Poems can imitate musical forms.
Michael Harper uses jazz as both inspiration and subject matter in poems such as 'Dear John, Dear Coltrane' and 'A Love Supreme' ( title of Coltrane's four movement masterpiece).
— Drury
(Amity, please turn all this into something like a grand opera.) — PoeticUniverse
Walt Whitman modelled his long, flowing lines partly on the recitatives and arias of Italian grand opera, (and partly on the Old Testament). — Drury
Italian opera and opera singers were an important influence on Whitman's creative development during those crucial years in the early 1850s when Leaves of Grass was germinating. Probably no other single influence is more important than this one.
When we consider how many poems Whitman calls songs or chants, and how many references he makes to the voice and to singing, we come to realize that music and singing were central to the creation of his poetry. "But for the opera," he declared, "I could never have written Leaves of Grass " (qtd. in Trowbridge 166). — The Walt Whitman Archive
“Whitman noticed how the theater was filled with both the elite and the roughs,” Mr. Reynolds said. “He began to view opera as a way to bridge social gaps and bring people together on the level of beauty.”...
But no singer seems to have influenced Whitman more than Alboni, the contralto. She “opened the possibility of both ‘heart’ and ‘art’ music,” Mr. Reynolds said.
Alboni appears in Whitman’s reminiscences; “Leaves of Grass”; and his memoir “Specimen Days.” In the opera-rich poem “Proud Music of the Storm,” he mentions her by name:
The teeming lady comes,
The lustrous orb, Venus contralto, the blooming mother,
Sister of loftiest gods, Alboni’s self I hear.
Opera may have provided a way for Whitman to process the horrors of the Civil War. His slim book “Memoranda During the War,” which inspired “Crossing,” is fragmented into vignettes with operatic flourishes: observations, even grisly details, followed by sweeping, impassioned statements about broader subjects like youth, America and conflict...
In both his poetry and prose, Whitman wrote with a rhythm that took war “out of the realm of either the merely shocking or the distressingly gory,” Mr. Reynolds added. “He had always used poetry, ever since 1855, as a means of cleansing or uplifting the darker aspect of human existence.”...
And a few months before the poet died, nearly 40 years after he first heard Alboni sing, he described to Traubel a scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor”: leaning “way out of his chair — his gray hair shaken, his eye bright with fire, his voice deep and full of music.”
— NY Times: Music - Walt Whitman
There was, of course, the tradition of metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, but it was a very specific worldview and probably not one which could be seen as truly objective. — Jack Cummins
I think philosophy has got to the point where the mundane is preferred to the magnificent. — Jack Cummins
Just curious. Turning it around. Does opera inspire your poetry ?
What do you listen to when you write ? — Amity
Done yet? Maybe your lute people could do it. — PoeticUniverse
The poem first appeared in Able Muse (Summer 2011) and was reprinted in John’s most recent book, Sea Level Rising (Able Muse Press, 2015). The book’s website includes a video in which the poet’s reading of the poem is accompanied by lutanist Rodney Stucky playing pieces by Dowland. Here’s the link.
Ghazal of the Lutanist
Ever Dowland, ever doleful, the lutanist says come again
to melancholy, whether he’s silent or plays “Come Again.”
Invitations that mention “deadly pain” and wail “out, alas”
won’t seduce anyone but a masochist who prays Come! Again!
Torches at court leave shadows for uneasy liaisons,
dark rooms where ladies-in-waiting, in silent lays, come again.
Courtiers whisper on back stairs, place notes in ruffled sleeves,
but the lutanist can’t catch the phrase. Come again?
The page rubs his eyes before stretching gut strings along the lute
and poking around for the tuning peg’s eye. Dark days come again.
When panes of leaded glass fill like goblets with tinted light,
John is fingering scales on his lute as sun rays come again.
John Drury — Ghazal of the Lutanist - John Drury
I think poems portray and communicate the many different ways in which life can be lived and how those ways of living make one feel. Obviously, certain poets can do this better than others and with an economy of just the right words. — charles ferraro
I wonder if there is a similar concern of Gus Lamarch re what might be considered 'authentic poetry'. — Amity
It seems to me that poetry does not always have to be about what humanity experiences as being pleasant and/or beautiful. It can also describe and/or render that which is disturbing and ugly to humanity. — charles ferraro
Robert Frost, Emily Dickenson, e. e. cummings. These three worth the dime obtaining complete collections of their poetry, usually in one volume, for long-term browsing. And worth a quick look at reviews of collections. If memory serves, and maybe it doesn't, with Dickenson and Frost there were some issues with editing. Not a biggie.Unfortunately, I have no great background knowledge or understanding of Frost. — Amity
Robert Frost, Emily Dickenson, e. e. cummings. These three worth the dime obtaining complete collections of their poetry, usually in one volume, for long-term browsing. And worth a quick look at reviews of collections. If memory serves, and maybe it doesn't, with Dickenson and Frost there were some issues with editing. Not a biggie. — tim wood
Frost wrote and lectured on his poetry and his approach to his craft. Among the things important to him was to catch what he called the sound of sentences, the meaningful sound of talk as if heard through a door, the words themselves obscured... — tim wood
10 MOST FAMOUS POEMS AND SONGS BY ROBERT BURNS
Burns was one of the leaders of Romanticism and he had a major influence on the movement. Romantic writers emphasized on emotion and individualism; as well as glorification of all the past and of nature. — Robert Burns - Famous poems and songs
It's been amazing to read the thoughts and examples of personal creativity. — Amity
I've actually tried to sing your poetic words. Withou actually assigning meaning to them they sound great words! — Rstotalloss
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