ASK US – ANSWER THIS
Updated 1/6/2004
Sol Magazine's Editors invite you to ASK US – ANSWER THIS.
Submit a question about a poem, a poetic topic, or a poet. If your question is about what we do at Sol Magazine, we may answer it here on our website under the heading of ASK US.
If your question is of general interest, we may post it here and invite our poets and readers to ANSWER THIS. If a general question is not answered fully within a month, our staff will attempt to answer the question.
2004 JANUARY’S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
What is the “Terzanelle” poetry form?
Answer: From Sol Magazine’s Staff
The Terzanelle is a modified Villanelle that uses the Terza Rima's interlocked rhyme pattern, but includes the Villanelle’s form with five Triplets and a Quatrain, plus the middle line of the 1st stanza becomes the 3rd line of the next stanza.
According to Damon McLaughlin,* because of repeated line changes and rhyme sound changes (to Terza Rima structure) repetition in the Terzanelle is subtle and can give a lush texture to the poem. He also claims that while Terzanelle's are difficult to write, they are fun to play with.
* http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry/villanelle.html
2003 APRIL’S ANSWER THIS (This topic now closed.)
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
Answer: From Sol Magazine’s Staff
The Cento is a literary or a musical composition formed by “borrowing” portions of work from one or more authors, then placing that work in a different order.
Answer: From Maryann Hazen Stearns, Guest Editor
The
Cento, pronounced SEN-to, is a form of writing that takes select portions of
others' works and weaves them into one piece of poetry or prose. It is a Roman
poetic form meaning "stitched together," and is usually 100 lines in
length. The Semi-Cento consists of fifty lines. There are Centos and Semi-Centos,
which are written completely in different languages, that is to say, each line
of the poem is in a different language.
Answer: From Jeanette Oestermyer, Guest Editor
"Cento" is Latin for “Patchwork.” It is a poem made up of passages from poems by one or more authors; a patchwork of quotations; a literary collage; a pastiche (in its sense as a mixture of poetic excerpts). The Cento was originally composed entirely of quotations from a single source. It is somewhat related to a Found Poem, which uses phrases or lines from other literary works.
2002: AUGUST’S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
What is the "Rondeau” poetry form?
Answer from Gary Blankenship, Guest Editor:
A Rondeau is a French form with 15-lines divided into a quintet (five lines), quatrain (four lines), and sestet (six lines). The first few words of the first line act as a refrain ending lines 9 and 15. (A refrain is a phrase, line or stanza repeated regularly or irregularly throughout a poem.) These refrain lines do not rhyme, but repeating the fragment seems to imply the rest of the line, including the rhyme. The rhyme, therefore, acts invisibly.
The usual thyme scheme is:
aabba
aabRefrain
aabbaRefrain.
An 8-syllable line is traditional.
Note that some variation in the refrain is generally allowed in modern poetry. Also, near-rhyme is common in this form and others of its type.
Rondeau Collector
When will it end, this obsession
to multiply my possessions?
Belongings sought, then even more,
each cupboard and every drawer
overflows with my collections.
To make a decent impression
or simply for conversation?
Trashy kickshaw made for junk stores
(where it all ends).
Perhaps my inner expression
is released through the suggestion
that the dreary claptrap is pure
in its propriety before
the bar of my bare ambition.
So it now ends.
Gary Blankenship, Bremerton, WA, USA
Definition summarized from The Book of Forms by Lewis Turco, Hanover, NH: UP of New England, 2000.
2002: MAY'S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
What is a "Ghazal?"
Answer from Sol Staff: Pronounced something like “Ghuz-awl,” the Ghazal began simply as rhyming romantic poems, with an average of seven couplets, where the couplets (two-line stanzas) were united more by meter and rhyme, rather than by content. Each couplet was self-contained, and the two lines were of a similar length from couplet to couplet. The original Persian form, still popular in Iran, India and Pakistan, usually had between five and twelve couplets, with the name of the poet signed as part of the final stanza. Although still succinct in form, contemporary Ghazals no longer usually rhyme, poets no longer sign their names in the last stanza, and the poems are no longer exclusively about love or drinking. All that remains of the original form seems to be long-lined couplets, usually on mystical topics, and the idea that the independent couplets of a Ghazal need not be unified in concept or theme.
For more about this form, see “The Teachers and Writers Handbook of Poetic forms,” edited by Ron Padgett.
2002: FEBRUARY'S ASK US
Question to Sol Magazine's Staff from Kasey Thompson, Ft. Worth TX, USA
Although I have heard the term used, I cannot find 'wordsmith' in my dictionary. What does it mean?
Answer from Sol Magazine's Staff: A wordsmith is person who works with words, usually a skilled, fluent and prolific writer, especially one who writes professionally. An expert on words, or sometimes one who coins new words or phrases.
word·smith (wûrdsmth) n.
