Do You Know These Classical Poetry Terms?

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Do You Know These Classical Poetry Terms?
November 05, 2009

Hello Poets and Poetry Lovers

Welcome to November. We're finally into the penultimate month of the year and have I got some good stuff for you. Three new poetry book reviews, a new look for the World Class Poetry Blog, and I've added new terms to the poetry terms pages. Oh, and if you've been following the Twitter poem experiment, there's a new chapbook. Feast your eyes!

PLUS, be on the lookout for a poetry video in this issue of Hyperbole.

Poetry Terms
American Life In Poetry - Column 241
Poetry Book Reviews
September Twitter Songs
Poetry Book Of The Month
World Class Poetry Blog Updates
Classified Ads
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World Class Poetry Networking

Poetry Terms

I bet you thought I'd abandoned the poetry terms pages. Nope. I've added some terms for this month. Let's start with the As.

Poetry Terms - A

Acatalectic
Acrostic
Amphibrachic Meter
Amphimacer Meter
Anacrusis

Learn what these poetry terms mean.

Poetry Terms - B

Bacchic
Brachycatalectic
Breve
Bucolic
Burlesque

Learn what these poetry terms mean.

Poetry Terms - C

Cadence
Catalexis
Catharsis
Confessional Poetry

Learn what these poetry terms mean.

Stay tuned! More great poetry terms forthcoming.

American Life In Poetry:
Column 241

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I love poems in which the central metaphors are fresh and original, and here’s a marvelous, coiny description of autumn by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck, who lives in Illinois.

Like Coins, November

We drove past late fall fields as flat and cold
as sheets of tin and, in the distance, trees
were tossed like coins against the sky. Stunned gold
and bronze, oaks, maples stood in twos and threes:
some copper bright, a few dull brown and, now
and then, the shock of one so steeled with frost
it glittered like a dime. The autumn boughs
and blackened branches wore a somber gloss
that whispered tails to me, not heads. I read
memorial columns in their trunks; their leaves
spelled UNUM, cent; and yours, the only head . . . 
in penny profile, Lincoln-like (one sleeve,
one eye) but even it was turning tails
as russet leaves lay spent across the trails.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck. Reprinted from The Spoon River Poetry Review, Vol. XXXIII, no. 1, 2008, by permission of Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Poetry Book Reviews

Warhorses by Yusef Komunyakaa

Most war poetry is self consumed and full of confessional heroics or reflections upon battlefield exploits with anecdotes of relationships between the warriors scattered between. Not so with Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa's Warhorses. That's not to say there aren't personal tidbits to be found in the work, but that's not the focus.

Read the rest of the review

Blue Rooms, Black Holes, White Lights
by Belinda Subraman

Death holds a special place in the hearts of poets and in the annals of literature. Practicing nurse Belinda Subraman explores the topic in a personal and spiritual manner in her new chapbook Blue Rooms, Black Holes, White Lights. All in all, it's a good read.

Subraman brings to bear her Zen Buddhist leanings to the reading, delving into the mysteries – personal and spiritual – of the experience of death, drawing from her occupation as well as the loss of her father to that good night in 2008. She has dedicated the book to her father, a friend who passed away in 2008 and all her hospice patients from 2001 to 2007.

Read the whole review

The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

Richard Hugo was a celebrated poet who was well known mostly in the Northwest where he was from. He taught creative writing for many years at the University of Montana and studied under the iconic Theodore Roethke.

The Triggering Town is Hugo's poetic philosophy in a nutshell. In this book of essays, he reveals himself to be a sensitive person with an eye and an ear for language and shares his insights into how to write poetry for young writers struggling to make it on their own. I wouldn't say it's great, but it's a good read, particularly if you want to learn how to find your own voice.

Read the rest of the review

Read more great poetry reviews at World Class Poetry.

September Twitter Songs

I'm a little late in getting September's Twitter poem chapbook published, but you're going to love it. Be sure to download the World Class Poetry Toolbar for an exclusive.

A sampling:

September rocks fall dirty down
Fall dirt rocks down Septiembre
All leaves orange and brown
Leave us all brown amid fall tenebrae

Poetry Book Of The Month

Yusef Komunyakaa makes war poetry honorable again. If you're tired of reading about the aggrandizing exploits of Vietnam soldiers bitter after the war or the anti-war poetry from those who've never been there, you can relax. Komunyakaa's poetry sings in a very contemporary way.

Warhorses relies heavily on mythical and historical allusion, not personal experience. Though you will find some personal reflection, especially in the long poem "Autobiography Of My Alter Ego".

Be sure to get your copy now. Or read my review.

World Class Poetry Blog Updates

The World Class Poetry Blog is a work in progress. Always changing, always growing. In an attempt to gain more clarity about the purpose of the blog, I've added a few pages:

Forthcoming will be a series of pages outlining Millennial Poetics. Be on the lookout. Meanwhile, enjoy these new blog posts.

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