Monday 29 March 2010

B is For Blank verse

IF YOU MAKE
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If you make him
believe to have found you
Question his every glance
he’ll shoot your way
Don’t allow him to
settle for home truths
Stretch his mind
not your wallet to win over
Make her converse
the words you want to hear
Challenge her notions
on all that is real
Don’t let her lay
frustrations at your door
The more she cherishes
you challenge her

Showing him how
vulnerable life is
Brings all the
stereotypes into one
Your child will know she
is much more than that
This is what love is
when you are on point

When writing poems in blank verse your focus needs be on the narrative of the poem. You should also concentrate on the stress patterns you adopt within your piece.

Each verse of your poem can be referred to as a stanza. Concentrating on building your narrative with each stanza also enables you to determine the beats of your blank verse poem.

KEY IDEAS
=========
Take a look at the first four lines of the opening stanza of our poem “If You Make”.

If YOU make HIM
beLIEVE to HAVE found YOU
QuestION his EVEry GLANCE
he’ll SHOOT your WAY

Read the words out loud to enable yourself to hear where the stress patterns and beats are to be found. All the words in bold contain the stress syllables. Try placing extra emphasis on these words when you read them aloud and you should also hear the beats throughout.

TOP TIP: TO FULLY GET TO GRIPS WITH BLANK VERSE YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND IAMBIC PENTAMETER.

The best way to think about an iambic pentameter is as a line of ten syllables and five beats. When reciting your poem out loud, your tone of voice should emphasis the second, forth, sixth, eight and tenth syllables in each line of the stanza.

At first glance you may think that this does not occur in our poem “If You Make”. However, if you consider that each line is broken in two, you will see that this poem definitely uses iambic pentameter.

Sometimes blank verse poems are written with an extra syllable. This is known as an iambic pentameter with a weak ending. So for good measure I have thrown in such a line for you to find. Read the poem again to see if you can locate the broken line where I used the extra syllable, if you cannot, never mind, all will be revealed in the final note.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES
====================

If your blank verse poem is a narrative about specific people this gives you a golden opportunity to take some flattering portraits of your would be subjects.

HOW TO TAKE GREAT PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHS
======================================

These tips are useful for the non-professional, with a medium range digital camera. A medium range digital is a point and shoot camera that has easy to use features.

Use a digital camera with a built in portrait setting (usually the outline of a head).

Your overall aim should be to draw attention to your subject. This can be done by blurring the background. To make the background blur even more, use a zoom lens.

If you take your portrait in good available light, you will get good results. If you take your portrait photograph using your flash, your results should be even better. Setting your flash to go off even in good lighting conditions will give you the effects of softening shadows on your subject’s face.

To force flash look for the lighting bolt icon or one for red-eye reduction; for best results make use of the outdoors and in particular the sun. Your subject should ideally be in front and to the side of the sun. Finally, think carefully about how best to frame your shot.

Look out for our shot composition feature in one of our future articles in our photographic series.

TODAY’S FINAL NOTE
==================

Earlier I promised to reveal the broken line with the wear ending:

Stretch his mind
not your wallet to win over

Did you find it? I hope so.


POINTS TO REMEMBER
==================

Create a narrative for your poem, a background story that will give you an idea of the beginning middle and end.

Read your blank verse poem out loud so you can hear the stress syllables and the beats within your stanza.

An iambic pentameter is a line poetry that has ten syllables and five beats.

An iambic pentameter with a weak ending provides you with an extra syllable to use and in turn strengthens your piece, otherwise there would be no need to utilise one.

If your poem is about people use it as an excuse to practice your portrait-taking skills. Make use of the best lighting conditions you can find or construct, with the use of forced flash. UNTIL NEXT TIME, WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU.

The IPoetry TV Team
© Copyright e1top 2010