Hyphens in poems

[jajdude]

This may sound like an odd question but it is one that has occurred to me before.

Why do hyphens, basically invented words, seem impressive? Read a little Keats to get the idea.

I dunno. But a phrase like "dark-throated" seems to give some writers/readers a boner.

[Panglossian]

It's partly about economy of words isn't it? "Thinking with a clear head" becomes "clear-headed thinking". 5 words becomes 2 words. Also I'd say hyphenated words pack a dramatic punch if used well.

[hallaig]

Not just because it's a word pruner, but because it creates a powerful little image, like Homer's 'wine-dark sea'.

[Leiphos]

Some poets, like Whitman say, and perhaps Keats, seem to overuse it a bit. Keats had more metrical and sonic constraints, of course. But reading Body Electric or even (esp.?) Song of Myself, Whitman's hyphens do seem a little frivolous. Can we just say it was his niche style? Or does it need more justification...

[CellarDoor]

I would say that it's typically the combination of imagery rather than the actual hyphen itself. Grammar rules are changing such that commas are now less frequently being used. Take Pinsky's "gasoline rainbow" from" Impossible to Tell". If this was written in the time of Whitman or Keats it would have been typical to use a hyphen, but due changing conventions in punctuation you wouldn't usually see something like this written with a hyphen today.

From another angle, I find it an interesting piece of punctuation because it visually links the words together on the page.

[jajdude]

Good replies. Thanks. I still believe, though, and strongly, that writers are often just masturbating using a bunch of made-up (haha) hyphenations.

Will never argue over the likes of Keats, mind you. Hell, no.

He was a genius. I doubt Whitman was.

You might have a point about the time in which a writer lived. Perhaps hyphens were more common in the past. Shakespeare used a load of 'em if I'm not mistaken.

And now we have people misusing apostrophes all over the place. Damn.

[conartist]

If it were done so as to draw deeper considerations of the work than perhaps it would be as self-serving as you say. But really I don't think anyone would say that the writer intends to be anything more than a little more striking and, as was said, economic.

The hyphen's been zoned out of English lit since Joyce's 'the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea' and the million other uses of the technique in Ulysses anyway. Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses begins with the word 'candleflame'.

[jajdude]

Perhaps. But tell me, is it not vain of writers to overuse hyphens when a well worded expression will do?

And Joyce? Did he write anything good? Besides a few short stories, I think he just fell down some stairs and woke up screaming.

Forgive me, a bit drunk now.

[conartist]

Without vanity there is no poetry. If hyphen overuse were vainest thing in literature we'd be somehwere very far from where we are now.

If you like poetry and drinking then I'd suggest Joyce may be the great discovery of your life.

[ThePoorestMouth]

I recently wrote a coursework essay on the work and influence of Emily Dickinson, a poet famed for her extensive and unorthodox hyphen usage. One critical interpretation of her use of hyphens is that it helps to affirm the feminity of her work; that in the constriction of hyphenated lines there lies a greater intensity of feeling. It allowed her to concentrate the focus of her writing into a condensed and wholly female manifestation, quite unlike the aggrandised 'epic' style favoured by her male poetic peers.

As a qualifying caveat to that, it must be noted that much of Dickinson criticism is dominated by fairly stringent feminists and thus contains their particular biases. One critic even equated her use of hyphens to the 'fracturing of female sexuality inherent in the act of sexual congress'. Make of that what you will.

[dfloyd]

preference. The use of a hyphen is a simple rule of English grammar. they are used to tell the reader that the hyphenated adjectives modify the same noun; that is, wine-dark both modify the word sea. They are not made up words nor do they connotate anything more than what modifies a noun. The reason that you see them more in the older writers is becuase they had a better understanding of the rules of grammar.

The example I was given when I studied English grammar years ago is that without a hyphen, the reader can't tell the difference between a "bricked out house" and a "bricked-out house". Before you criticize hyphens, you should know the rules of English grammar, which many of you obviously do not.

[conartist]

I don't think anyone was questioning the grammatical validity of hyphens. The point was to look at why writers choose to say things like 'wine-dark' instead 'as dark as wine', each of which is fine English, though the first of which seems, as the OP implies, more impressive, and is certainly more noticeable.

[stlukesguild]

Will never argue over the likes of Keats, mind you. Hell, no.

He was a genius. I doubt Whitman was.

Your doubts are misplaced.:smilewinkgrin:

[jajdude]

If you like poetry and drinking then I'd suggest Joyce may be the great discovery of your life.

Nope. Shane MacGowan (spelling?) of the Pogues has me covered.

Now, that's a poet. To hell with Joyce.

[jajdude]

Will never argue over the likes of Keats, mind you. Hell, no.

He was a genius. I doubt Whitman was.

Your doubts are misplaced.:smilewinkgrin:

Are you sure?

You may be better read than me, but I can only place writers like Shakespeare in the same class as Keats. Whitman is not in that class. He didn't even go to school. Haha.