2.) It was difficult for me to choose just one example of
Hugo’s technique to try to discuss. Hugo has a modern way of thinking and I
find it refreshing. I had little to no experience writing poetry and reading The Triggering Town (a book by an
experienced poet) has helped me tremendously; not to mention he believes that
there is no right or wrong way to write poetry. (Which made it that much easier
to find a place to start.) However after contemplating the options I had
narrowed down, I've come to the conclusion that the technique that Hugo uses that
has taught me the most occurs in Chapter 5 (Nuts and Bolts) on page 40.
To quote Hugo, “Beware certain words that seem necessitated
by grammar to make things clear but dilute the drama of the statement. These are words of temporarily, causality, and opposition, and often indicate a momentary
lack of faith in the imagination.” Being
an English major, grammar tends to be significant in my mind. I've been
programmed since I started high school to know grammar,and to be grammatically correct
with everything I write. Ergo, this was hard for me to comprehend until I read
the excerpt from a poem.
“But no
one comes
And the
girl disappears behind folding doors
While the
bus grinds and lurches away.”
“But no
one comes
The
girl disappears behind folding doors
The bus
grinds and lurches away.”
Even without the word “while” I was able to understand what
the poets was saying. My knowledge of the English language tells me that this
is happening simultaneously and the word “while” is not necessary to the poem. While
I have not written poems this way yet, having the knowledge of “no rules” and letting
the readers mind do it’s glorious work, opens up a world of opportunity for me
as a poet. I no longer have to grammatically correct with every thought I put
on paper, which is something I never thought I would be able to do again.
3.) It would be impossible to write this prompt without mentioning Chapter six (In Defense of Creative-Writing classes). Hugo expresses many themes in this chapter. A few of the themes being: honesty, vulnerability, courage and obsession, among others. However, the one that I believe to be the most important is honesty. Honesty, to me, is the most important because it doesn't just involve being honest, it involves being trustworthy, and open. Without these other qualities it is difficult to determine how honest something truly is. For example, Telling someone the truth, but only part of the truth, is just as much a lie, as a lie is. Which means you have to be open to the whole truth, and only then is it the truth.
The best example of this is on page 65. Hugo tells us about
a shy boy (Hughes) that he described as “unnoticed, lonely, and miserable.” Hughes
read something he had written, out loud during the class. His story was about a
time in his life, when he was taken to a whorehouse, something that in this day
and age, would normally result in punitive action, but read it anyway. Hugo stated
that in hearing this story “we realized we had just heard a special moment is a
person’s life, offered in honesty and generosity, and we better damn well appreciate
it. It may have been the most important lesson I ever learned, maybe the most
important lesson one can teach.” This is the best example of honesty, because
Hughes use was open to being completely honest, which made his truth the whole
truth. Which is something that you don’t come by as often in today’s society.
Sarah, so glad the book has been helpful for you and like that you addressed both theme and technique here. I like how you got specific with your line example and talked about grammar and how coordinating words can work differently in poems, because of that line break and the many other ways we can affect the sentence with title, line breaks, stanzas, punctuation, etc. Good specific example and look forward to seeing you try this stuff on the page in our coming poems!
ReplyDeleteSarah--super glad you brought up the example you did, I pretty much forgot about it. It really hit me too that words that seem necessary when speaking can actually take away from a poem. It's something that I also haven't thought about much in my poetry, and should be pretty liberating once one learns to use this technique effectively. And I also love the story you brought up with relation to honesty. I loved the importance it places on not only being honest about your life, but appreciating honesty from others. Like other people's lives matter. I think it's something we tend to underappreciate in our society, but is so incredibly important.
ReplyDeleteThis poems choice and line selections are a great example. The poet is building and giving life to the piece. As a writer one of the biggest challenges is to keep the reader enthralled. This section is a prime example of the writers ability to lead the piece through word choice and line breaks.
ReplyDelete