Issue #44 of the Writing.Com Reviewing Newsletter Your editor is: Kate - Writing & Reading ![]() [ Table of Contents ] 1. About this Newsletter 2. Letter from the Editor 3. Editor's Picks 4. Ask & Answer 5. Useful Links [ About this Newsletter ] Kate - Writing & Reading ![]() [ Letter from the Editor ] Poetry ~ Critique and Review I am honored to be your guest host for this issue of Reviewing News and Views. I would like to take the opportunity you’ve given me to share my take on the critique of poetry, which many find a challenge more daunting than reviewing a short story, expository article, or even a novel. Despite being generally shorter in length, focused on a single theme or plot (like a photograph or tangible work of art) and, today, with such variety of accepted styles, form, and substance, many writers are intimidated by the prospect of offering critique of poetry, seeing it as a criticism of the poet and not the work. If we read like a writer, we are able to offer valid critique of poetry in the form of a constructive, cogent review. A poem is not the poet, but the image in words created by the poet. It’s a verbal painting or sculpture that opens communication between the poet (the artist), sometimes over the passage of centuries or even millennia. A poem is a crafting of words that conveys the image as perceived and uttered by the writer. Note my references to communication in sound and image. If we keep that in mind, we are no longer intimidated. There is but one rule, I firmly hold, in poetry. Read All Poetry Aloud ![]() Then, reading aloud (which is how I open the substance of my written reviews), one can separate the poem from the poet and hear the words, see the image, and write a cogent review. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() integrated – do they set the mood of the work with economy, impact (vivid action words or images – here’s where we look for the verbal image – vivid and active, not passively retold). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Now, for fun, here’s a little refresher of the five most common metric forms ~ no, we’re not talking higher math, check it out ~ as wordsmiths, don’t you think it fun to know the names of the tools we use to build our craft, if only for our own confidence in using them? Taking the fear out of meter for rhythm – hear the beat as you read aloud the following, with vocal stress on the capitalized syllables ~ to LIVE, to WRITE, i AMB = iambic (like a heartbeat) SLOW the PACE with TRO che = trochee (trochaic – opposite beat of iambic) SPON DEE’s LYRIC CHALLENGE – spondee (individual stressed syllable) NOT just the DACtyl of PTER a pre-HIS tory = dactylic (a pensive rhythm, not the pterodactyl’s end) I’m a PEST I’m a PEST anaPEST = anapestic = feel the stress, emphasis, ‘pest’ering the ear, the senses? If you’d like to expand your technical reading (and writing) knowledge, a fun book to read on poetic forms, with examples new and classic, check out the following, Rhyme's Reason, a Guide to English Verse by John Hollander. I end where I began, with my thanks for the welcome to your virtual home, and invite you to check out the following and offer your considered comments, remembering that though there may be form and style, there is but one rule in poetry ~ Read All Poetry Aloud ^_^ Keep Reading, Reviewing, and Writing! Kate Kate - Writing & Reading ![]() ![]() [ Editor’s Picks ] Now, take a few minutes and read (aloud) some of the following work, and offer the writer's your considered critique in the form of a review ![]()
Looking for a considered critique and review, or some good reads the writers would like for you to review, check out the following ~
Remember, keep reading, and reviewing, with the eye of a writer ~ ** Image ID #1496562 Unavailable ** [ Ask and Answer ] All feedback is welcome! [ Useful Links ] ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |