Today is about future goals and treasures.  I’m going to take a new twist on this topic as well.  Since my love of poetry is well known and I know that many of you are reluctant poetry readers, but generous people.  I’m going to put out a call for donations to my favorite poetry organization, The American Academy of Poets.

This organization not only has a free database of information about classic to contemporary poets, but it allows users to read and listen to poems online.  From Apps that bring poetry to your smartphone to local and national events for poets and poetry, the organization’s goal is to not only spread the word about the genre, but also support poets through competition for first book prizes and other awards.

Supporting American poets is one goal, but I’ve always thought one of their overarching goals is to widen the audience for poetry by capturing them online and in person.  I’d like to call on you to donate to this great organization to preserve the future poetry treasure that are yet to be written.

All you have to do to enter this global giveaway is donate — no sum is too small — to the academy, which runs programs for the public and poets, including support for National Poetry Month events across the United States.

• Go to Poets.org and use the drop-down “Donate” menu to select Donate Now.
  
• Fill out the required fields
• A new screen will give you donation choices from $25-$1,000, but there is also an “Other” selection where you can input any amount.
• You can designate any program you like from the drop-down menu.
• After inputting your payment information, please paste the following in the comments section “Savvy Verse & Wit Poetry Donation Drive.”

Once you’ve done that, please come back and leave your confirmation number or email it to me at savvyverseandwit at gmail dot com with “Savvy Verse & Wit Poetry Donation Drive” in the subject.

I’ll pick a random winner for the following books:

1.  Wishing Trees by John Shors

2.  Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye

Deadline for this GLOBAL giveaway is Sept. 30, 2010 — Deadline extension to Oct. 30, 2010, at 11:59PM EST

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

Forgotten treasures abound throughout literature from classics to unknown contemporary novels, but as expected, I want to talk about poetry and the forms of poetry that are not often used or attempted anymore.

A majority of poetry these days is in free verse, though there are some contemporary poets who do dabble in sonnet, which is considered a restrictive form.

Sonnets come in two styles:  Shakespearean and Petrarchan.  Shakespearean sonnets are those most taught in school and consist of 14 lines  in iambic pentameter, which could be thought of a normal speaking rhythm, and contain ten syllables in each line.  These sonnet also typically have the following rhyme scheme:  a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g — with the final lines rhyming one another.  Petrarchan sonnets, on the other hand, have an octave and sestet that offers a resolution at the end of the poem, while the ninth line offers a change in tone or mood.  The typical rhyme scheme begins with a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, while the remainder of the rhyme scheme offers one of two choice:  c-d-e-c-d-e or c-d-c-c-d-c.

Check out the example from Shakespeare:

Sonnet 20

A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women’s fashion:
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created;
Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated,
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick’d thee out for women’s pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.

Check out the example of a Petrarchan Sonnet by Petrarch:

Sonnet 131

I’d sing of Love in such a novel fashion
that from her cruel side I would draw by force
a thousand sighs a day, kindling again
in her cold mind a thousand high desires;

I’d see her lovely face transform quite often
her eyes grow wet and more compassionate,
like one who feels regret, when it’s too late,
for causing someone’s suffering by mistake;

And I’d see scarlet roses in the snows,
tossed by the breeze, discover ivory
that turns to marble those who see it near them;

All this I’d do because I do not mind
my discontentment in this one short life,
but glory rather in my later fame.

Villanelle is another style that has disappeared from contemporary literature and contains not only rhyme, but a refrain using either trimeter or tetrameter.  Trimeter is three metric feet per line, while tetrameter is four metrical feet.  The poem has 19 lines.  These poems only have two rhyme sounds and the first and third line of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the final line of each successive stanza before forming a rhyming couplet at the end of the poem.

Here’s an example from Dylan Thomas:

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Sestina has six six-line stanzas with a tercet for a total of 39 lines.  The same six words end the lines of the six-line stanzas, but in alternating order:  123456, 615243, 364125, 532614, 451362, and finally 246531.  “These six words then appear in the tercet as well, with the tercet’s first line usually containing 6 and 2, its second 1 and 4, and its third 5 and 3,” according to Wikipedia.

