Friday, October 06, 2006

Rhymed verse       [gnomic nostrum]

...and we should all try to avoid it, along with gluttony, avarice, the rest of the deadlies, and rhymed verse (just joking about the latter).
    -- Steven Fama (in comment on Silliman's blog)

What bane could be more worse
than rhyming in a verse?
if meter's bad behavior
to rhyme is plain perverse
a central desideratum
in today's new universe
eschew the urge to rhyme
that atavistic curse

quoth Swift one cannot sew
from sows' ears a silk purse
which dictum goes to show
(to state it clear & terse)
when rhymes lie in a row
like branches strewn with snow
it's time to call the Hearse
that tree will grow no Poe


2 Comments:

Blogger M. Shahin said...

Nice poem! A break from pantoum to gnomic nostrum was quite a refreshing read. I've never heard of this poetic form.

I love rhymes; I don't think they are simple or childish if executed in the right manner: an example Robert Frost.

Thanks for sharing.

Tue Oct 10, 01:51:00 AM PDT  
Blogger david raphael israel said...

MS--
the form-name in fact was made up on the spot (a half-serious attempt at naming). As said, this blog's archives are awash in poems-other-than-pantoums; it's just that I'm currently in Pantoum Season (so to speak), so they may continue to come fast and thick for a bit (inshallah).
cheers,
d.i.

Tue Oct 10, 11:43:00 PM PDT  

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