Christian poet Mary Harwell Sayler invites you into poetry
Showing posts with label poetry edit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry edit. Show all posts
Saturday, June 17, 2017
New Collected Poems of Marianne Moore
If you’ve only read later editions of poetry by Marianne Moore, you might not have read the poems that actually made her famous. We discussed this previously in my review of Observations, but basically, Miss Moore’s original work helped to create a modernist culture in poetry while earning impressive awards – from the National Book Award and Bollinger Prize to a Pulitzer. Giant names in poetry, from Elizabeth Bishop to William Carlos Williams to T.S. Eliot, applauded her work too.
Many (most?) poets would be thrilled to have such literary accolades and appreciation of their work, but apparently Miss Moore was not one of those. She continued to revise and rework her already-published and highly acclaimed poems until some might say she occasionally butchered them!
In hopes of remedying this, English professor and writer Heather Cass White undertook the massive task of trying to find the earliest versions of each poem to show the proper trajectory of Moore's work. Ironically, this collection from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who kindly sent me a copy to review, has been entitled the New Collected Poems since Poems, Selected Poems, Collected Poems, and Complete Poems had already been taken. However, the Introduction points out, “…’selected’ is the only adjective that accurately describes any book of Moore’s work thus far produced, or any that can be produced,” since “Moore’s art has no straight path from beginning to end.”
As Professor White explains, “For Moore, the publication of a poem in a periodical, or the ordering of poems in a book, marked resting-places in her poetry’s development, not its final form.”
Having seen Miss Moore’s flamboyant personality on television, which, for years, personified the general public’s perception of poets, I wonder if her revisions were part of the act – i.e., showmanship born, not of the perfectionism that might make some of us incessantly revise our poems, but of her inclination to dazzle.
As the Introduction reminds us, the clear eye and distinctive voice of Moore’s poetry were “also part of its simultaneous ‘dazzlement,’ the poems’ sometimes overwhelming complexities of statement, form, and metaphor.” i.e., “If clarity allows us to see better, dazzlement, however exciting, may mean we can hardly see at all. It is seldom easy to say what a Moore poem as a whole is about, even when it comes with a seemingly straightforward title. Moore was serious, but also witty, and not above liking to shock her readers.”
Yes. That’s it, exactly.
At the time of Moore's writing, rhymes ending the ragged lines of her poems would have been a novelty as would her use of quotations pulled from obscure literature, magazine ads, and even information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
As we look at “To a Snail,” for example, notice the delayed rhyme (adorn/horn), the use of words with four or more syllables, and the quotes included:
To a Snail
If ‘compression is the first grace of style,”
you have it. Contractility is a virtue
as modesty is a virtue.
It is not the acquision of any one thing
that is able to adorn,
or the incidental quality that occurs
as a concomitant of something well said,
that we value in style,
but the principle that is hid:
in the absence of feet, “a method of conclusions”;
“a knowledge of principles,”
in the curious phenomenon of your occipital horn.
Moore’s Notes 296 . Editor’s Notes 361
To assist us in finding the eclectic sources of the poet’s quotations, this edition presents each poem followed by a page reference to Moore’s Notes and/or the Editor’s Notes at the bottom of the page. So, “To a Snail,” includes a reference to Moore’s note on page 296 and the Editor’s note on 361.
With these aids, we can find the prior publications Editor White has tracked down for us, and, if the poet made a comment about a poem, we can find that too.
For instance, “compression is the first grace of style” in Moore’s poem above is credited as a quote from Democritus, whereas she cites Duns Scotus as the original source for the phrases “method of conclusions” and “knowledge of principles.”
Since the later phrases don’t seem to warrant quotation marks today, it’s hard to know if they were fresh at the time of her writing or whether the poet was just playing with us and the literary scene. Since that scene changes drastically, you can see why a highly innovative poet might think her poems needed to do the same.
Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017, poet-writer, reviewer
New Collected Poems, hardback
…
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Poetry Insights from The Poetry Editor of vox poetica
The Poetry Editor blog began in hopes of helping poets to become their own best poetry editors, and with experience and practice that will indeed happen, but the New Year offers a timely time to take another tack and revise the initial intent. Therefore, in this article, and, hopefully, others to come, The Poetry Editor will bring you interviews with real-live poetry editors to give you a realistic view of the editorial work that goes into poetry-making and poetry publishing. If you’re a poetry editor who would like to participate, I’d be glad to hear from you. At present, I'll start with poetry editors I’ve worked with – ones who accepted my poems for publication (thank you very much!) and, preferably, ones who write their own poems in addition to editing ours.
This naturally brought to mind Annmarie Lockhart, whose words appear in fine journals, online and in print. She’s also the founding editor of vox poetica, an online literary salon dedicated to bringing poetry into the everyday, and the founder of unbound CONTENT, an independent press for a boundless age. A lifelong resident of Bergen County, NJ, Annmarie lives, works, and writes two miles east of the hospital where she was born, but her creativity and innovative work on behalf of poets and poetry is, well, unbound.
Annmarie, how did you get started with vox poetica?
I think the same way a lot of editors get started with journals: I was looking for something that didn't seem to exist. I wanted to read a journal that published daily poetry content and that spoke to a wide variety of readers. I was reading amazing work on personal blogs, so I knew there were tons of good writers looking to be read. I wanted to create a space where those writers and others like them could come to share their words. We are lucky to live in a technological age with few barriers to entry. Creating the website was simple, sending it out into the world was exciting, and watching it grow has been a creative life source beyond my expectations.
That’s wonderful to hear! Sometimes expectations limit us, for example, when poets expect or, perhaps, fear that revising and editing will ruin their poems. As a poetry editor, how would you help poets to see the value of good editing?
Editing can be the difference between a good poem and a great poem. At the very least, it can help ensure that the words are all spelled correctly and that any unconventionalities of grammar/ usage/ punctuation are intended for artistic merit and not mistakes. Sometimes editing reveals where a writer might have gone off point or, inadvertently, composed a second poem somewhere within the first. Or it can clear away the redundancies that many of us build into our poems because we're so focused on words and not meaning. It's hard to learn to cut mercilessly. Sometimes it's easier to let someone else do that, but whether it's oneself or another set of eyes, an edit stage is crucial to all poems.
A great example of this is a work-in-progress at unbound CONTENT where Alice Shapiro's manuscript Saltian became a living editing experiment. Alice wanted to explore the idea of there being many views of the same poem, so we assembled a board of editors and assigned them all individual poems from the manuscript to critique. We then posted those at unbound CONTENT's blog to open the poems and the critiques up to readers. After that Alice took the work back and revised each poem based on the collected feedback. As the author she reserved the right to make any, all, or no changes to her original poems, of course. But the result is a collection of work and a sampling of other ways to render that work. It really speaks to the creativity and wonder of the editing process. I would encourage writers to have fun with editing and definitely not to fear it.
Does a poetry edit or revision risk any loss of the poet's voice?
It shouldn't. If the voice fades in the editing process, the editor failed the work. It's very important for the editor to hear the voice of the narrator within a poem. That voice may or may not be the poet per se, but it is the teller of the story in that particular poem. If anything, voice should be stronger at the end of the editing process. For writers who edit their own work this can be difficult as sometimes a writer hears a different voice when editing than when writing. This is where the ear and the gut really matter in the process. Read the work. Listen to it. If it doesn't sound right, chances are it isn't.
What about the spontaneity of a poem? Do revising and editing mar the lyrical impulse or emotion initially captured?
That's a great question. Many poems come from a very in-the-moment inspiration and seem to write themselves. These poems are often quite complete in a first draft. I know several writers who use this technique exclusively. But again, editing shouldn't change the inherent energy of any poem. It's still important, though, to read for spelling, inconsistency of image and voice, word choice, and tone. Many writers who work this way find the editing phase useful for minor revisions, a word here, a line break there. Editing doesn't have to be extensive to be effective.
How important is style or form?
