Poetic Form Gwendolin Brooks “First Fight, Then Fiddle” (898) Shuttleworth, Ciara. “Sestina” (881) Cummings, E. E. “l(a” (883)

Poetic Form

• Gwendolin Brooks “First Fight, Then Fiddle” (898)

• Shuttleworth, Ciara. “Sestina” (881) • Cummings, E. E. “l(a” (883)

Poetic Forms

First Fight. Then Fiddle.

First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string A With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note BWith hurting love; the music that they wrote BBewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing AThreadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing AFor the dear instrument to bear. Devote BThe bow to silks and honey. Be remote BA while from malice and from murdering. ABut first to arms, to armor. Carry hate CIn front of you and harmony behind. DBe deaf to music and to beauty blind. DWin war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late CFor having first to civilize a space EWherein to play your violin with grace. E

Muzzle & Thread/Hemp

•

The music that they wrote?

•

Image source

“First Fight, Then Fiddle” Questions• Overall Meaning & Structure: What do it mean:

“first fight, then fiddle”? What does “fight” & “fiddle” mean respectively? Why does the poem do it the other way around (reversing the order)? Is either completely rejected?

• Form: Petrarchan sonnet –effects (turn?)– Rhyme: masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme – Rhythm & meter: iambic pentameter – Sound: alliteration – Enjambment vs. short lines

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 ~2000; Chicago) Poem published in 1949

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fiddle• sense – plays the music which is sweet,

melodious and mesmerizing (feathery sorcery, bewitch, bewilder), – filled with repressed emotions, – detached from cruel reality (malice and

murdering) – but not sharp-sounding, coarse but lively

tunes. – sound – repetition of melodious & nasal

sounds such as [m], [ing], [ind], [sl]; – use of enjambment

Why not? Other’s music.

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fight• sense – [But]One must go to war (arms and armor—to

fight and protect oneself), carrying hate in front and harmony behind (as support)

purpose: -- “to civilize a space” where playing music is possible

• sound –short one-syllable words • use of short imperatives: “win war. Rise

bloody.”

Why not? Other’s music.

YouUsedToLoveMewell.

Well,you—me—UsedLoveto . . .

to . . .well . . .love.YouUsedme.

Me,too,used . . .well. . .you.Love,

loveme.You,TooWellused,

usedLovewell.Me,too.You!

You Usedto Loveme well.

A. You Usedto Loveme well.

2 speakers

A: You Used To Love Me well.

B. Used Love to .

A.You Used me.

B. Me, too, used you. . .

A. Love me.

B. Used Love well.Me, too. You!

Sestina

Source: Wikipedia

Sestina: a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. (Wikipedia)

Sestina: Questions

• 1. How many speakers are there in this poem? When does one stop speaking and another begin?

• 2. What is the role of punctuation in “Sestina”? Can you describe the tones of each stanza?

l(a

l(aleaffalls)oneliness

l(a: Questions

• What does the poem mean and how are the meanings conveyed through the image, the words and the shape of the poem?

• “A leaf falls. Loneliness.” Why is this one not a poem, but “l(a” is? Is there meter or rhythm in the poem?

l(a: loneliness=singleness

• the image = a leaf

• the words = la, le, fa, af, ll (words falling and reversing), i-ness, I

• the shape of the poem = “l”

• Regularity (meter) in the falling and multiple meanings of the characters.

References

• Owens, Clarke W. “Brooks's First Fight. Then Fiddle.” The Explicator 52.4 (Summer 1994): 240.