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The Poetry of Prose
Poetry was my first love. I grew up with Barrett, Browning, Byron and Blake, with a decent shot of Shelley and Shakespeare thrown in. I love the rhythm, rhyme and meter to the verse, the lilt of the language and the particular choice of every word.
Prose can also benefit from the use of poetic technique. Here is a list of some common terms to help add richness to an author’s writing, and better understanding for the reader.
Alliteration-a literary technique in which successive words begin with the same consonant sound or letter (some special surprise)
Assonance-a repitition of of vowel sounds within sylables with changing consonants (found around town)
Consonance-repitition of consonant sounds in a short sequence of words or syllables (the word sibilance is a good example)
Eye rhyme-similarity in the spelling of words with different pronunciations (slaughter and laughter, brow and crow)
Hyperbole-a large exaggeration, usually used with humor (he had an appetite the size of Texas)
And last but not least…the dreaded Cliche-an overused word or phrase.
What is your favorite cliche? Which one makes you want to scream in absolute horror, or shriek wildly in utter disbelief?
I like—his raw masculine power, or, her basic feminine instincts—eeeew!
I was an English major in college, so I was thrilled to read your post on literary techniques. In addition to the literary techiques you mentioned, I have found that similes and metaphors can be put to good use as well.
A simile is a figure of speech that draws a comparision between two things using the words like or as. For example, he was as white as a ghost. This phrase is also cliche I believe.
A metaphor is also a figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to someone or something that isn’t meant literally, but is meant to show a comparison. For example, her ex boyfriend was a snake in the grass.
I too am a fan of poetry, especially William Blake. His poem A Poisen Tree is an excellent example of metaphor usage. I highly recommend it.
And some more obscure ones such as Caesura and Metonymy. Hmmmm…might be worth a more in depth future post.
Cheers to us English majors everywhere! Who said we’d never use our degrees?
Yes, cheers to English majors!
Hey, if any of you actually like to buy reference books on literary techniques, I recommend William Harmon and Hugh Holman’s book, A Handbook to Literature. Its basically a dictionary of literary terms, styles, movements, etc. I have the ninth edition, but there is an updated tenth edition available now.
These are great posts. The late Emy Naso wrote some beautiful poetry and prose. This one, although simple in construction, is particularly poignant because it was written only weeks before his death.
I am your dream
Where love arouses
Our shared senses
I am your life
Together we ‘oft dally,
In craving, human arms
I am within you,
And never without
Our fire of sensuality
I am your passion,
Giving all of myself
Whatever you demand
I am the ever constant
Light in your existence,
The flame of all desire
I am your heart
Beauty in great joy,
Holding in flesh pain
I am your sorrow
When you watch
My dying body
I am your spirit
Now you weep
At my grave
I am still there
So speak to me
In my eternity
I am yours alone
So do not forget
My love was real
http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/emy-naso
Nicky, that is lovely. Especially since I recently lost a very dear friend.
How about some Kahlil gibran?
Love gives naught but of itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love, you must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody into the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
As we are in that late night mood (it is here in the UK) here is something similar by Emy Naso
Let me inside, not to invade
But furl my spirit in your heart,
The being of your memory
Slumbers in this troubled mind:
Let me comfort, now I hold the key
Between this realm and far beyond,
Tenderly waiting, always with you,
Called by the power of your love:
Let me gently reside in each thought,
Living in this world forsaken now,
Guiding in truth, holding in desire,
Gone but for a temporal moment:
Let me whisper in the deep sorrow
And hold your hand through the day,
Resting by your side when night comes
In the years and tears of separation.
Let me not drift too far, my love,
We shared, we cared, time went,
Fear not the valley of lost souls,
I have returned to hold you near.
http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/emy-naso
I can’t add anything to the poetry except to say I enjoyed both the Naso and the Gibran immensely. Thanks!
So you like the Romantics, do you, Gia? (although I’m not sure if Blake is one of the Romantics… I’m not an English major LOL, you tell me!) I’m not a big one for poetry, except for Catullus and Ovid, and, at the other end of the spectrum, Ted Hughes.
Hughes’s work especially had a prose quality to it, each of his poems being more like miniature novels. For me, it’s not just the techniques you mentioned in your post that a prose writer can harness, there’s also much that can be learned from poetic metre – this can be used very effectively scenes of mystery, action, or in love scenes.
As for cliches… hmm, I think the worst one is ‘mushroom-headed c*ck’ (is there a swear filter on this blog?!?). A horrible, unsexy description, and yet I’ve lost count of the times I’ve read it. Ugh!
cliches? hmm…let me go look at my work in progress!
Thanks for the posting the poems. We don’t get my poetry in our daily life. I have to admit the last poem I read was by Shel Silverstein! They make me laugh as much today as they did when I was seven :)
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