[New-Poetry] terror dactyls

[JforJames at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/6/2008 11:49:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
halvard at earthlink.net writes:

Also, btw, my guess is that the so-called rules came after the poems, not  
before.
But actually those "rules" are merely descriptive of how some  
poems/sonnets/etc.
are written. 

Perhaps in part true, Hal. But I speculate the first poem that was to be a  
sonnet had at least the bare
bones behind of plan behind its making, self-imposed guidelines  established 
by its first maker. Likely it was an influential  maker/artist who first laid 
out a few 'sonnets' and then others followed suit,  copying the form/template 
so to speak. 
 
We know from his own testimony that Billy Collins invented his paradelle by  
laying down some arbitrary rules for its construction. It wasn't arrived at  
over time by critical consensus. Though many other forms 
were not initiated as a joke as the paradelle was, I'd bet the were arrived  
at in similar fashion.
Maybe the historical record is in tatters and largely oral, but certainly  
'the sonnet's history' has been studied in depth. Is there a 'first sonnet' and  
who were its first immitators? Where are the irregulars of this  list's 
formalist brain trust? Answers please.
 
What are the forms that have died out? The extinct species.Surely a  few 
didn't make it over the long haul?
 
Finnegan



**************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides.    
  (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20080406/ad020c9e/attachment.html