1. Author, writer.
2. Scribe, penman, scribbler, journalist, reporter, correspondent, stringer, columnist, novelist, playwright, dramatist, screenwriter, essayist, poet, littérateur, hack, reviewer, critic.
Sources:
1) Dictionary.com online at: http://www.dictionary.com/doctor/
2) Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary online at: http://www.m-w.com/
3) Hypertext Webster Gateway: http://work.ucsd.edu:5141/cgi-bin/http_webster
Answer 2 from Jean McAllister, Redmond, WA, USA: More thoughts on Wordsmith: A smith is someone who shapes metals (silver, iron, gold, etc.). So the additional idea of shaping might be considered in understanding the full meaning of wordsmith. As poets, we shape an idea, an image, an emotion into a particular pattern that becomes a poem.
Note: Jean McAllister is the former Book Editor for Sol Magazine.
2002: JANUARY'S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
What is "Blues Poetry?"
Answer: From S.J. Baldock, Lancaster, TX, Guest Editor –
This is the centenary year of Langston Hughes, the first poet to recognize “the blues” as America's great lyric form. Additionally, he was the first poet to write jazz verse.
Answer: From Corrie Prattley, Southland, New Zealand, Guest Editor –
One definition of blues songs or poetry: Oral and written black American folk or popular melancholic songs or poems of the early Twentieth Century. The ones I have read seem to depict the black American history. Often referred to as Jazz poetry.
Answer: By Sol Magazine's Staff –
Blues poetry came from a musical form known as “the blues,” American, yet rooted in African music. The earliest ancestors of the blues were “field hollers” and work songs used by slaves in the deep South before the Civil War. The musical form become more well known around 1900 because of W.C. Handy, the composer of “St. Louis Blues.” There are two types of blues, one with no particular form, but typical content of the blues, and the other has blues content with the form of old blues songs. Most folks who write in blues poetry compose their work around something depressing, using “down-home” language, “where it ain’t bad to say ‘ain’t.’“ (This definition borrowed in part from the Teachers and Writers “Handbook of Poetic Forms,” edited by Ron Padgett, T&W Collaborative, 1987.)
2002: JANUARY'S ASK US
Question: To Sol Magazine's Staff from Stevi Mcgill, Quitman, TX, USA.
When your contests are judged, is there one judge for each contest, or do several judges collaborate for a majority vote? Also, what is "blind" judging?
Answer: Sometimes, when we have previously worked with a judge, that person judges alone. However, we prefer to "team-judge" our competitions, and ask two to three judges to collaborate on each contest. This way, if one judge must drop out for some reason, the others complete the work. Also, with more than one judge working, a poem may receive comments from several perspectives.
Our definition of "blind" judging is when no one (except the person who receives the entries) knows from where or whom individual entries originated until winners are posted to our website. Each poem is receives a code, and all other identification such as name, city, state, and country, is removed before judging. All contests at Sol Magazine are "blind" judged, unless labeled otherwise.
from 2001 --
DECEMBER'S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our readers and poets–
Who was Guilllaume Apollinaire, and what did he contribute to poetry?
Answer: By Joe Boush, Chattanooga, TN, USA, Guest Editor –
His real name was Wilhelm-Apollinaris von Kostrowitzky. He was a poet of French, Italian, and Polish heritage, born in Rome in 1880 and died in Paris. He was a pioneer in French poetry, influenced by the rapid succession of frames in the silent movies.
Answer: By Eileen Sateriale, Bowie, MD, USA, Guest Editor –
Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) took part in the avant garde movement of French Literature at the beginning of the 20th century. He settled in Paris at the age of twenty and was friends with Picasso and other cubist innovators. He published several books of poems. He was probably the son of a Polish girl and an Italian aristocrat. He was educated in France, and at one time in his life assumed the identity of a Russian Prince. On November 9, 1918 he died of influenza.
Answer: By Sol Magazine's Staff –
In 1918, the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire invented a poetry form called the Calligram. The word "calligram" is derived from the Greek "calli" and "gramma," which together mean "beautiful writing." Apollinaire invented a poetry form of the word and used it as a title for a book of poems. His poems didn't look like poems; they used new combination and shapes of words and lines. They were different from shaped or "concrete" poems, for some were not in the shape of a particular thing; the lines were tilted around the page or with words in various different sizes. His poetry took a step toward making each work into a piece of visual art. See "Teachers & Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms," edited by Ron Padgett, for a more complete answer. See November's ANSWER THIS for a related topic, concrete poetry.
NOVEMBER'S ANSWER THIS
Question: From Sol Magazine's Staff to our poets and readers –
What is concrete poetry?
Answer: By Stephanie Jan Baldock, Dallas, TX, USA – Guest Editor.
Concrete poetry is visual poetry that utilizes spatially structured words to convey the meaning of the poem. The arrangement on the page is significant, with the poet using WORDS much as a painter uses representational forms.
Example:
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Me
me
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