Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!rccall
From: rccall@dartvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: Re: Blank verse...
Message-ID: <227@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 18-Sep-83 17:18:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.227
Posted: Sun Sep 18 17:18:41 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Sep-83 23:04:15 EDT
References: syteka.366
Lines: 25

I must say that I agree with "dann" for the most part
about blank verse.  The problem with it is that everybody
writes it -- and thinks that
  just by throwing
  a few lines on a page
  it is possible for one to create
  a masterful work of art
  especially
  if you don't capitalize
  at all.
Well, let's face it -- that's just not the case.  If anything,
blank verse makes VERY high demands on poets, since there's no
underlying structure to give the poem any coherence and/or
consistency.  Not that there isn't any GOOD blank verse --
check out Theodore Roethke sometime -- but also observe
that his poems are very carefully crafted in order to achieve
their effects.
Blank verse, I think, is (or should be) just as demanding and
difficult to write as rhymed, metered verse.  If more people
would realize that, we'd suffer a lot less in reading it.
 
P.S.  I must add that in speaking of "Blank verse," I really
      mean "Free verse" -- technically, blank verse is metered
      (iambic pentameter) and so at least it has structure, even
     if it is not rhymed.