This page makes use of an innovation of mine called 'dual-purpose text.' Click anywhere in the text below (not in the white space around the text) to get to the top of the page very quickly and easily - there's no need to find a separate top button or to scroll. The page on Web design describes this innovation and others, including 'the rail,' which can also be used to reach top of page. Text links, to reach different sections of this long page, are shown as underlined below, but not in colour.

As well as developing the new technique of linkage by meaning, I've developed new techniques in rhymed poetry (an instance of linkage by sound): new and complex rhyme schemes, but, more importantly, such innovations as centred rhyme and the sound gradient. I also use repeated rhyme and rearrangement of rhyme. In addition, I give a defence of rhyme as a technique in contemporary poetry.

The use of rhyme can have a beneficial effect on a poet’s technique. It sets a challenge. Since rhyme can have a mechanical effect and has associations from the past, the onus is on the poet to avoid these pitfalls by deflecting attention from the ends of lines, by using rhythmic subtlety and by using a diction which is not at all dated or hackneyed (always remembering that modern diction of a certain kind will quickly become dated.) A distinctively modern procedure in rhymed poetry is to establish a linkage by sound and at the same time to make the linkage not an obvious one, even to deflect attention away from the linkage. Alternatively, there may be a tension between the obviousness of the rhyme and the unexpected diction.

Some kinds of poetry seem almost to demand the use of rhyme, for example, humorous and light poetry. It would be difficult to name a large number of humorous and light poems in free verse, in 'language poetry' or so-called 'linguistically innovative poetry.' Some examples from my own work:

The Inquisition

On the rack they are highered.
At the stake they are fired.
And all because of
simple, clerical errors.

Or in a poem whose first few lines only I give here:

The worst restaurant in the world

In this caff we serve them right.
Yesterday, someone asked for wholemeal bread.
I gave him stale, sliced white
and shouted in his ear, "Stuff it up your stupid...

(These two poems are due to be published in print form, in the magazine of humorous verse 'Krax.')

The past associations of rhyme, the past associations of other literary techniques, quotation or near-quotation from a writer of the past, should not always be avoided in a contemporary poem. Modern squalor can be vividly realized by contrasting it with past beauty. Eliot did exactly this in The Waste Land, and made the contrast more effective by the allusion to Spencer: ‘Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song.’ There are many other contrasts which would show past ages rather than our own in an unflattering light, and which would have the effect of making Eliot’s viewpoint over-simple.

Rhyme can create a disturbance. It can express a disturbing vision. It is also a way of creating contrast. In the study of rhyme, attention has been focussed on the line endings linked by rhyme, but also important is the contrast between what rhymes and what does not rhyme. In general, when a linkage is established, a contrast is also established.

This poem patterned by sound is surely a fully contemporary poem:

THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

The silence silences, as if to explain.
Caught, and now, caught again,
caught up with by the past,
after ten years here, at last.
The end crowns the work.
The witnesses are like this poor waxwork,
as if them the crown was designed to kill,
but even more, shockingly, still,
until his, despite the straps,
nervous twitching stops,
then some suddenly gasp, like him.
Of the rich purple and scarlet trim
of the blotches and the trickle of blood
nothing can yet be seen, or should.
To shudder, to think
they leave - as they leave - unlinked.

(35s)

(A technique I sometimes use is the insertion of a punctuation mark such as a comma in a common phrase, altering its significance. In the poem above, the common phrase 'To shudder to think' becomes 'To shudder, to think...')

The next poem appears in a variant form, as a 'picture poem,' in the page on 'Linkages with art and design.' The poem undergoes fragmentation in the picture space. Fragmentation gives a poem which is more 'contemporary' than the unfragmented poem.

SAILING FROM BELFAST

I climb up and down slopping stairs.
The upper deck’s awash with brine,
like the floor of a urinal flooded with urine.
The pitching ship pushes through pitch-black night.
We yawn and vomit, yawn and vomit,
with faces flushed stagger speechless from the toilet.
Plastic coffee cups roll along the floor,
backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards,
like this ship, condemned to sail from and towards
Belfast, Liverpool; Northern Ireland, England.
On this wild night, as our ship shudders and sinks
and rises again and again, I give thanks
and feel hope, groundless, indestructible hope.
By morning light, the sea has moderated, the waves raked,
the shrieking lies behind us, we queue to separate.
The green of Ulster fields, the orange of Ulster sunsets
are fading, distant. In the grey dawn, the pleasure of feeling
nothing.