Here’s an example from Ezra Pound:

Sestina:  Altaforte

Loquitur: En Bertrans de Born.
Dante Alighieri put this man in hell for that he was a
stirrer-up of strife.
Eccovi!
Judge ye!
Have I dug him up again?
The scene in at his castle, Altaforte. “Papiols” is his jongleur.
“The Leopard,” the device of Richard (Cúur de Lion).

I

Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let’s to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.

II

In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth’s foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav’n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God’s swords clash.

III

Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!
Better one hour’s stour than a year’s peace
With fat boards, bawds, wine and frail music!
Bah! there’s no wine like the blood’s crimson!

IV

And I love to see the sun rise blood-crimson.
And I watch his spears through the dark clash
And it fills all my heart with rejoicing
And pries wide my mouth with fast music
When I see him so scorn and defy peace,
His lone might ‘gainst all darkness opposing.

V

The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth’s won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill all the air with my music.

VI

Papiols, Papiols, to the music!
There’s no sound like to swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle’s rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson
And our charges ‘gainst “The Leopard’s” rush clash.
May God damn for ever all who cry “Peace!”

VII

And let the music of the swords make them crimson!
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
Hell blot black for always the thought “Peace!”

Cinquain is another often forgotten form that has two styles Crapsey and Didactic, but each has a five-line pattern.  Crapsey cinquains have a syllable count of 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, with a fixed number of stressed syllables in this pattern:  1, 2, 3, 4, 1, using iamb.  Didactic cinquains generally begin with a one-word title, followed by a pair of adjectives describing the title/subject of the poem.  The third line is a three-word phrase that provides more information about the title, and the fourth line has four words to describe feelings related to the subject.  In the fifth line is a single-word synonym or another reference to the title/subject.

Crapsey Cinquain example:

November Night

Listen. . .
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall.

These forms do take quite a bit of patience and diligence to craft, and I applaud any contemporary poet that takes them on.  I’ve always loved sestinas and villanelles, but I can’t seem to write them well.  It’s something that will take a lot of practice.

For the GLOBAL giveaway:

Tell me which of these forms you would find hardest to write and why.

or

Provide an example of one of your favorite poems in one of these forms.

Deadline is Sept. 19, 2010, at 11:59PM EST

Books up for Grabs:

1.  A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

2.  The Tudor Rose by Margaret Campbell Barnes

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by to check out the giveaway by making their own poem and those that read and commented on my interview with Book Harbinger.

Today’s topic is to discuss an unexpected treasure — a book or genre I’ve tried because of a blogger’s recommendation.  I cannot tell you how many times bloggers have influenced my reading choices.

Dewey began it when she recommended the novella The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett.  I miss her dearly — her reading and her enthusiasm for books was infectious.

In the last year, I’ve read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane on audio book because Sandy at You’ve Gotta Read This!!! was blown away by the audio.  Her thoughts on the audio were infectious, and I had to check if my library had a copy of this audio.  I got it on playaway, and while the narration was eerie and engaging, the story itself didn’t affect me the way that it affected her, but I was OK with that.

On the other hand, My Friend Amy and Things Mean A Lot reviewed Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart and I knew it was a book I had to read.  As a poet, I knew the lyrical and descriptive language would be right up my alley and I was not disappointed.  Kephart’s writing is something I had been searching for in young adult literature.  Her novels deal with universal themes of grief, death, sibling rivalry, love, and coming of age, but her writing pulls you in and will not let you go.

I was so enthralled by this writer and her novel that I’ve read two others since.  I really enjoyed Undercover, which spoke to my inner teenager who wrote in secret and was often on the outside of the social circles in my junior and senior high school years.  Kephart captured a time in my life that I thought no one could possibly understand.  Her latest book, Dangerous Neighbors, is a different young adult novel that is set in 1876 Philadelphia.  Many of the YA novels I’ve read are contemporary, and it was a real treat to read a novel set in the past.

For my second GLOBAL BBAW giveaway, all you have to do is answer one of the following questions.

What bloggers have influenced you this year? And what books have they encouraged you to read?

or

What book do you think readers have been influenced to read by your own blog?

Deadline is Sept. 19, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST

What’s up for grabs: (click the links for my reviews)

1.  The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie

2.  Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen

3.  A Dangerous Affair by Caro Peacock

Stay tuned for more giveaways this week!