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

[Bob Pacey]

With a name like Oscar he would have to have a feminine side !!!


Bob

[Heather]

It's a very popular boy's name these days Bob. Don't knock Oscar Wilde, he was a very witty and clever man. He was also a poet.

Heather

[Terry]

Careful there Bob My latest grandson is called Oscar, and he's shaping up like a little bruiser at the moment.

I notice that Chris Judd's son is also called Oscar, and don't give me any of that tough rugby stuff either.

[Bob Pacey]

So is my nephew Terry.

What's in a name a rose by any other name would smell the same !!!!


Bob

[David Campbell]

Great to hear you enjoyed 'Prufrock', Heather. What else of Eliot's is in your book?

David

[Heather]

David the book is called, The Great Modern Poets - an anthology of the best poets and poetry since 1900. Ed. Michael Schmidt. I picked it cheap in a bookshop in Brisbane while trying to kill time. You can kill a lot of time in a bookshop. There is one other T.S. Eliot poem - La Figlia Che Piange. I like that one too. Might have to find me an Eliot book of poetry I think.

Heather

[David Campbell]

Heather

Interesting they should choose that one...possibly because it's short. Some of Eliot's best known poems (The Waste Land, Ash-Wednesday and Four Quartets) are quite long and consist of several sub-sections. If you want to 'try before you buy' some shorter poems check out (they should be on the net) Portrait of a Lady and Preludes (also part of the Prufrock group), Gerontion, The Hollow Men, and Journey of the Magi.

Cheers
David

[Maureen K Clifford]

Can't claim to be a fan particularly of TS Eliot but do like his poem Hippopotamus and have always loved Mr Mistoffelees as a kid I always thought that hilarious, as an adult and revisiting it due to this post I found a fabulous rhyme - last 2 lines - how good is that???



He is quiet and small, he is black
From his ears to the tip of his tail;
He can creep through the tiniest crack,
He can walk on the narrowest rail.
He can pick any card from a pack,
He is equally cunning with dice;
He is always deceiving you into believing
That he's only hunting for mice.
He can play any trick with a cork
Or a spoon and a bit of fish-paste;
If you look for a knife or a fork
And you think it is merely misplaced--
You have seen it one moment, and then it is gawn!
But you'll find it next week lying out on the lawn.



Just realized how many of his poems were actually about cats - he must have been a fan.

Cheers

Maureen

[Heather]

David I've just been browsing a second hand poetry book someone gave me and in it is a poem by T.S. Eliot (Tabby Serious Eliot) entitled The Love Song of J. Arthur Perpend. It's a send up of Prufock. Have you ever read it?

Heather

[David Campbell]

No Heather, I don't know it. Although I googled "Prufrock parody" and found several others on the net. Seems to have been a fairly popular thing to do!

Cheers
David