(62s)

D-day

The calm, blue sea of sky
which saturates the land with light
no longer separates the drifting island
of the sun from the drifting continent's mainland.
Glittering shoals of stars swim in the
crashing deeper sky, constantly
replenished and netted and landed,
brought to the land exactly when demanded.
The land masses above and below
and is your landing, outlandish, and so
like a landed fish you'll gasp
at what you cannot hope or fail to grasp.

I only explain some of the allusions here. The poem makes a contrast between the regularity and predictability of nature and the unpredictable experience when the troops land on a D-day beach for the invasion. The orbits of the stars can be predicted by means of scientific theories. The philosopher of science Karl Popper compared these theories to 'nets:' ""Theories are nets cast to catch what we call 'the world': to rationalize, to explain, and to master it. We endeavour to make the mesh ever finer and finer." The stars (which are constantly replenishing themselves by nuclear reactions) sink in their apparent motions towards the land ('are landed') when predicted by theory. The sun's apparent motion through the sky is its drifting, but withdrawing associations of aimlessness. This is a technique which I sometimes use - insisting on some of the associations of a word or phrase, deliberately excluding others. The drifting of the mainland is an aspect of continental drift.

Compare this poem with a poem I read a long time after writing it (I can be completely certain about this): Yeats' poem 'Three Movements,' from 'The Winding Stair and Other Poems:'

Shakespearean fish swam in the sea, far away from land;
Romantic fish swam in nets coming to the land;
What are all those fish that lie gasping on the strand?

The next poem I quote, a poem which gives voice to the sufferings caused by The Industrial Revolution, isn't a fully contemporary poem in itself. It may be that its technique is appropriate to the evocation of a remote era.

Snow fell, as soft as soot, for days,
then dense fog settled deep, the familiar, mysterious mass
that went on and on and made their streets a maze.
Constantly, the melodramatic hiss of gas.
Days divided into dark and after-dark,
days full of cold on the chest, congested, stained.
Dogs despaired, cats starved, stark
horses dragged carts piled with silk, stained.
From time to time, a child looked up from the factory loom
and when the fog for a moment covered less,
looked deeply through the window into the gloom
and caught, coughing, a glimpse like a glimpse of happiness,
of the street and the hard canal staggering alike
under loads of icing and satin snow,
and of boot and clog prints, the imprint of bare feet, like
long stitches in graceful loops, daring the snow
from the street to the far bank of the canal and back.

The poem contains a form of alliteration which I call diversified alliteration: the common device of alliteration is extended by diversification. (For 'diversification,' please see the General Glossary.) Alliteration is first generalized and then particularized. Alliteration is regarded as an instance of the general principle of linkage by sound and then other particular instances of the general principle are derived. In alliteration the initial letter is repeated. In line 7 of the poem below the variant instance makes use of not one letter but two letters and not the initial two letters but the final two letters of 'cats.' The letters 'ts' are inverted and the resulting invert, 'st' appears as the initial sound of 'starved.' Alliteration then follows, with the use of 'stark' following 'starved.' The 'st' sound has been anticipated by use of the word 'stained' in line 6 and the sound is confirmed by use of the word 'stained' in line 8.

If conventional alliteration is a hackneyed device, unsuitable for contemporary poetry, alliteration can still be used in a contemporary way. One possibility is to use alliteration in a way which is excessive. Deliberate excess as a technique in contemporary poetry I refer to as 'nimiety.' An example is the use of a poem in unit form which is not given on this site, 'The Matterhorn,' in which every word begins with the letter 'w' except for the one word 'once,' a sustained exercise in alliteration which is intended to be more than just an exercise. The term 'nimiety' is used by Coleridge. It's applied by Basil Lam in his study of the Beethoven String Quartets, with reference to a repeated phrase in the Quartet Opus 135. It can be applied to the whole of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, Opus 133.

Technically, this poem concerned with The Industrial Revolution is given additional contemporary resonance by its intended use: the poem is intended to be superimposed on a painting which makes use of the technique of Colour Stain Painting introduced by Helen Frankenthaler and a development of Colour Field Painting, the technique of soaking paint which has been diluted into the unprimed canvas. The use of the word 'stained' in lines 6 and 8 is relevant. As regards content, the poem does exemplify the principles of linkage and harsh contrast, in this case, the contrast of luxurious associations and poverty.

