Larry Hammer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
larryhammer) wrote2018-02-27 08:17 am
larryhammer) wrote2018-02-27 08:17 am
Entry tags:
“When the pale dead go forward, tortured more / By nothingness and longing than by fire”
It's been a while since I've used this tag, and this needs to be seen to be believed:
Bob and Bill See Canada by Alfred Uren, in which a pair of anthropomorphic Nova Scotian rabbits tour the rest of the Dominion, in rhymed verse.
Crashing, hard-rhymed, heavy-metered,* monotonous verse in which the author** lets his form control his content, such as padding out lines to make the rhyme and reciting banal details just because he can get them to rhyme -- both to the detriment of his pacing. He also lets his didactic purpose (educating the childrens about their fine country) control the story, such as it is.
I admit, I seek out bad poetry, but this is more painful than entertaining in its badness. I also admit, I am curious about the reactions of Canadians here to passages describing locations you're familiar with, and not just because I wish to share the pain.
* Not that heavy meter always keeps the author in his meter -- the strong stresses make his irregular lines stand out all the more.
** I hesitate to call him a poet, and I am usually very generous with this title.
---L.
Subject quote from "Sonnet to a Young Married Lady Possessed of a Freehold in the County of Sussex," Hilaire Belloc.
Bob and Bill See Canada by Alfred Uren, in which a pair of anthropomorphic Nova Scotian rabbits tour the rest of the Dominion, in rhymed verse.
Crashing, hard-rhymed, heavy-metered,* monotonous verse in which the author** lets his form control his content, such as padding out lines to make the rhyme and reciting banal details just because he can get them to rhyme -- both to the detriment of his pacing. He also lets his didactic purpose (educating the childrens about their fine country) control the story, such as it is.
I admit, I seek out bad poetry, but this is more painful than entertaining in its badness. I also admit, I am curious about the reactions of Canadians here to passages describing locations you're familiar with, and not just because I wish to share the pain.
* Not that heavy meter always keeps the author in his meter -- the strong stresses make his irregular lines stand out all the more.
** I hesitate to call him a poet, and I am usually very generous with this title.
---L.
Subject quote from "Sonnet to a Young Married Lady Possessed of a Freehold in the County of Sussex," Hilaire Belloc.