The Ode Less Travelled, Chapter 1 (a poetry introduction)
I’ve always enjoyed reading poetry, and have been reading an increasing amount of late. I’ve a few anthologies, few books of individual poets, and have been borrowing more on occasion form the library.
I think the book that got me back into poetry is “A Poem for Every Night of the Year” (Edited by Allie Esiri) that I bought late 2017 and started reading through, day at a time, in 2018. Essential it is a book of one poem a day, across a variety of styles and ages. In general there is some link to the day it is on. In 2019 I’ve been reading through “A Poem for Every Day of the Year” in a simlar way (and re-reading the night ones as well). During the past couple of years I’ve also been reading a variety of other poetry (I won’t list everthing here, but suffice to say if I found a poem particularly enjoyable in the anhtologies, I attempted to find more by that poet).
This increase in reading has led to the contemplation that I should have a go at writing some. I’ve had these thoughts before, and had a copy of “An Ode Less Travelled” already. A few weeks ago I dug that out, found a notebook and pencil and began.
The Ode Less Travelled
I’ve been reading through (or more precisely working through) Stephen Fry’s “An Ode Less Travelled” for some weeks. This is an introduction to the art of writing poetry. Approached less from an “appreciation” standpoint and more from the practicalities of what the structures of a poem are. I have just reached the end of chapter one (which is 122 pages in). I thought this would be a good point to summarise some learnings and thoughts.
Chapter one is all about line structure, mainly meter. There’s rather a lot of variations in meter, and line form. Starting with Iambic Pentameter (given the ubiquety of this it makes perfect sense) and then introducitng a variety of different feet.
Throughout there are exercises to encourage the familarity of each of the introduced types, and it’s a great way to get a feel for what the different variations give. It’s definitely a new and difficult skill to write in verse. Not easy but rewarding to find the perfect word to fit the meaning and the meter. Also makes me appreciate bits of verse and metrical tricks I’d not noticed previously. I think the addition of the examples for the exercises really break down the barrier by being precisely what is asked for, inspired by the mundane, and not trying to be too clever, just practicing the line forms.
The most common form of verse covered is accentual-syllabic. There are sections on accentual-alliterative, syllabic and sprung rhythm verse too, these being perhaps less common in English verse. The accentual-alliterative style certainly appeals to my ear, given it is rooted as an Anglo-Saxon form it is perhaps not a surprise that it works well. Syllabic verse also interesting, without the accentual difficulties but with its own tricks to learn an appreciate.
Overall I’m really enjoying working thought “An Ode Less Travelled” and will be continuing to do so in the coming weeks. I’ll attempt to provide an update at least at the end of each chapter.