FREE VERSE

johng I certainly seem to have hit a a sore spot with a lot of people. Thanks for all your input. Wellwisher. You and I seem to be on the same wavelength. To your excellent example by Wilfred Owen I would add 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke and 'On a Dead Child By Robert Bridges 1844–1930 Perfect little body, without fault or stain on thee, With promise of strength and manhood full and fair! Though cold and stark and bare, The bloom and the charm of life doth awhile remain on thee. Thy mother’s treasure wert thou;—alas! no longer To visit her heart with wondrous joy; to be Thy father’s pride;—ah, he Must gather his faith together, and his strength make stronger. To me, as I move thee now in the last duty, Dost thou with a turn or gesture anon respond; Startling my fancy fond With a chance attitude of the head, a freak of beauty. Thy hand clasps, as ’twas wont, my finger, and holds it: But the grasp is the clasp of Death, heartbreaking and stiff; Yet feels to my hand as if Twas still thy will, thy pleasure and trust that enfolds it. So I lay thee there, thy sunken eyelids closing,— Go lie thou there in thy coffin, thy last little bed Propping thy wise, sad head, Thy firm, pale hands across thy chest disposing. So quiet! doth the change content thee?—Death, whither hath he taken thee? To a world, do I think, that rights the disaster of this? The vision of which I miss, Who weep for the body, and wish but to warm thee and awaken thee? Ah! little at best can all our hopes avail us To lift this sorrow, or cheer us, when in the dark, Unwilling, alone we embark, And the things we have seen and have known and have heard of, fail us. Robert Bridges Poet Laureate was a Physician at Great Ormand Street Hospital and must have seen many dead children. On his retirement he devoted much of his time to the study of poetic form and wrote works on poetic meter There are many different forms of meter and I have tried quite a few, the iambic pentameter, The Sonnet, the clerihew and even a Rubaiyat. I have also tried writing in the style of the greats, Wordsworth, Rupert Brooke.Betjamen,and Carol Anne Duffey. (Incidentally one of my Wordsworth based on 'Daffodils' was in free verse). I must say I prefered the original. I have done this as a way to try to learn from the masters the nuts and bolts of poetry writing. I have no objection to free verse or the poets who write it. Many beautiful poems have been written in that format.I have also read a lot of incomprehensible rubbish. As one commentator mentioned it is not new. In fact examples can be found in greek poetry. Shakespeare was mentiioned. He wrote his poems in Sonnet form and they rhymed. His mechanicals in his plays speak in iambic pentameters and his other characters in blank verse. My gripe is against the way that panels of Judges when judging Competitions seem to favour free verse, probably because many of them write in that form and that poets who write in the traditional way seem to be cast as second class citizens' All I ask is a level playing field. Why do we write poetry? If it is for our own pleasure and we don't care if anyone reads it or not. fine. If we want people to read and enjoy what we write then we must consider who we want to attract. This is particularly important if we wish to publish and have a financial success. Who are the best selling poets ? 'Pam Ayres? Spike Milligan? (I can visualise the supercilious smiles on many faces) but that is what the vox populi enjoy. The poems re humorous easy to read and understand and they rhyme. A final point about 'Wellwishers' comparison with conceptual art' My views on that subject you will find in.my poem 'The Emperors Clothes.'

johng So many of you seem to be missing my point. I am not anti free verse or the people that write it. i don't mind what format it is in provided I can read it easily and understand what it is about But when I open a Magazine chock full of prize winning poems in free verse, as a poet who mainly writes in rhyme it makes me very apprehensive and suspicious. It usually costs money to enter competitions. If this is their policy the organisers should at least stipulate free verse only.

johng