Style or form is as elemental to a poem as voice or selection is key. Certain poems lend themselves to formal construction, while others fight against rules. It's important for a writer to know the difference. Sometimes a phrase within the poem is the determinant. It calls for language that fits a sonnet format possibly, but it seems stilted and undirected in a free verse format. Sometimes a writer is using a form as a prompt or a creativity challenge. When that works it's great, but when it doesn't, the writer might try applying a different style or form to it to see if that alters the viability of the poem. I've seen great results when a writer steps back and alters the construction of a poem just to see what happens. Trying something new is good for creativity essentially all the time. The worst thing that could happen is if you don't like the results. So you scrap it and you keep the original structure as it is. You have nothing to lose in trying.
True! And experimenting eventually helps poets to improve the literary quality of their work. What else can poets do to take their poetry to the next level?
Improvements in writing can only come from two things: reading and writing. You want to write better? Read more and write more. Discipline yourself to do both of those things. Read with a critical eye, absorb what you're reading, write just for the sake of writing, apply techniques of craft to your work. Above all, mimic what you like and experiment.
Excellent advice! Before we close, is there anything else you would like to say to poets who want their poems to be published?
If you want your poems to be published, you have to submit them. Often. You will get rejection notices. Embrace them. Use them as an opportunity to take a fresh eye to the work. Sometimes the work really needs some revision. Research the outlets you're submitting to. Don't send Goth poetry to a romance poetry journal. It will not be accepted there. Read what a journal publishes. Does your work fit with what you read there? If not, try another journal. But be persistent. If the guidelines say send 3-5 poems, don't send one. Don't send ten. Send five. Give an editor a chance to see something she likes. Send your best polished work, not your first drafts. Keep track of where your work is being considered. Be respectful of your work and the editor's time. Apply yourself to the task of writing and the goal of publishing.
Thank you so much, Annmarie, for giving poets a better understanding of poetry, the work of a poet, and the vitality of the editorial process.
~~
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler
~~
This naturally brought to mind Annmarie Lockhart, whose words appear in fine journals, online and in print. She’s also the founding editor of vox poetica, an online literary salon dedicated to bringing poetry into the everyday, and the founder of unbound CONTENT, an independent press for a boundless age. A lifelong resident of Bergen County, NJ, Annmarie lives, works, and writes two miles east of the hospital where she was born, but her creativity and innovative work on behalf of poets and poetry is, well, unbound.
Annmarie, how did you get started with vox poetica?
I think the same way a lot of editors get started with journals: I was looking for something that didn't seem to exist. I wanted to read a journal that published daily poetry content and that spoke to a wide variety of readers. I was reading amazing work on personal blogs, so I knew there were tons of good writers looking to be read. I wanted to create a space where those writers and others like them could come to share their words. We are lucky to live in a technological age with few barriers to entry. Creating the website was simple, sending it out into the world was exciting, and watching it grow has been a creative life source beyond my expectations.
That’s wonderful to hear! Sometimes expectations limit us, for example, when poets expect or, perhaps, fear that revising and editing will ruin their poems. As a poetry editor, how would you help poets to see the value of good editing?
Editing can be the difference between a good poem and a great poem. At the very least, it can help ensure that the words are all spelled correctly and that any unconventionalities of grammar/ usage/ punctuation are intended for artistic merit and not mistakes. Sometimes editing reveals where a writer might have gone off point or, inadvertently, composed a second poem somewhere within the first. Or it can clear away the redundancies that many of us build into our poems because we're so focused on words and not meaning. It's hard to learn to cut mercilessly. Sometimes it's easier to let someone else do that, but whether it's oneself or another set of eyes, an edit stage is crucial to all poems.
A great example of this is a work-in-progress at unbound CONTENT where Alice Shapiro's manuscript Saltian became a living editing experiment. Alice wanted to explore the idea of there being many views of the same poem, so we assembled a board of editors and assigned them all individual poems from the manuscript to critique. We then posted those at unbound CONTENT's blog to open the poems and the critiques up to readers. After that Alice took the work back and revised each poem based on the collected feedback. As the author she reserved the right to make any, all, or no changes to her original poems, of course. But the result is a collection of work and a sampling of other ways to render that work. It really speaks to the creativity and wonder of the editing process. I would encourage writers to have fun with editing and definitely not to fear it.
