Currently reading "The Celtic Twilight" by W. B. Yeats and am quite captivated by his usage of language, rich usage of language.
The following is the forward from this book ...
“I have desired, like every artist, to create a little world out of the beautiful, pleasant, and significant things of this marred and clumsy world, and to show in a vision something of the face of Ireland to any of my own people who would look where I bid them. I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined. I have, however, been at no pains to separate my own beliefs from those of the peasantry, but have rather let my men and women, dhouls and faeries, go their way unoffended or defended by any argument of mine. The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best. I too have woven my garment like another, but I shall try to keep warm in it, and shall be well content if it do not unbecome me.
Hope and Memory have one daughter and her name is Art, and she has built her dwelling far from the desperate field where men hang out their garments upon forked boughs to be banners of battle. O beloved daughter of Hope and Memory, be with me for a little.
1893
Rich Language
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Neville Briggs
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Re: Rich Language
I suspect that rich language is too hard for those who just want to go to an entertaining "bush" verse performance and have a few laughs. Do they think about wording, or just want to get the idea.
Another thought, as Yeats shows, rich language doesn't mean " big " words or words that you have to look up in the dictionary as you go, just the carefully chosen and placed sufficient words to get the most expression and force from direct language.
Another thought, as Yeats shows, rich language doesn't mean " big " words or words that you have to look up in the dictionary as you go, just the carefully chosen and placed sufficient words to get the most expression and force from direct language.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.
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manfredvijars
Re: Rich Language
Neville, I didn't post that to denigrate our genre. Australian vernacular is full of rich language equal to if not surpassing anything on offer from other (English speaking) countries.
Open your eyes (and mind) !
Open your eyes (and mind) !
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Neville Briggs
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Re: Rich Language
Denigrating "our genre" didn't cross my mind, my comment was about audiences ( or readers ).
One of the threats to the ABPA mentioned in the strategic plan that you devised was " public perception "
My comment about Yeats is that, as you have shown, ordinary words can be rich, if used in a way sensitive to the poetic ear. In other words, it's not just the words themselves, it is how they are placed in the expression. I didn't think that comment would be denigrating anyone's efforts, on the contrary, I was trying encourage our mob not to get concerned about unusual or "big" words. Some I talk to seem to think that rich language means fancy words. Use the ordinary words we have with us everyday but use them to effect.
My mind is wide open to the subtleties and nuances of speech I hear around me each day, I just can't remember the good bits when I want them.
Sorry if I went off the track a bit from your post Manfred. My mind is not closed but it does get the pensioner wanders.
One of the threats to the ABPA mentioned in the strategic plan that you devised was " public perception "
My comment about Yeats is that, as you have shown, ordinary words can be rich, if used in a way sensitive to the poetic ear. In other words, it's not just the words themselves, it is how they are placed in the expression. I didn't think that comment would be denigrating anyone's efforts, on the contrary, I was trying encourage our mob not to get concerned about unusual or "big" words. Some I talk to seem to think that rich language means fancy words. Use the ordinary words we have with us everyday but use them to effect.
My mind is wide open to the subtleties and nuances of speech I hear around me each day, I just can't remember the good bits when I want them.
Sorry if I went off the track a bit from your post Manfred. My mind is not closed but it does get the pensioner wanders.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.
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Neville Briggs
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- Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2010 12:08 pm
- Location: Here
Re: Rich Language
No worries Manfred, I think discussion on rich language is a great discussion that we need to have.
Excellent example from Yeats.
My mate at Orange reckons one of the greatest lines in bush poetry is Banjo Paterson's
"On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost " ( Bush Christening ). He sees that as rich language, just plain words but full of meaning in the context.
Banjo's The Man from Snowy River has become well worn and just about anybody knows the first lines. But I reckon it's the last stanza that Banjo has really made rich language, I wonder how many remember these lines,
Ordinary words, but used to great effect in a rich way. Do you think ?
And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow the reed beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide,
The Man from Snowy River is a household word today.
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.
p.s. Of course if big or unusual words do the job then we use them. In the example of Yeats he uses the, to us, unusual words " dhouls and faeries " ( or is that a typo i.e. ghouls )
Excellent example from Yeats.
My mate at Orange reckons one of the greatest lines in bush poetry is Banjo Paterson's
"On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost " ( Bush Christening ). He sees that as rich language, just plain words but full of meaning in the context.
Banjo's The Man from Snowy River has become well worn and just about anybody knows the first lines. But I reckon it's the last stanza that Banjo has really made rich language, I wonder how many remember these lines,
Ordinary words, but used to great effect in a rich way. Do you think ?
And down by Kosciusko, where the pine-clad ridges raise
Their torn and rugged battlements on high,
Where the air is clear as crystal and the white stars fairly blaze
At midnight in the cold and frosty sky,
And where around the Overflow the reed beds sweep and sway
To the breezes, and the rolling plains are wide,
The Man from Snowy River is a household word today.
And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.
p.s. Of course if big or unusual words do the job then we use them. In the example of Yeats he uses the, to us, unusual words " dhouls and faeries " ( or is that a typo i.e. ghouls )
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.