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Jewish World Review
Poetry in action
By
Randy A. Salas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
(MCT) Have you ever taken an online personality quiz? Yes, they're just for fun, but surely you've wondered how accurate they are, even as they insist that you'd be a St. Bernard if you were a dog or Mr. Spock if you were a "Star Trek" character. The latest such quiz to be sent Web Search's way -- What Poetry Form Are You? -- provided perfect fodder for a column about April being National Poetry Month. I was in the middle of taking it when a bona-fide poet happened by the Web Search office. You can probably guess where this is going.The setupBritish poet Josephine Dickinson recently released her first U.S. book, "Silence Fell," published with the help of Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Galway Kinnell. The two writers appeared last week in the Twin Cities as part of Talking Volumes, which is co-sponsored by the Star Tribune. So it wasn't a complete surprise when Dickinson turned up in the newsroom in the company of the newspaper's book editor, Sally Williams. Upon meeting Dickinson, whom I had seen at the literary event, I told the two women about the quiz, What Poetry Form Are You? Williams lit up. Wouldn't it be fun, she said, if Dickinson took the quiz? Capital idea. The poet good-naturedly accepted the invitation.The quizOne quality that makes What Poetry Form Are You? (quiz.ravenblack.net/poeticform.pl) such an endearing quiz is the loopy questions that it asks. "What parts of the 'Lord of the Rings' books did you skip?"Which of the little piggies behaved in a sensible manner?"The best sort of food comes in ... ?" There's no way to decipher what it's trying to find out, which is probably the point. It could be random, for all the quiz-taker knows. But Dickinson gamely worked through the 10 questions with a constant smile and occasional befuddlement. She once started to read "The Lord of the Rings" books but could never finish, so she answered, "I haven't read it yet." She thought the little piggy who cried, "Wee, wee, wee," all the way home acted most sensibly. The best kind of food definitely comes in lumps, said the poet, who runs a sheep farm. The other seven questions included one in which she expressed concern that dropping even a cream bun off of a 66-story building might hurt someone below. Then we pressed the button that said, "What Poetry Form Am I?"The resultDickinson's answer came in the form of a poem, as the result always does with this delightful quiz:I'm the lai, with no sort Of grave, solemn thought, And I Will never be caught By miseries sought, Nor sigh; Where battles are fought Or arguments brought, I fly.Dickinson, Williams and I looked at one another with the same thought: "What's a lai?" We looked it up online and found that it was a narrative form popular in northern Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Five-syllable couplets are followed by a two-syllable line, but rhyme patterns do not repeat among its indeterminate number of stanzas. The answer is in the form of a lai. Dickinson seemed delighted by the result. She and Williams agreed that the answer described the spirit of her poetry, if not its form.The follow-upSo how does a nonpoet -- that would be your friendly Web Search geek -- fare in matters of poetry forms? According to the first two lines of my lengthy answer:I am heroic couplets; most precise And fond of order. Planned and structured. Nice.So, I'm a heroic couplet. Based on the question about the little piggies, I guess that's better than being a heroic cutlet.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Randy A. Salas is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Do you have a favorite Web site or a question about how to find something on the Internet? Send a note by clicking here.
Previously:
In the news
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Readers have questions, concerns
Quick, give me a word
Driving you crazy
The joy of Bob Ross
Online goes prime time
You don't need to know this
Remembering the creator of Scooby-Doo
Do-it-yourself art
‘Leave me alone!’
Special deliveries
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Wonders never cease
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Turn your handwriting into a computer-based font that will allow you to churn out homespun greetings
Music for everyone
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Central characters
E-mail @ 35
Idle chatter
Funny money
Classic artwork in motion
For an unusual Thanksgiving
Your slip is showing
Best of the worst
Test your mind power
Remain anonymous
© 2007, Star Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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