Honestly, I think the best approach is to read poetry similar to what you want to compose. Read lots of it. Then just give it a try, and ask a poetically minded person to read it and give you some feedback.
Poetry is language in a harmonious union of form and content. You need to find content that resonates in your soul, then you need to practice expressing that content through formed language (rhymed quatrains, for example).
Discovering Hopkins years ago rekindled a love of poetry. His concept of 'inscape' (drawn from Scotus' 'haecceity') is a powerful metaphor for poetic intention in creation.
"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
ChrÃst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces." (As Kingfishers Catch Fire)
Before reading the last excerpt, I was already pondering the dissolution of meter and even the meanings of words in the modern world, which you have been touching on in treating modern "poetry/poets". And then this hit: "Comforter, where, where is your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?" The Churchmen of the mid-1900's promised in mere human words (as opposed to the Single Word Made Flesh) an Age of the Holy Spirit: an Age of The Comforter Who appears as Mary... and the latter did not come. So modern men, being true to fallen form, rather than recognizing the lack of merit in words divided against rather than multiplied for the One Word in bringing about the Comforter and Second Advocate that we need above all else in the present day, have instead made war against all words in general and sought comfort in a pleasure itself undefinable by words, and thus false. Thank you Robert for this incredibly thought provoking read!
God bless you for starting this account, I am eager to read all your pieces! I've been dipping my toes into Hopkins for the past few months, having been aware of him for a long while. Some of his poetry is quite difficult, as you've noted, but once understood, one gets the impression of an intensely sensitive and moral man, a character that is very easy to fall in love with. I am more in the 'neoformalist' camp in today's context, and am often unreasonably suspicious of any praise involving experimentation. So far, Hopkins has very successfully tempered this fault of mine. I look forward to your future posts.
Thank you for this comment, Luke! For me, Hopkins and T. S. Eliot are the best poets for helping me regulate my natural distrust of formal experimentation.
I am reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories during Lent. They make me sensitive to the movements of grace that, through the prism of the fallen world, appear violent. In that light, the excerpts you included from The Wreck of the Deutschland made profound and wondrous sense to me.
What I've read of O'Connor (Wise Blood, Parker's Back) seems to share with Hopkins a kind of 'gothic' darkness that is by no means impious. It is much like Lent, in which the bleak season itself becomes the stage of grace. You're very right to draw the connection.
In French, yes, but in English? Modern English punctuation doesn't allow for that, and my edition of Hopkins' poems (from a reputable scholarly publisher) doesn't include a space.
There's a lot to ponder in that essay! You strike a good balance in the treatment of technology, and I like how you brought Heidegger into the discussion.
so much for our Lord's Sunday being a day of rest!: how you tax our minds, though I do sense refunds are in order!
Paradoxically a delightful struggle indeed. Oddly all I could think of was Emily Dickenson, but please do not ask me specifically why: same abstracted words but we know there is meaning there if we just STOP long enough? "Success is counted sweetest by those who ne're succeed, to comprehend the nectar requires sorest need ..."
Is not some of the problem here the words he uses have a 19th ce meaning a bit foreign to us? The word 'fell" line 8 in final sonnet, we think of falling, when it no doubt means to knock, strike, as in "One fell Swoop."
Distress modern??? Michaelangelo,Leonardo,? I think the issue of so called modern artist's distress is that we have given, such as Freudian, nomenclature to that which should never have been named. To my mind it is all made up money grubbing subterfuge, as if distress could ever be cured, not to mention the mantle of outrageious narcissism.
It's hard to say what exactly this "poets' malady" is—there seems to be a deep, though not universal, incompatibility between poetic creativity/expressivity and modern lifestyles or modern modes of thought.
Could you please refer me to a book about beginning to write quality poetry?
What kind of poetry do you want to write?
High-school level poetry written in quatrains. It's long been my goal.
Honestly, I think the best approach is to read poetry similar to what you want to compose. Read lots of it. Then just give it a try, and ask a poetically minded person to read it and give you some feedback.
Poetry is language in a harmonious union of form and content. You need to find content that resonates in your soul, then you need to practice expressing that content through formed language (rhymed quatrains, for example).
Thank you! I will start there. :)
Discovering Hopkins years ago rekindled a love of poetry. His concept of 'inscape' (drawn from Scotus' 'haecceity') is a powerful metaphor for poetic intention in creation.
"Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
ChrÃst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces." (As Kingfishers Catch Fire)
Before reading the last excerpt, I was already pondering the dissolution of meter and even the meanings of words in the modern world, which you have been touching on in treating modern "poetry/poets". And then this hit: "Comforter, where, where is your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?" The Churchmen of the mid-1900's promised in mere human words (as opposed to the Single Word Made Flesh) an Age of the Holy Spirit: an Age of The Comforter Who appears as Mary... and the latter did not come. So modern men, being true to fallen form, rather than recognizing the lack of merit in words divided against rather than multiplied for the One Word in bringing about the Comforter and Second Advocate that we need above all else in the present day, have instead made war against all words in general and sought comfort in a pleasure itself undefinable by words, and thus false. Thank you Robert for this incredibly thought provoking read!
Thank you for this thoughtful comment Anthony, I'm really glad that you enjoyed this essay!
God bless you for starting this account, I am eager to read all your pieces! I've been dipping my toes into Hopkins for the past few months, having been aware of him for a long while. Some of his poetry is quite difficult, as you've noted, but once understood, one gets the impression of an intensely sensitive and moral man, a character that is very easy to fall in love with. I am more in the 'neoformalist' camp in today's context, and am often unreasonably suspicious of any praise involving experimentation. So far, Hopkins has very successfully tempered this fault of mine. I look forward to your future posts.
Thank you for this comment, Luke! For me, Hopkins and T. S. Eliot are the best poets for helping me regulate my natural distrust of formal experimentation.
I am reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories during Lent. They make me sensitive to the movements of grace that, through the prism of the fallen world, appear violent. In that light, the excerpts you included from The Wreck of the Deutschland made profound and wondrous sense to me.
This is a very interesting connection, Sherry!
What I've read of O'Connor (Wise Blood, Parker's Back) seems to share with Hopkins a kind of 'gothic' darkness that is by no means impious. It is much like Lent, in which the bleak season itself becomes the stage of grace. You're very right to draw the connection.
Thanks for your comment, Robert.
I take it from pen and paper writing using cursive script where the exclamation mark is separate.
It does not look right to me for the mark to form part of the word, the aesthetics are wrong.
Exclamation marks should be one space away from the word to be exclaimed.
In French, yes, but in English? Modern English punctuation doesn't allow for that, and my edition of Hopkins' poems (from a reputable scholarly publisher) doesn't include a space.
I like this very much.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on my own essay on Hopkins, if you felt like reading it. https://ksbernstein.substack.com/p/the-troubled-strife-of-earth-and.
I tried to read it, but it's behind the paywall!
Done. Thank you!
There's a lot to ponder in that essay! You strike a good balance in the treatment of technology, and I like how you brought Heidegger into the discussion.
I’m grateful to you for taking the time to read it and respond! I’ll be continuing to read your work.
Sorry! I’ll fix it tonight.
clearly you are also keeping your 'flock' well engaged too.
Thank you! That was very beautiful and informative.
You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
so much for our Lord's Sunday being a day of rest!: how you tax our minds, though I do sense refunds are in order!
Paradoxically a delightful struggle indeed. Oddly all I could think of was Emily Dickenson, but please do not ask me specifically why: same abstracted words but we know there is meaning there if we just STOP long enough? "Success is counted sweetest by those who ne're succeed, to comprehend the nectar requires sorest need ..."
Is not some of the problem here the words he uses have a 19th ce meaning a bit foreign to us? The word 'fell" line 8 in final sonnet, we think of falling, when it no doubt means to knock, strike, as in "One fell Swoop."
Distress modern??? Michaelangelo,Leonardo,? I think the issue of so called modern artist's distress is that we have given, such as Freudian, nomenclature to that which should never have been named. To my mind it is all made up money grubbing subterfuge, as if distress could ever be cured, not to mention the mantle of outrageious narcissism.
AS my mother always said..."grow up!"
Now I can stop working on our Lord's day
It's good to rest the body on the Lord's Day, but I like to keep my mind working even on Sunday!
It's hard to say what exactly this "poets' malady" is—there seems to be a deep, though not universal, incompatibility between poetic creativity/expressivity and modern lifestyles or modern modes of thought.