Does a poetry edit or revision risk any loss of the poet's voice?
It shouldn't. If the voice fades in the editing process, the editor failed the work. It's very important for the editor to hear the voice of the narrator within a poem. That voice may or may not be the poet per se, but it is the teller of the story in that particular poem. If anything, voice should be stronger at the end of the editing process. For writers who edit their own work this can be difficult as sometimes a writer hears a different voice when editing than when writing. This is where the ear and the gut really matter in the process. Read the work. Listen to it. If it doesn't sound right, chances are it isn't.
What about the spontaneity of a poem? Do revising and editing mar the lyrical impulse or emotion initially captured?
That's a great question. Many poems come from a very in-the-moment inspiration and seem to write themselves. These poems are often quite complete in a first draft. I know several writers who use this technique exclusively. But again, editing shouldn't change the inherent energy of any poem. It's still important, though, to read for spelling, inconsistency of image and voice, word choice, and tone. Many writers who work this way find the editing phase useful for minor revisions, a word here, a line break there. Editing doesn't have to be extensive to be effective.
How important is style or form?
Style or form is as elemental to a poem as voice or selection is key. Certain poems lend themselves to formal construction, while others fight against rules. It's important for a writer to know the difference. Sometimes a phrase within the poem is the determinant. It calls for language that fits a sonnet format possibly, but it seems stilted and undirected in a free verse format. Sometimes a writer is using a form as a prompt or a creativity challenge. When that works it's great, but when it doesn't, the writer might try applying a different style or form to it to see if that alters the viability of the poem. I've seen great results when a writer steps back and alters the construction of a poem just to see what happens. Trying something new is good for creativity essentially all the time. The worst thing that could happen is if you don't like the results. So you scrap it and you keep the original structure as it is. You have nothing to lose in trying.
True! And experimenting eventually helps poets to improve the literary quality of their work. What else can poets do to take their poetry to the next level?
Improvements in writing can only come from two things: reading and writing. You want to write better? Read more and write more. Discipline yourself to do both of those things. Read with a critical eye, absorb what you're reading, write just for the sake of writing, apply techniques of craft to your work. Above all, mimic what you like and experiment.
Excellent advice! Before we close, is there anything else you would like to say to poets who want their poems to be published?
If you want your poems to be published, you have to submit them. Often. You will get rejection notices. Embrace them. Use them as an opportunity to take a fresh eye to the work. Sometimes the work really needs some revision. Research the outlets you're submitting to. Don't send Goth poetry to a romance poetry journal. It will not be accepted there. Read what a journal publishes. Does your work fit with what you read there? If not, try another journal. But be persistent. If the guidelines say send 3-5 poems, don't send one. Don't send ten. Send five. Give an editor a chance to see something she likes. Send your best polished work, not your first drafts. Keep track of where your work is being considered. Be respectful of your work and the editor's time. Apply yourself to the task of writing and the goal of publishing.
Thank you so much, Annmarie, for giving poets a better understanding of poetry, the work of a poet, and the vitality of the editorial process.
~~
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler
~~
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Punctuation and grammar provide poets and writers with language tools of the writing trade
Poets from countries outside the U.S. have recently been requesting critiques more often than American poets, which usually brings up correct usage of English grammar and punctuation. Both of these crucial aspects of language have been touched on in previous articles on The Poetry Editor blog such as “Revising your poetry can be a smooth move” and “That Punctual Punctuation (Anyway) How” but to recap a few important reasons:
• Punctuation guides readers through a poem.
• Punctuation and good grammar assist understanding.
• Punctuating a poem in a weird way punctuates imperfections and weirdness.
• Well-woven syntax (sentence structure) threads each line with artistry.
