Saturday, October 5, 2013

Answer


     In our last blog entry this fact was mentioned:


     What, then, do the following disparate verses, as well as every other successful poem in every language, culture, form, niche or era have in common?

  • We real cool.  We
    skip school.  We

    Lurk late. We
    Strike straight.

         - from the first known curgina, "We Real Cool" written by Gwendolyn Brooks in 1959.


  • "Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
    Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

         - from Shakespeare's Sonnet LXXIII, a critics' choice for best English language poem.


  • You'll wonder where the yellow went
    when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

         - Perhaps the 20th century's most recognized couplet.


  • And hunger not of the belly kind, that’s banished with bacon and beans,
    But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;
    For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;
    But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowded with a woman’s love

         - from "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert Service, the best selling poem from the best selling poetry volume of the 20th century.


  • Look at me now!
    It is fun to have fun
    But you have to know how.

         - "The Cat in the Hat", the best known poem by Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), the best selling author--not poet but author--of the 20th century.


  • He growls as he storms the country,
    A villain big and bold.
    And the trees all shake and quiver and quake,
    As he robs them of their gold.

         - from Steve Sabol's "The Autumn Wind" (1974), the closest thing to an iconic poem in the last half century.



     Hint:  Poems are made up of words.



     If you've given this any thought you know the answer:  all poems are memorable.  Commercial jingles interrupting our favorite television shows remind us that hearing poetry may or may not be a [pleasurable or] memorable experience, but poetry always involves memorable words.



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