It’s been a while since I’ve added any posts to this blog. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been craeting a blizzard of new poetry, but I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately. It happens; it’ll pass. I’ve been editing work I thought was finished and finishing work I thought was edited. Am I in a state of repose? Well, I’m not anxious. I know my creative spring will flow again if I don’t force it.
I did sketch out a “poetry primer” for friends and family who are (sometimes) interested in my writing. Like other poets, I’m concerned that reading poetry is dying. I thought if I could give them an analysis of a published poem I might spark some interest in their reading more poetry. It didn’t work.
So, now you get the honor of reading my analysis, which begins following:
Sometimes (most of the times in my case) things fit together in one’s mind that seem cock-eyed; say like art and civil engineering. But, as Norman Maclean wrote “It’s all cockeyed and it all fits.” He meant, I think, don’t expect normal, because normal is meant to be cockeyed.
So, back to art and engineering. An angle of repose in engineering refers to the steepest slope relative to horizontal where material (think rocks, dirt) verges on sliding. I don’t think there’s a related term in painting, but the positioning of models uses, or abuses, the angle of repose. Titian’s Venus of Urbino
appears to be situated so she won’t slide, but did the model for Modigliani’s Act on a Sofa teeter on the verge of her angle of repose?
http://www.allpaintings.org/d/34374-2/Amedeo+Modigliani+-+Act+on+a+sofa+_Almaiisa_.jpg
The engineering term popped into my head as I was looking at the Modigliani painting (Wallace Stegner’s book, Angle of Repose, popped up, too – if I recall the angle of repose he wrote about was family stability). How did she stay aboard that sofa? And what was Modigliani thinking about when he posed her?
Angle of Repose
Think of a Modigliani model,
fully exposed, reclining
on a couch, almost slouching
into her pose, vaguely abstract,
as if her Act on a Sofa were
inclined to slide off, causing her
to feign comfort—the awkward
left arm, the pained smile,
and all the while the composed
painter saying, this is the precise
angle of repose I was hoping for.
(copyright 2010 by Geordie de Boer; appeared in The Meadowland Review, October 2010)
This poem can be viewed, which I prefer since literary journals can use all the readers they can muster whatever the means, at
http://www.themeadowlandreview.com/
and you can view it online, or download a free PDF copy.
Angle of Repose is a free verse lyrical poem. Even though rhyme plays a large role in the poem it’s internal, within the lines, not end-rhyme. It has no set meter and the line-breaks interrupt what metrical rhythm gets started. However, it has a rhythm created by internal rhyme and the repetition of sounds, vowel and consonants (alliteration, or assonance and consonance).
It’s a lyric, because it reflects the poet’s subjective thoughts/feelings. And, because of rhymes and alliteration it’s “musical”, though I doubt it could be set to music.
Notes on Construction
Internal Rhyme:
Repose/exposed/pose/composed/repose (Wow, it’s circular!)
couch/slouching
reclining/inclined
abstract/Act
smile/while
feign/pained/painter
Alliteration:
long o in Repose, Modigliani, exposed, almost, pose, Sofa, composed, repose, hoping
em in Modigliani, model, almost
ah in causing, awkward, arm
long i in reclining, inclined, smile, while, precise, I
long a in feign, pained, painter, saying
There you have it; my attempt to expose the workings of my mind in composing the poem. I did hear from one person (I sent it to many) who said it reminded her of Lit class at university – and she thought it was fun. For me it was a lesson to keep submitting to journals so the readers of poetry (other poets) can see what I do and maybe get an idea for a poem of their own.
