I didn’t read yours tonight, I’m looking forward to reading and commenting tomorrow. Certainly feel free to chat with one another. I’m very interested in hearing what informs the way you write, what internal rules you impose on yourself if any, who most influenced/influences your writing. Carry on all and good night!
Hi Gay! I don’t know what modern is only that it probably is not me. (I feel more at home, oddly, with the modern in visual art than verbal.)
At any rate, I’ve made the effort with the Triversen. I’m a bit brain dead! Oh well. It’s a great prompt and form. k.
Ha I think I was born modern ( a Schwitters grab bag of bits and pieces).
Got the alliteration bit right but as for the rest ….hmm way off the mark methinks……but enjoyed doing it. I love free modern verse . Thanks for the prompt.
Such an excellent challenge – Pound was where I came in many decades back – but rather too much of a plateful to swallow in one go. I’ve had a shot at it, but definitely haven’t met all the criteria. (it will not be th end of it for me, I shall dig into this a bit more.) Thanks for.
Hi all, glad to be back here after a week in Avignon – what a beautiful place and part of the world – to be greeted by a wonderful challenge. Poem posted …gone for a modern form of poem’s shape/structure being defined by its subject :o)
woohoo…good morning poets…looks like a great group of over nights….got my coffee and on my way around the trail…
So not my morning to think
but I cannot resist
trying new form
So, I did one–God help me–but may re-post an older one as well.
Nice post. I haven’t heard of this form and will try to come up with something before the linky ends 🙂
Fascinating discussion here in the comments. Great to see everyone getting engaged. I’ve linked one I hope fits, and will be back after chores to read what others have come up with.
been out playing all morning…jumping back in to play catch up…
Not sure at all I got the beat right. Loved the prompt and the discussion.
cool lydia…be over in a minute to check you out…