Sunday, December 17, 2006

I Really Hope You Appreciate All These Sacrifices I Am Making, Part Two

This month's party is taking a strange toll on me. To be more specific, reading so much Tennyson is melting my own chimpy skills. Yesterday, for instance, I was working on a poem for my new manuscript Plow Me Deep, Plant Pumpkinheads when I ran into a snag: I wanted to use the word "sharpening" in the third line, but I would have preferred a word with one fewer syllable--I'm not writing in form, but the third syllable unbalanced the line. "Not a problem," I thought chimpily, triumphantly, "I can just use 'sharp'ning' instead." And basked in the glory of my resourcefulness for a full minute before I awoke in a reeking cold cell of talentlessness and idiocy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think "sharp'ning" is a great idea. It promotes a mind-set in which you can draw fine metrical distinctions between preterites--between, for example, "walked" and "walk'd," and you can oblige readers to notice the difference between "e'er" and "ere." "Zounds!" and "'Sblood!" won't be far behind.

Patricia Lockwood said...

I'm way ahead of you, RHE--I've got a poem that consists entirely of the word "zounds" repeated three hundred times. I call it "Aubade."