"Lines Written During a Period of Insanity." Damn I have to remember this tactic for deflecting/excusing/explaining/distancing from a demented poem written about hell (or any other topic possibly questionable)... Very useful...
The word order in these lines--"Twice betrayed, Jesus me, the last delinquent, / Deems the profanest"--should not work in English, or at least they shouldn't work for me, so easily irritated by the inversions employed by hymn writers to move the rhyme word to the end of the line. Cowper of course is not rhyming. Arranging the syntax to give the juxtaposition of subject and object in "Jesus me" is stunning.
If I'm imitating the approach of Stephen Booth in "Shakespeare's Sonnets," I detect a grim ambivalence revealed by removing a comma: "Twice betrayed Jesus me...."
Here, Cowper's adapted the Sapphic to be less removed from English meter. Traditionally, the pattern for the long lines is:
DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-di-DUM-di-DUM-di
In this poem, though every line ends on a tail (an extra offbeat at the end), he doesn't follow this pattern. He employs standard iambic variations, and where he does employ that "DUM-di-di-DUM" pattern that normally occurs in the middle of the Sapphic, he instead shifts it to the opening (a trochee-iamb combi, or what I call a "swing"):
HAtred and VE | Ngeance, MY eTERnal PORtion
Most of his lines open this way, but many don't: he's felt free to vary it according to his expressive needs.
Some lines open with a trochee-spondee combi (or what I call a "catch"):
THEREfore HELL KEEPS | her Ever HUNgry MOUTHS all
Some with a spondee:
HARD LOT! | enCOMpassed WITH a THOUsand DANgers
And once with iambs:
i'm CALLED, if VANquished, TO reCEIVE a SENtence
(I've capitalised "to" to indicate beat placement, but it's probably best delivered as a light beat. The same might be true of "with" in the "Hard lot!" line).
Interesting contrast to the Julie Steiner Sapphic you linked, both in tone and adherence to the Sapphic pattern!
Excellent essay on Cowper - right on target about his mental state and the therapeutic effect of poetry. John Clare is another; Ezra Pound, too. But you’re right, good poetry and mental illness are uncommon. But many people, who are not accomplished poets, find solace in their own verse
Mental illness is probably on a spectrum, which makes the matter more complicated, there being no bright lines marking out precisely where insanity starts.
One could think of how high rates of mental illness are now, especially among the young. But that is quite likely at least partly attributable to a broadening of the definitions of mental illnesses.
"Lines Written During a Period of Insanity." Damn I have to remember this tactic for deflecting/excusing/explaining/distancing from a demented poem written about hell (or any other topic possibly questionable)... Very useful...
Cannot a merciful God would trap one for eternity, either above or below ground, encased and separate for eternity. Others do, hence the poem.
The word order in these lines--"Twice betrayed, Jesus me, the last delinquent, / Deems the profanest"--should not work in English, or at least they shouldn't work for me, so easily irritated by the inversions employed by hymn writers to move the rhyme word to the end of the line. Cowper of course is not rhyming. Arranging the syntax to give the juxtaposition of subject and object in "Jesus me" is stunning.
If I'm imitating the approach of Stephen Booth in "Shakespeare's Sonnets," I detect a grim ambivalence revealed by removing a comma: "Twice betrayed Jesus me...."
A nice observation
Pentameter, not hexameter!
Here, Cowper's adapted the Sapphic to be less removed from English meter. Traditionally, the pattern for the long lines is:
DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-di-DUM-di-DUM-di
In this poem, though every line ends on a tail (an extra offbeat at the end), he doesn't follow this pattern. He employs standard iambic variations, and where he does employ that "DUM-di-di-DUM" pattern that normally occurs in the middle of the Sapphic, he instead shifts it to the opening (a trochee-iamb combi, or what I call a "swing"):
HAtred and VE | Ngeance, MY eTERnal PORtion
Most of his lines open this way, but many don't: he's felt free to vary it according to his expressive needs.
Some lines open with a trochee-spondee combi (or what I call a "catch"):
THEREfore HELL KEEPS | her Ever HUNgry MOUTHS all
Some with a spondee:
HARD LOT! | enCOMpassed WITH a THOUsand DANgers
And once with iambs:
i'm CALLED, if VANquished, TO reCEIVE a SENtence
(I've capitalised "to" to indicate beat placement, but it's probably best delivered as a light beat. The same might be true of "with" in the "Hard lot!" line).
Interesting contrast to the Julie Steiner Sapphic you linked, both in tone and adherence to the Sapphic pattern!
Excellent essay on Cowper - right on target about his mental state and the therapeutic effect of poetry. John Clare is another; Ezra Pound, too. But you’re right, good poetry and mental illness are uncommon. But many people, who are not accomplished poets, find solace in their own verse
Mental illness is probably on a spectrum, which makes the matter more complicated, there being no bright lines marking out precisely where insanity starts.
One could think of how high rates of mental illness are now, especially among the young. But that is quite likely at least partly attributable to a broadening of the definitions of mental illnesses.
Among female poets, Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Jennings come to mind.