• Awkward or unnatural syntax confuses and loses a reader.
Almost every poet wants to stand out or be different, but breaking rules, peppering and assaulting poems with periods and commas, or twisting syntax into pretzels seldom has the desired effect. Most often, freshness comes in other ways as poets decide to:
• Be observant.
• Be clear.
• Be accurate.
• Be highly visual.
• Keep looking to find a fresh picture, perspective, insight, or comparison.
• Keep listening to the music by reading aloud each version of each poem.
Being consistent makes an effective choice too. For instance, some poets put a comma at the end of each line whether it’s needed or not, or they omit punctuation along each line then suddenly add a period at the end of a verse. Since a number of poets seem to be doing the same thing, this might be a trend (albeit ineffectual), or maybe the poet doesn't know normal punctuation works well, or maybe poets in general no longer learn about punctuation and grammar in grammar school.
Regardless of the reasons, poets and writers really need to fill or refill their toolbox of primary writing aids. If, for instance, you do not know how to apply punctuation or grind out grammar in appropriate times and places, you can improve your language skills by finding out what is correct and what is not. How?
Poets and writers with Microsoft Word software can:
Go to “File” then “Options” then “Proofing” and check the boxes needed.
Or call up a file you have saved in Word. Go to the “Review” tab on the menu bar, then click and activate “ABC – Spelling & Grammar.”
Your best options, however, include these suggestions:
Get a grammar textbook, preferably one written for grammar school kids! Why? Well, why not make learning as easy as possible?
Visit such sites as:
Chicago Manual of Style online
Guide to Grammar and Writing (college level)
Online Resources for Writers (from the University of Richmond)
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Studying proper use of grammar and punctuation might take some time, but then you will know the information and be able to use it in innumerable ways. Even more, though, as a poet or writer, your writing deserves whatever you can give – not tricks or weird maneuvers but skillful use of the tools of your trade.
~~
© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler
~~
• Punctuation guides readers through a poem.
• Punctuation and good grammar assist understanding.
• Punctuating a poem in a weird way punctuates imperfections and weirdness.
• Well-woven syntax (sentence structure) threads each line with artistry.
• Awkward or unnatural syntax confuses and loses a reader.
Almost every poet wants to stand out or be different, but breaking rules, peppering and assaulting poems with periods and commas, or twisting syntax into pretzels seldom has the desired effect. Most often, freshness comes in other ways as poets decide to:
• Be observant.
• Be clear.
• Be accurate.
• Be highly visual.
• Keep looking to find a fresh picture, perspective, insight, or comparison.
• Keep listening to the music by reading aloud each version of each poem.
Being consistent makes an effective choice too. For instance, some poets put a comma at the end of each line whether it’s needed or not, or they omit punctuation along each line then suddenly add a period at the end of a verse. Since a number of poets seem to be doing the same thing, this might be a trend (albeit ineffectual), or maybe the poet doesn't know normal punctuation works well, or maybe poets in general no longer learn about punctuation and grammar in grammar school.
Regardless of the reasons, poets and writers really need to fill or refill their toolbox of primary writing aids. If, for instance, you do not know how to apply punctuation or grind out grammar in appropriate times and places, you can improve your language skills by finding out what is correct and what is not. How?
Poets and writers with Microsoft Word software can:
Go to “File” then “Options” then “Proofing” and check the boxes needed.
Or call up a file you have saved in Word. Go to the “Review” tab on the menu bar, then click and activate “ABC – Spelling & Grammar.”
Your best options, however, include these suggestions:
Get a grammar textbook, preferably one written for grammar school kids! Why? Well, why not make learning as easy as possible?
Visit such sites as:
Chicago Manual of Style online
Guide to Grammar and Writing (college level)
Online Resources for Writers (from the University of Richmond)
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Studying proper use of grammar and punctuation might take some time, but then you will know the information and be able to use it in innumerable ways. Even more, though, as a poet or writer, your writing deserves whatever you can give – not tricks or weird maneuvers but skillful use of the tools of your trade.
~~
© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler
~~
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