[New-Poetry] Calling Dr. Giggles

TheOldMole Opus40-01 at opus40.org
Tue Oct 2 14:52:02 EDT 2007


It occurred to me that mehitabel is also the godmother of my muse Sookie.

I love the line of reasoning that went into Marquis' creation of archy. 
Making him a vers libre bard meant that marquis could type just a few 
words per line, and filling up a column would be easier. Making him a 
cockroach who couldn't use the shift key and didn't use punctuation 
meant less work for Marquis, as well.

Marquis was unusual for his time in the use of vers libre for light 
verse. At the time when the vers libre movement was revolutionizing 
poetry, there were also brilliant light versifiers like Parker, Nash, 
Armour, Ford, who used rhyme and meter, and I wonder if their influence 
hasn't continued to the present day -- a certain feeling that rhyme and 
meter are the more natural metier for light verse, free verse the more 
natural for the serious stuff. I know this is a wild oversimplifcation.


Skip Fox wrote:
>
> Don Marquis! Fantastic. (e.e. cummings’ father. cummings even got the 
> idea for the “excessive” use of lower case from Archie, the cockroach 
> who couldn’t use a shift key while typing down another).
>
> If I was in the area, I’d come. For Marquis, Marvell, Herrick, and you
>
> -----Original Message-----
> *From:* new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu 
> [mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] *On Behalf Of *TheOldMole
> *Sent:* Monday, October 01, 2007 5:31 PM
> *To:* NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views; Poetryetc 
> provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry andpoetics
> *Subject:* [New-Poetry] Calling Dr. Giggles
>
> Calling Dr. Giggles: a Laff Riot for Young and Old
>
>
>     *Tad Richards*
>
> *In an evening of the comic in poetry and song*
>
>
>           *Featuring his own work and that of*
>
> Andrew Marvell
>
> Annie Finch
>
> Billy Collins
>
> Don Marquis
>
> Dorothy Parker
>
> 	
>
> Fred Koller
>
> John Prine
>
> Ogden Nash
>
> ROBERT HERRICK
>
> Sheb Wooley
>
> Tom Lehrer
>
> And selections from his new book, /Take Five: Poems in 5/4 time/
>
>
>       *Wednesday, Oct. 3*
>
>
>       *6:30 PM*
>
>
>         *Humanities 312*
>
>
>         *SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY*
>
> -- 
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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>   

-- 
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/



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