Lick My Cliche

[Delta40]

(A favourite old book wooing its owner)

Slide over here
between the covers
and lick my cliche
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
It won't take but a minute
for the moment of truth to arrive
that I truly am any port in a storm
(she bats an eyelid)
You know what goes around
comes around
Even if I am a pile of hackneyed phrases
my dog eared appearance
doesn't mean you should let sleeping dogs lie
or that I have my tail between my legs
Give me your rubber stamp of approval
from this day to the next
so we can relish the pearls of wisdom
to be found inside

[Red-Headed]

I like it. It's finger-licking good.

[Delta40]

Dactyls and spondees just went over my head. Does this mean I should throw in the towel?

[Twota]

I really love this, one of my favourites for you. :D
I love my books. *.*

[Delta40]

I really love this, one of my favourites for you. :D
I love my books. *.*

Me too! :smilewinkgrin:

[Red-Headed]

Dactyls and spondees just went over my head. Does this mean I should throw in the towel?

To be honest, I don't really care much for applying Classical prosody to poetry written in English. It's just a useful tool sometimes for analysis.

G.M. Hopkins believed that the only real metre in English was what he called logaoedic rhythm, which was essentially an accentual dactyl & trochee mixed. The reversal of these feet can be employed to make a 'counterpoint' effect (as in music). He thought Milton's choruses in Samson Agonistes were the perfect example of this.

Some think that Hopkins was crackers though.

[Delta40]

I believe my weakness in being a grass roots poet is that I have never read or studied the technical side of poetry and so I am ignorant in this respect. I'm worried that it will diminish my love of writing (and I'm also lazy)

[Red-Headed]

I believe my weakness in being a grass roots poet is that I have never read or studied the technical side of poetry and so I am ignorant in this respect. I'm worried that it will diminish my love of writing (and I'm also lazy)

I've probably studied it too much. Mind you, if you know the 'rules' (if there are any), you will know when & how to break them.

Strangely, the more I studied the likes of Hopkins, Milton, Shakespeare & everything from the dactylic hexameters of Beowulf through Langland & Chaucer to Imagism & the Scouse Beat poets, it made me want to write more.

A bloke I knew years ago wrote tons of poetry. He once told me he never read any other poets as he didn't want to affect his pure & unsullied thoughts. He let me read some of his poems...

He was a terrible poet.

Remember ... "scientia potentia est" (knowledge is power) which is often attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, although I've never seen it in written in any of his works.

[Delta40]

Good point. I do read other poets, not so much the classics. I have known folk who can talk me under the table about the art of poetry though they can't write it to save their lives so I get some comfort from that!

I'm reading The Canterbury Tales atm due to my fascination with ME. I've written a few poems in ME before as an interesting exercise. Nobody else on Lit-Net has taken the ME challenge so I thought I'd try my hand at it but one would never venture to compare themselves with Chaucer.

[Red-Headed]

I'm reading The Canterbury Tales atm due to my fascination with ME. I've written a few poems in ME before as an interesting exercise. Nobody else on Lit-Net has taken the ME challenge so I thought I'd try my hand at it but one would never venture to compare themselves with Chaucer.

ME syntax is just too weird for me. I enjoy reading Chaucer, but there are so many odd datives & subjunctives & the like. I translated a bit of Piers Plowman at one time. The dialect is not that far from mine as he lived not a million miles away from where I grew up.

Here's a bit:

Incipit liber de Petro Plowman

In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne
I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were;
In habite as an hermite vnholy of workes
Went wyde in this world wonders to here.
Ac on a May mornynge on Maluerne hulles
Me byfel a ferly, of fairy me thougt:
I was very forwandred and went me to rest
Vnder a brode bank bi a bornes side
And as I lay and lened and looked in the wateres
I slombred in a slepying, it sweyued so merye.

William Langland (perhaps c.1330 - c.1386)

(Prologue of the B text as found in Bodleian MS. Laud 581, 1377-1379)



The first book of Piers the Ploughman

In a summer season, when pleasant was the sun
I dressed myself in the clothes of a shepherd;
In the habit of a not so holy hermit,
I went out wide in the world wonders to hear.
On a May morning on the Malvern hills
I fell across the land of fairy I thought:
I was very lost and I went to rest
Under a broad bank by the side of a bourne
And as I lay I leaned and looked into the water,
I slumbered and slept, it sounded so pleasant.

(My translation)

[Delta40]

Beautiful. I think the attraction for me is that English was not standardized then. I don't why but I believe this gave one a free hand so to speak. Every now and then, I long for that freedom.

[Red-Headed]

Beautiful. I think the attraction for me is that English was not standardized then. I don't why but I believe this gave one a free hand so to speak. Every now and then, I long for that freedom.

Well, we still have more variant spellings than the Americans do. If that makes you feel any better.

[Delta40]

Axe nat why, ther is no remedie in this cas

[everyadventure]

Lick my cliche sounds like something a naughty librarian might say... as she whips off her glasses and shakes out her hair...

[Delta40]

Lick my cliche sounds like something a naughty librarian might say... as she whips off her glasses and shakes out her hair...

Oh yes! I can see her now, unbuttoning her silk blouse....

[zhannochka]

I have never read or studied the technical side of poetry and so I am ignorant in this respect. I'm worried that it will diminish my love of writing (and I'm also lazy)

You've just summed me up too :)
Though I would love to study literature... Just don't have the time/money these days.

[Delta40]

You've just summed me up too :)
Though I would love to study literature... Just don't have the time/money these days.

I did enrol in a 12 week course on poetry but the booklist was so long coupled with 3 essays and a written exam that I withdrew!

[zhannochka]

I did enrol in a 12 week course on poetry but the booklist was so long coupled with 3 essays and a written exam that I withdrew!

Sounds like a Uni module!!
I am studying Animal Science at uni, but hoping to throw some Lit or Philosophy module in there as an elective :p

ETA: Was it an online module? Or a course near to where you live?

[Delta40]

No it was an internal uni module. I took up playwriting instead!

[zhannochka]

Awesome! Gotta do whatever one is interested in.. otherwise I find I lack motivation to get the module done.
I'm doing Biometry next semester... I can't think of anything MORE boring :lol:

[Delta40]

I did a degree in sociology and then stumbled into the creative arts area. Biometry doesn't sound exciting at all...

[zhannochka]

No it doesn't and I am hardly thrilled to start it! Thankfully my partner is maths minded and will be able to assist me greatly (and kick my arse into gear :lol:). I stumbled around in arts since I left school.. I still stumble around.

[firefangled]

Very ingenious and entertaining. May I touch your class?

In Ballistic (I think), Billy Collins does something similar. You would enjoy it.

[Delta40]

Very ingenious and entertaining. May I touch your class?

In Ballistic (I think), Billy Collins does something similar. You would enjoy it.

Thank you Firefangled. Sifting through my poetry I find occasionally I display a sense of humour....