No poet is required to write in stanzas, or indeed in regular forms at all. Coleridge's 'Dejection: An Ode' has a rhyme… — James Fenton Following Copy Share Image
Generally speaking, rhyme is the marker for the end of a line. The first rhyme-word is like a challenge thrown down, which… — James Fenton Challenges Copy Share Image
Metrics are not a device for restraining the mad, any more than 'open form' or free verse is a prairie where a… — James Fenton Any Copy Share Image
The 1960s was a period when writers in the West began to be aware of the extraordinary eloquence and popular attraction of… — James Fenton 1960s Copy Share Image
Hearing that the same men who brought us 'South Park' were mounting a musical to be called 'The Book of Mormon,' we… — James Fenton Book Copy Share Image
At four lines, with the quatrain, we reach the basic stanza form familiar from a whole range of English poetic practice. This… — James Fenton Ballads Copy Share Image
Rhyme is a mnemonic device, an aid to the memory. And some poems are themselves mnemonics, that is to say, the whole… — James Fenton Aid Copy Share Image
In the writing of poetry we never know anything for sure. We will never know if we have 'trained' or 'practised' enough.… — James Fenton Able Copy Share Image
Writing for the page is only one form of writing for the eye. Wherever solemn inscriptions are put up in public places,… — James Fenton Demand Copy Share Image
This is what rhyme does. In a couplet, the first rhyme is like a question to which the second rhyme is an… — James Fenton Air Copy Share Image
Among those today who believe that modern poetry must do without rhyme or metre, there is an assumption that the alternative to… — James Fenton Alternatives Copy Share Image
A glance at the history of European poetry is enough to inform us that rhyme itself is not indispensable. Latin poetry in… — James Fenton Age Copy Share Image
Some of my educated Filipino friends were aspiring poets, but their aspirations were all in the direction of the United States. They… — James Fenton Aspiration Copy Share Image
If you're writing a song, you have to write something that can be understood serially. When you're reading a poem that's written… — James Fenton Back Copy Share Image
A cabaret song has got to be written - for the middle voice, ideally - because you've got to hear the wit… — James Fenton Cabaret Copy Share Image
English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to… — James Fenton English language Copy Share Image
'What is this', and 'How is this done?' are the first two questions to ask of any work of art. The second… — James Fenton Any Copy Share Image
The iambic pentameter owes its pre-eminence in English poetry to its genius for variation. Good blank verse does not sound like a… — James Fenton Blank Copy Share Image
Modernism in other arts brought extreme difficulty. In poetry, the characteristic difficulty imported under the name of modernism was obscurity. But obscurity… — James Fenton Art Copy Share Image
The Italian word 'stanza' means 'a room', and a room is a good way to conceive of a stanza. A room, generally… — James Fenton Being Copy Share Image
Poetry carries its history within it, and it is oral in origin. Its transmission was oral. Its transmission today is still in… — James Fenton Acquainted Copy Share Image
The iambic line, with its characteristic forward movement from short to long, or light to heavy, or unstressed to stressed, is the… — James Fenton Characteristic Copy Share Image
Sometimes I have thought that a song should look disappointing on the page - a little thin, perhaps, a little repetitive, or… — James Fenton Disappointing Copy Share Image
The basic rhymes in English are masculine, which is to say that the last syllable of the line is stressed: 'lane' rhymes… — James Fenton Doe Copy Share Image
Composers need words, but they do not necessarily need poetry. The Russian composer, Aleksandr Mossolov, who chose texts from newspaper small ads,… — James Fenton Ads Copy Share Image
'Love' is so short of perfect rhymes that convention allows half-rhymes like 'move.' The alternative is a plague of doves, or a… — James Fenton Addresses Copy Share Image
Free verse seemed democratic because it offered freedom of access to writers. And those who disdained free verse would always be open… — James Fenton Access Copy Share Image
Lyric poetry is, of course, musical in origin. I do know that what happened to poetry in the twentieth century was that… — James Fenton Beautiful Copy Share Image
In song the same rule applies as in dramatic verse: the meaning must yield itself, or yield itself sufficiently to arouse the… — James Fenton Applies Copy Share Image
It normally happens that if you put two words together, or two syllables together, one of them will attract more weight, more… — James Fenton Emphasis Copy Share Image
Considering the wealth of poetic drama that has come down to us from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, it is surprising that… — James Fenton Considering Copy Share Image
There is no objection to the proposal: in order to learn to be a poet, I shall try to write a sonnet.… — James Fenton Order Copy Share Image
