John Donne:
Laura Jensen:
Robert Louis Stevenson:
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Carolyn Forché:
Osip Mandelstam (tr. from Russian by W.S. Merwin and Clarence Brown):
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Donne--So much to appreciate 1. rhyme scheme a, a, a, a, b, b. 2. Fire is referenced 5 times in a short poem (burnt 3 & fire 2), 3. the spondee ending line one gives a forceful and fun leap into the poem. 4. the caesurae in every line creates balance and silence in the middle of each line. Unity of sound and sense is astounding.
Stevenson--I love the spondee opening the first line because it implores an urgency. I also love the image of "castles on foam" since it's openly imaginative.
Forche--I love all the liquids (poetic color) at the start of the poem (the "l"); it reminds me of There's a poem I cannot find yet that has a lot of "w" together. Can't find it...But I love sound chains with liquids sounds. (Karl Shapiro writes on poetic color). I also love this kinetic image--"fish greace spits at darkness."