Sprung rhythm

[kellyrfineman]

What I got up to earlier this week:
Anglo-Saxon or Old English verse - an intro
Anglo-Saxon or Old English verse and stress
Anglo-Saxon alliteration
More on Anglo-Saxon verse
Kennings

For me, discussion of Anglo-Saxon verse and kenning leads logically to a discussion of sprung rhythm, the invention of Gerard Manley Hopkins, noted poet and Jesuit

Comments

[dmayr]

Thanks for the lesson on sprung rhyme! I doubt if I'll be attempting it any time soon, although I do love me some alliteration!

[kellyrfineman]

Thanks for stopping by - and I think sprung rhythm is easier to read than it is to explain (or write). But it's easier to sneak up on it if you start with Anglo-Saxon verse.

[ext_1565055]

Interesting, and a little daunting with his words, but I do hear the stresses when I read aloud. He sounds adamant that he wants a change! Thanks, Kelly.

[kellyrfineman]

He was decidedly STRONGLY opinionated when it came to verse. And some of his suggested changes (which really got rid of "filler" words) definitely entered the modern view of poetry.

[jamarattigan]

Hopkins is one of my very favorite poets so I appreciated this discussion of sprung rhythm. I love any poet who explores the different possibilities of language, creating an original type of music in their work.

[kellyrfineman]

I agree with you, though will add that Hopkins was really coming out of an older poetic tradition - Anglo-Saxon verse and Old Welsh verse - rather than innovating out of the clear blue sky. His work really is breath-taking, no matter its roots!

Pied Beauty, indeed.

[ext_709338]

Och, I love Hopkins. I can never recite him because the memorizing of the words must also be paired with the memorizing of the way he intended his poems to be spoken - but I love that he put so much into things.

Re: Pied Beauty, indeed.

[kellyrfineman]

I can remember lines, such as "Glory be to God for dappled things", but his sprung rhythm poems are hard. I do think that "God's Grandeur" or "Spring and Fall" might be memorizable, though, because they also use some rhyme and such. (He wrote poems in "running meter" or common meter before he switched, so those are probably also doable, though not quite as glorious.

[ext_1476872]

Hopkins was/is amazing. Thanks for helping us dig into his poems, and thanks for a new word: VIRGULE!

[kellyrfineman]

Virgule was a new word for me, too, so I'm glad to find another word-geek who appreciates it! And his work really is amazing.