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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Don’t Know Much About Poetry: Repetition
(Hey, we can't talk about politics all the time.)
In a way, repetition in poetry is a goes-without-saying sort of topic. A poem, after all, is supposed to conform to some scheme of rhyme and meter, and such things are inherently repetitious. But there's more to the matter than that.
Much "folk poetry," of the sort that's frequently expressed in sea chanties, field hollers, and country blues, feathres the repetition of a particular image, or sometimes a line or a group of lines. Of course, song lyrics often exhibit significant repetition, whether it be verse / refrain or some other scheme.
The function of repetition in a good poem isn't just to take up space. It must be to reinforce some aspect of the poem's prevailing imagery or mood. Oftentimes, the repetition is the key to what was on the poet's mind as he wrote, as in the following gorgeous piece:
MichelangeloLast night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were older
You were looking like Picasso
With a scar across your shoulder
You were kneeling by the river
You were digging up the bodies
Buried long ago
MichelangeloLast night I dreamed about you
I dreamed you were a pilgrim
On a highway out alone to find
The mother of your children
Who were still unborn and waiting
In the wings of some desire
Abandoned long ago
MichelangeloWere you there at Armageddon
Was Paris really burning
Could I have been the one to pull you
From the point of no returning
And did I hear you calling out my name
Or was it forgotten long ago
MichelangeloLast night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were riding
On a blood red painted pony
Up where the heavens were dividing
And the angels turned to ashes
You came tumbling with them to the earth
So far below
MichelangeloLast night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you lay dying
In a field of thorns and roses
With a hawk above you crying
For the warrior slain in battle
From an arrow driven deep inside you
Long ago
MichelangeloDid you suffer at the end
Would there be no one to remember
Did you banish all the old ghosts
As the terms of your surrender
And could you hear me calling out your name
Well I guess that I will never know
MichelangeloLast night I dreamed about you
I dreamed that you were weeping
And your tears poured down like diamonds
For a love beyond all keeping
And you caught them one by one
In a million silk bandannas that I gave you long ago
Michelangelo(Emmylou Harris, from her 2000 award-winning album Red Dirt Girl)
The use of repetition in the above transforms the lyric from a possibly ambiguous one to a love poem. Without the repeated references to dreams, and narrator and subject calling out the other's name in alternate bridge verses, it could be taken for a paean of a less emotional sort. The narrator's deliberate use of the name "Michelangelo" for her subject is significant as well; it makes plain that the poet isn't the only artist before us. The narrator idolizes her subject; she has raised him well above the common ruck of Mankind, and she wants us to know it.
What poems, classic or contemporary, have employed repetition comparable to the above in a fashion you find compelling?
Comments
Most immediately jumped to my mind the Charge of the Light Brigade.
I’m a latecomer to Leonard Cohen-- inexplicable, I know-- but Hallelujah is fairly new to me but will stay with me always. Suzanne has always been a favorite as well.
And most anything by Neruda should be amongst my very favorites.
Posted by Joan of Argghh! on 04/13/2010 at 07:48 PM
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