How delightful. A perfectly timed poem. The bluejays were active in our backyard at lunchtime today and my husband called my attention to one sitting on the maple tree above the snowy yard.
I don't often find poems with no rhyme and irregular meter that intriguing, but this one just trips off the tongue, creating the scene perfectly with each line. And the bluejay! I have had times when I was experiencing a wonderful day and then looked out the window to see either a bluejay or a cardinal sitting in our gingko and felt my heart stop at the sheer beauty, far beyond what I was already experiencing. This poem captures that moment perfectly.
Beautiful, refreshing kind of poem! Thank you. And I don’t know why, but that little choice of words “Fantastic shapes in vivid blue” just seems to fall trippingly from the tongue in a most satisfying way when said aloud.
And the culmination on the bluejay links with the culmination on the “vivid blue” of the shadows at the end of the opening sentence, both with their descriptions of shape and movement. Wonderful.
The artistry with which she plays with the rhythms isn’t obvious from a visual glance.
For instance, in contrast to the opening pair of “crisp” metrical trimeters, the following pentameter is an enlarged *rhythmic* trimeter (3 primary beats: 1st, 3rd & last), the expansion of a leisurely walk and a trailing behind - of the dancing shadows, which waltz through 3 tight rhythmic *pairs* of beats (couched within a dimeter & tetrameter), identically shaped.
The second sentence, observing the skaters, is a single metrical trimeter (again with that inviting tail - that extra endline offbeat -, just like the introductory 1st & 3rd lines) succeeded by another 3 pairs of beats - this time, confined to one line each. This time with more varied movement, as we move out from the individual “to and fro“ (expressed as two tight iambs), to the collective “weaving”, where we see the introduction of a falling rhythm on the 2nd beat pair (sharp turns / weaving), and a final anapest as the “frail” net expands.
One could analyse the rest of the poem similarly (including how the two metric monometers - ‘But no,’… ‘’”Oh, look!”’ - complete a rhythmic trimeter & 3 pairs of beats respectively), but I’ll finish by noting the neat, enhanced closure on a 4/3 common meter rhythm in the final two line sentence - this time, *ending* on that inviting tail!
Oh I love that the "fantastic shadows" take this solid shape at the end.
She did have such a classically trained ear....
Her sensitivity to sound is so evident in her work as well. Her work is among my earliest loves. She has never felt to me quite as intense in her "sensibility" as some others I love, but very very finely tuned.
How delightful. A perfectly timed poem. The bluejays were active in our backyard at lunchtime today and my husband called my attention to one sitting on the maple tree above the snowy yard.
I don't often find poems with no rhyme and irregular meter that intriguing, but this one just trips off the tongue, creating the scene perfectly with each line. And the bluejay! I have had times when I was experiencing a wonderful day and then looked out the window to see either a bluejay or a cardinal sitting in our gingko and felt my heart stop at the sheer beauty, far beyond what I was already experiencing. This poem captures that moment perfectly.
Beautiful, refreshing kind of poem! Thank you. And I don’t know why, but that little choice of words “Fantastic shapes in vivid blue” just seems to fall trippingly from the tongue in a most satisfying way when said aloud.
So lovely! Thank you.....
And the culmination on the bluejay links with the culmination on the “vivid blue” of the shadows at the end of the opening sentence, both with their descriptions of shape and movement. Wonderful.
The artistry with which she plays with the rhythms isn’t obvious from a visual glance.
For instance, in contrast to the opening pair of “crisp” metrical trimeters, the following pentameter is an enlarged *rhythmic* trimeter (3 primary beats: 1st, 3rd & last), the expansion of a leisurely walk and a trailing behind - of the dancing shadows, which waltz through 3 tight rhythmic *pairs* of beats (couched within a dimeter & tetrameter), identically shaped.
The second sentence, observing the skaters, is a single metrical trimeter (again with that inviting tail - that extra endline offbeat -, just like the introductory 1st & 3rd lines) succeeded by another 3 pairs of beats - this time, confined to one line each. This time with more varied movement, as we move out from the individual “to and fro“ (expressed as two tight iambs), to the collective “weaving”, where we see the introduction of a falling rhythm on the 2nd beat pair (sharp turns / weaving), and a final anapest as the “frail” net expands.
One could analyse the rest of the poem similarly (including how the two metric monometers - ‘But no,’… ‘’”Oh, look!”’ - complete a rhythmic trimeter & 3 pairs of beats respectively), but I’ll finish by noting the neat, enhanced closure on a 4/3 common meter rhythm in the final two line sentence - this time, *ending* on that inviting tail!
Oh I love that the "fantastic shadows" take this solid shape at the end.
She did have such a classically trained ear....
Her sensitivity to sound is so evident in her work as well. Her work is among my earliest loves. She has never felt to me quite as intense in her "sensibility" as some others I love, but very very finely tuned.