PD30 Day 4: Poetry — the Writer’s Bridge to Music.

Today’s Poetry Article is by guest blogger James Garner.

Movie goers everywhere are aware of the impact that music can have on the emotions. The combination of musical tones and rhythms can either lull a baby to sleep, or send a shrill down your back. The famous shower stabbing scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie, “Psycho”, was heightened by rapid-fire screeches of a violin. While the stabbing was never seen, the music, and suspense were masterfully combined and kept prospective bathers from using a showers for years. John Williams’ two note motif in “Jaws,” drove an irrational fear into many beach loving moviegoers. The sense of awe and scale that is felt in “2001 Space Odyssey” comes from the musical score of Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra ” In each of these examples, there are no words, just raw emotion. Such is the power of music.

As a musician, I have sought to understand the feelings carried by music. Is it the harmony or dissonance? Is it the melodic flow of notes, or the rhythm that carries the emotion? As a writer, I have often longed for such power in my writing, but I have been stymied in most of my attempts as my best and most significant words fall flat on the floor. It seems that the emotional pull of the most heart-wrenching narratives, with flowing descriptions, pale in comparison to the shear emotional pull that music has.

Speech is melodic in nature, or can be if carefully constructed. Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, and tone of voice are the melodic elements of speech. But more than these, the normal stress of spoken syllables can beat a simple drum. These are the tools that poets use to mold their works into meaningful shapes of meaning and sound. These same tools can cross the bridge between pure music and paltry prose. The result: a gamut of poetic forms that blend emotion with meaning.

Free form is the poetic form closest to prose, in that it has no formal reliance on rhythm or beat. Don’t be mistaken, well written free form has both embedded deeply within the melodic nature of the carefully selected words. This melody is combined with the imagery of the chosen metaphors to heighten the emotional pull. Free form is perhaps the most difficult form to master, because while the expectation of meaning and emotion are present, some of the musical elements to create the emotions are denied the writer by the apparent lack of form.

Blank verse introduces a rhythmic beat, which can lull and pacify the reader or put him or her on edge. The successful poet of blank verse will beat the drum without disturbing the flow of thought. When skillfully combined with melodic words and strong imagery, the resultant writing often works beneath the reader’s skin and pulls upon emotional strings.

Rhymed poetic forms with steady beats are yet another step closer. These forms are often considered the apogee of writing mastery. To shape sound and meanings to fit a form without introducing oddities or kinks of thought or language, demonstrates exceptional skill. It is no small task to successfully write a sonnet, or any of the other rhymed forms. These forms are very close to music: every one of them can be set to music to create a song, and many often are, elevating the poem to Lyrics.

Song lyrics often start as poems, with the better or more masterfully created original poem, yielding a better song. Not only are there melodic hints in the words, but an actual melody, that creates an emotional response. Many years ago, I sung in a choir that did a rendition of William’s Blake’s, “Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?” The music combined with that poem drove the meaning deep into the hearts of every participant, and listener. Even years later, when I stumble across the poem, the music and feelings come back to me. The essence of meaning and emotion, created by poet and musician, remain.

But not all songs are good poetry. It should be noted that song-writers have discovered that with a catchy  tune and an energetic band, even poor poetry works as a song. Consider the following poetic snippet:

You think you lost your love,

Well, I saw her yesterday.

It’s you she’s thinking of

And she told me what to say.

She says she loves you

And you know that can’t be bad.

Yes, she loves you

And you know you should be glad.

As poetry, it is simplistic, but as a song, it literally rocked the nation. In this case, the snappy melody and the energetic band carried the show.

There is a real connection between music and writing, and that connection runs right through poetry. The next time you hear a song, think of the words as a poem. Is it a good poem, or a poor poem? The next time you read a poem, consider what kind of song it might make, consider how you might set it to music. Should it be upbeat, or melancholy? More importantly, when writing poetry, consider the musicality of your words. Experiment with the different metrical feet: anapestic, iambic, trochee. See how these choices alter the sense of your writing. See how they impact the emotion.

Finally, when experimenting with poetic forms, don’t be afraid to tie formal forms to plain themes. To illustrate why, consider the Blues. Well written Blues take the form of a sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter. That down-to earth, grown out of slavery and oppression music, is poetically similar to the most vaulted forms of English expression, albeit with minor modifications. The 14 lines are comprised of 4 blues stanzas or triplets, followed by a heroic couplet. In each blues stanza, the first line states a complaint, the second repeats or re-enforces the complaint, and the third concludes the complaint. If there is a turning point, it would be at the fourth stanza, where you state what you’re going to do about your troubles, but even this is optional since the whole poem is a complaint. From my observation, we can all complain about something, how about trying a Blues Sonnet?

Today’s Poetry Prompt

Write a Blues Sonnet:

1. Write 5 thematically similar heroic couplets of iambic pentameter.
2. In first four, repeat first line of each couplet, yielding the 14 lines of the sonnet.
3. Then, if desired, modify middle lines, of the stanzas without disturbing rhyme or rhythm to strengthen the stanza and give variety.
4. Get out a blues recording and have fun singing your blues song!

About James Garner: I am an erstwhile poet, meaning I have struggled long and hard with poetry, occasionally forcing poems to spill on my pages. We are on better terms of late, but poetry is a jealous playmate, requiring much time and energy. Some of my other interests include chess, computers, math, music, and Chinese. I live in the heart of the South, and try to balance my various pursuits with raising seven children and staying gainfully employed.

Related links

• 30 Poems in 30 Days set for September (1.000)
• All About 30 Poems in 30 Days (1.000)
• PD30 Day 1: I Believe in Poetry (1.000)
• PD30 Day 2: Generally Be Specific (1.000)
• PD30 Day 3: A Review of Meter (1.000)

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