How To Write Free Verse In One Easy Lesson...

[Zondrae]

G'day Heather,

If my small retained knowledge of Italian (it's been over 40 years since that life) is not too far out - the translation of the title you have mentioned is 'the child (or daughter) who cries'. Do you know the correct English title? What is the poem about? I don't need the poem itself at this stage.

By the way. Thank you for all the time and care you are putting into this site.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Here you go Zondrae

La Figlia Che Piange (The Weeping Girl)

Author: poem of T.S. Eliot




Stand on the highest pavement of the stair --
Lean on a garden urn --
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair --
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise --
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.


So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve,
So he would have left
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,
As the mind deserts the body it has used.
I should find
Some way incomparably light and deft,
Some way we both should understand,
Simple and faithless as a smile and a shake of the hand.


She turned away, but with the autumn weather
Compelled my imagination many days,
Many days and many hours:
Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.
And I wonder how they should have been together!
I should have lost a gesture and a pose.
Sometimes these cogitations still amaze
The troubled midnight, and the noon's repose.

[Heather]

Thanks Maureen. It is a stunning poem - love it!

Heather

[Bellobazza]

C.J.Dennis , sadly, fell for the straw-man argument. Astonishing for a man of his ability and experience. He wrote a piece called " A Free Verse Review "* in which he falsely characterized free verse as nothing more than prose chopped into arbitrary lengths. No doubt some people try to do it that way, but that's not what it is and his absurd construction allowed C.J. Dennis to deride it as if he had demonstrated something. It was easy to scoff at his own construction, it was designed to look silly, and he only demonstrated his ignorance and prejudice.

I urge yet again, that we don't get bogged down in fruitlesss arguments about " free verse " let's work at what imaginative, creative and varied verse that can be produced on the basis of carefully thought out formal principles.

* HUTCHINSON, Garrie,The C.J.Dennis Collection, Lothian Publishing Co. 1987.

G'day Neville...
Sorry, but I could not allow this preposterous charge against C.J. Dennis go unchallenged.
As you quote from the Lothian source, you will be aware that "A Free Verse Review" is found in the section entitled "Culcher and Lingo", where a good selection of pieces will be found that send up entrenched attitudes and conservative views. The mere fact that Dennis found satyrical potential in "free verse" is hardly grounds for accusing him of "ignorance and prejudice", especially by someone commenting at a distance of nearly 100 years. To criticize is one thing, but to use one poem to impute literary eliteism is drawing a very long bow indeed.

There is, in my opinion, a wealth of evidence to suggest that he himself was regarded as even more radical in his poetry than any "free verser". The fact is, I would argue, that some of his prose was in fact "free verse" of a very high order...that it was not "presented" in free verse form (or lack thereof) makes it a moot point.

Considering the high regard in which Dennis was held by his contemporary poets both here and abroad; the scope of his command of language and technique; his virtuosity and his continued popularity, I can only assume that you have not read the piece in question in the tone in which I believe it was intended.

Cordially,
C. J. Dennis Society member
Will Moody.

[Vic Jefferies]

Wish I was as silly as CJ Dennis was.

Vic

[David Campbell]

Well said, Will!

Cheers
David

[Neville Briggs]

I can only assume that you have not read the piece in question in the tone in which I believe it was intended.

Good point Will, perhaps that is the the case. It seemed to me when I read it that it had a rather prejudicial/uninformed tone that was found among some prominent people at that time concerning the rise of modernism in the various arts.

I must take this opportunity to say that I am pleased to see your reappearance Will, despite our occasional dust-up I hold you in high esteem as a bush poet and I am glad that you are contributing here.