[New-Poetry] Re: a dead ear for scansion

[Skip Fox]

Everyone here loves books and probably more than most people we went to
books throughout our lives when we wanted to learn how to do something. But
there may be times when relying on a book is a distraction from what you
might do yourself.

 

Like scansion. Syllable stress and unstress (if more nuanced and less
precise than generally taught . . . what isn't?) are already there (and in
everything you say). Proof: look in the dictionary. But just like a two or
more syllable word, nearly every phrase is composed of stressed and
unstressed syllables. Proof 2: tape record someone reading and watch the
needle that monitors loudness.  A book can point you to what your own ears
are already hearing, and a book can tell you want to call the various
combinations, but one's ear is already hearing the stressed and unstressed
sound. Do we now need books to show us how to listen? 

 

(Side note: Is that the result of the screaming media . . . have you ever
search for something relaxing on television? It sounds simplistic, but what
are the odds that everything everyone watches while claiming he or she wants
to relax is torqued, jazzed up, etc.??)

 

Or books on how to teach creative writing, for crying out loud!!! (Wonder
what "creative" means.) Not to say that these books might not occasionally
be useful, but don't we often abdicate our responsibility (our "ability to
respond," as Robert Duncan put it) as poets or humans by over relying on
books, especially when the issue is ourselves: our ear, our creativity.

 

Here's a trick I didn't find in a book but could well be in one (i.e.,
please don't let it be a substitute for learning to listen, or realizing
what you're hearing): You can read poetry almost silently, just above a
whisper, where the vocal cords just begin to find purchase, then most sounds
that come from you will be discernibly different, some above the line
(gravel voice sound), some below (whisper).

 

But the trick is to hear the rhythmic swell behind our language, and
EVERYTHING scans. (There are, of course, variant lines, and many books even
note that all stresses are not the same in intensity, etc., but basically
everything in our language scans.)

 

Don't quote me :)

 

 

 

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