Rocket Scientist

More poetry?!?  Relax (unlike my sister who’s been on a real poetry kick lately), I reiterate that I will not make you write poetry.  But, if you want to write some, my sister’s got the exercise here and something a little less poetry intensive here .  But I still think there are lessons we can learn from poetry.

One of the most easily overlooked but most powerful tools of poetry is making the sounds of the words reinforce the meaning.  Because the poetry depends at least some on the sounds and cadences of the words to build itself, an adept hand can really use that ability to make those words do double/triple time and bring out the sound like gangbusters.  You know what I’m talking about, even if you don’t think you do, if you’ve ever read Poe.  Poe was the master at this, at least with the English language, and while some reviled him as “a jingle man,” I am not one of them.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
” ‘Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
This it is, and nothing more.”  

Note the first line of that stanza, the alliteration and similar sounding words that reinforce the image of whispering draperies.  Many people think of alliteration and rhyme much like they think of algebra without realizing it has a real use.  You see them again in the second sentence, the rhyme helping to build the tension, the alliteration carrying it forward even further.  And, of course, the whole poem of “The Raven” is like that, undoubtedly why it was such a sensation at time.  The sound of the words was at least as important as the meanings.

Contrast the first eight lines of the first verse with the first eight lines of the third verse.   

Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;

Hear the loud alarum bells -
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,

The tone, the resonance, the rhythm of the words made add power to a poem that would be, otherwise, entirely forgettable.  I was going to show you an example of my own poetry, but, really, can’t top Poe.

So, you’ve read down this far and you’re shrugging.  Steph, you say, I am never going to top “Tamerlane.”  That’s fine (who can?) because what he did with poetry, one can use in prose (though, in my opinion, it’s best to use it judiciously).  Here is an example from my favorite short story of all time, “Spoils of War” by Jennifer Roberson (published in Sword and Sorceress V edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley):

All around her the arrows sang.  It was a sibilant song of death, she thought: whining, humming, buzzing . . . the percussion of iron on wood . . . the crescendo of human screams.  But the melody did not please her.

Seriously, this is a great story.  This is, in fact, the story that got me writing fantasy.  Note the alliteration, the cadence, the onomatopoeia, all setting the tone for the story, setting the scene, telling us something about our archer.  In many ways, this story is a prose poem.

Even so, the girl in common brown, dancing to her own rhythm, flashing her strange eyes with every odd movement, she held his gaze.  His breathing stopped as he watched her, his senses thrumming with a magic like one possessed, feeling the crescendo in his bones, in his chest, rather than with his ears, finding himself unable to tear his eyes from the mysterious woman, caught up in music of her own making that he began to hear beneath the pounding of the drums. 

And you can use words that add to a sense.  Words like malice and solace sound like what they mean, feel like that.  Alliteration, repetition, all can add power to a sentence or passage as can cadence.

Now, you try.

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