I’ve come to depend on silence to assist in the cadences of the line. Not to give meaning to the image ( or for drama ) but strictly for the music. I often think of a reading I heard Wallace Stevens give to “Idea of Order at Key West”, in which there are two pauses on the first line, and how slowing down the line with those silences heightened the line.
My pauses are more physical on the page, and are worked out as I perform the poem to myself while writing it. It’s probably why I should post more audio, ah well.
I'm on the road and haven't delved as mindfully into this installment as I will, but am really delighted that you interviewed Sean Singer, Radha, and I've even have brought his book along on this trip. His thoughts on top-down influences, especially with regard to trends in confessional vs. narrative writing, are so refreshing to me. I am eager to spend time with the entire interview. Thanks so much for doing this!
I think that social media, internet use, and the texture of news reporting and even novels has changed the way we listen to both language and silence. For example, as sound bytes have shortened, so have the silence bytes in between. In some cases, a kind of staccato silence has developed as the popular mode of listening and reading. I have to make myself slow down both listening and reading, even speaking, so let silence have its most effective place in my life, in my writing, in my thinking.
Love this meditation on space, silence, music and the line. My love of loose end-rhymes AND enjambed lines sometimes takes over a poem. In revision, I have to negotiate and move phrases and words around to try to achieve the line stop's force, its ways of breaking meaning into units that enable ambiguity or call attention to other possible meanings, and stilll maintain a normal word order. In my more usual unrhymed poems, line ends are intuitive and often during revision I change them to create multiple possible meanings before or after the break. What I haven't been aware of so much is the silence, which is allowed in by the break plays a big part in the creation of several meanings.
Denise Levertov suggested that a line break is half a comma in duration. She also suggested having someone read your poem back to you as written. If they don’t pause like you do, then maybe you have line break problems.
You can also have your word processor read a poem back to you (eg, Pages on Mac). The computer will attempt to read any text as prose (no pause between enjambed lines) since it doesn’t know any better. If that sounds a lot like how you read it, then maybe you’ve written prose.
You can also record a poem (eg, Voice Memos) and look at the resulting waveform. Then you can see the duration of pauses (horizontal axis). For each syllable, you’ll also see loudness (vertical axis). Duration and loudness are two components of stress. More sophisticated software can probably also show changes in pitch, another stress component. Linguistics look at things like this, as do songwriters; poets probably should too.
Oh, wow, I'd never thought of voice memo as a visual tool. Brilliant! "You can also record a poem (eg, Voice Memos) and look at the resulting waveform. Then you can see the duration of pauses (horizontal axis). For each syllable, you’ll also see loudness (vertical axis)."
Only half a comma? I have to read her poems differently now. I'm more inclined to give it a comma, and an extra half comma. I think that's why I am less inclined to use a comma, and more inclined to use spaces usually four presses of the space bar.
I’ve come to depend on silence to assist in the cadences of the line. Not to give meaning to the image ( or for drama ) but strictly for the music. I often think of a reading I heard Wallace Stevens give to “Idea of Order at Key West”, in which there are two pauses on the first line, and how slowing down the line with those silences heightened the line.
My pauses are more physical on the page, and are worked out as I perform the poem to myself while writing it. It’s probably why I should post more audio, ah well.
I'm on the road and haven't delved as mindfully into this installment as I will, but am really delighted that you interviewed Sean Singer, Radha, and I've even have brought his book along on this trip. His thoughts on top-down influences, especially with regard to trends in confessional vs. narrative writing, are so refreshing to me. I am eager to spend time with the entire interview. Thanks so much for doing this!
This comment was meant for the issue with the Sean Singer interview.
Love this one. Thank you
I think that social media, internet use, and the texture of news reporting and even novels has changed the way we listen to both language and silence. For example, as sound bytes have shortened, so have the silence bytes in between. In some cases, a kind of staccato silence has developed as the popular mode of listening and reading. I have to make myself slow down both listening and reading, even speaking, so let silence have its most effective place in my life, in my writing, in my thinking.
A beautiful and evocative collection of words on silence. Thank you.
Love this meditation on space, silence, music and the line. My love of loose end-rhymes AND enjambed lines sometimes takes over a poem. In revision, I have to negotiate and move phrases and words around to try to achieve the line stop's force, its ways of breaking meaning into units that enable ambiguity or call attention to other possible meanings, and stilll maintain a normal word order. In my more usual unrhymed poems, line ends are intuitive and often during revision I change them to create multiple possible meanings before or after the break. What I haven't been aware of so much is the silence, which is allowed in by the break plays a big part in the creation of several meanings.
Denise Levertov suggested that a line break is half a comma in duration. She also suggested having someone read your poem back to you as written. If they don’t pause like you do, then maybe you have line break problems.
You can also have your word processor read a poem back to you (eg, Pages on Mac). The computer will attempt to read any text as prose (no pause between enjambed lines) since it doesn’t know any better. If that sounds a lot like how you read it, then maybe you’ve written prose.
You can also record a poem (eg, Voice Memos) and look at the resulting waveform. Then you can see the duration of pauses (horizontal axis). For each syllable, you’ll also see loudness (vertical axis). Duration and loudness are two components of stress. More sophisticated software can probably also show changes in pitch, another stress component. Linguistics look at things like this, as do songwriters; poets probably should too.
Oh, wow, I'd never thought of voice memo as a visual tool. Brilliant! "You can also record a poem (eg, Voice Memos) and look at the resulting waveform. Then you can see the duration of pauses (horizontal axis). For each syllable, you’ll also see loudness (vertical axis)."
Only half a comma? I have to read her poems differently now. I'm more inclined to give it a comma, and an extra half comma. I think that's why I am less inclined to use a comma, and more inclined to use spaces usually four presses of the space bar.
Those are some great suggestions.