(65s)

Rhyme can be used in an unsystematic way as well as a systematic way, just as words are linked in an unsystematic way in thematic word linkage. The rhymed words provide markers in the poem. So, pattern by sound may be either formal or non-formal.

Centred rhyme
There is no need for a poet to be dependent upon established rhyme schemes. Here, too, there is scope for innovation. In centred rhyme, the first line rhymes with the last, the second line with the penultimate, and so on, until at the centre of the poem there are two adjacent lines which rhyme, or, alternatively, a single line which rhymes with no other.

This can be shown by means of two linkage diagrams. I use square brackets to show the linkage of rhymed lines, curved brackets to show the linkage of lines within a meaning pattern.

The rhymes at the centre and near the centre will be prominent, the effect becoming fainter as we move towards the top and bottom margins of the poem. There will be a sound gradient from the centre to these margins, lines which are distant from the centre hardly being perceived as rhyming. This technique gives a method of varying the impact of rhyme. If the rhymes at the centre are disturbing, there will be a disturbance at the heart of the poem which gradually dies away.

Please click here for an example of a poem in centred rhyme. This poem is discussed more fully in the page on Concrete Poetry. The rhyme scheme is: d c b a a b c d

The distance between rhymes is an important consideration not only in centred rhyme but also in other contemporary poetry which is patterned by sound. When words at the ends of lines rhyme, the two variables which must be considered are distance apart - the rhyme interval - and degree (directness and obviousness or otherwise of the rhyme.) If ‘dear’ is rhymed, in a very direct way, with ‘hear’ and the rhymes are at the ends of adjacent lines, then this can be described as dear, hear (2). The figure in curved brackets refers to the interval between lines. (I use a different notation for rhymes within the lines.) Rhymes which are proximate as well as direct are often, but not always, inappropriate in a contemporary poem. If the rhymed words are separated by two intervening lines, ie dear, hear (4), then the rhymes can still be described as proximate and less direct. More likely to be useful in a fully contemporary poem are dear, hear (8), where the rhymes are linked and separated more widely (the interval is greater), and dear, dare (2). In a poem in centred rhyme, more direct rhymes may be employed in the periphery of the poem (for example, in the first and last lines) and less direct rhymes may be used in the central lines, aa in the sound scheme above. This modifies the sound gradient, introducing tension.

Repeated rhyme

I sometimes use 'rhyme clusters.' Here, the rhyme interval (within the line) is very short - the rhymes are adjoining. An example is the beginning of a poem -

Useless - less - unless distress
drives or drove your work.
Useless - less - unless success...

This is a further example of 'nimiety,' discussed above.

Rearrangement of rhyme

The syntax of a poem can be adjusted in order to reduce the rhyme interval. Rhymes become closer, as in this example:

He wrote
purely, by rote,
and said that he,
and said that we,
will always convince,
will be convinced by -
his daring
us to be unconvinced.

As will be obvious, 'he' is brought into close rhyme with 'we.' I refer to this technique as rearrangement of rhyme. Two lines are separated from their natural successors. The words 'and said that he' have as their successor 'will always convince' but they have been separated from it. The words 'and said that we' have as natural successor 'will be convinced by' but likewise are separated from it. The regrouping has the effect of making the rhyme more direct by reducing the interval.

Rearrangement is a technique which is more generally applicable and which need not entail the use of rhyme. It makes the close more distant and the distant closer. It may produce phrases which are rhythmic 'thumps,' concentrated rhythmic clusters, ending the poem decisively or giving greater impact to the whole poem. Restoration gives the syntax and the word order of non-poetic prose. In the example above, restoration gives the sense, 'and said that he/will always convince' and 'and said that we/ will be convinced by.'

In the next example, the rhymes are not proximate. The rhyme interval is 3, 'upon' rhyming with 'gone'. Rearrangement of the syntax in this case separates four lines from their four successors, producing a concentrated final line containing all the successors. Some contemporary poetry abandons meaning - for good reason, and successfully, or otherwise. Martin Seymour-Smith, in his remarkable work, 'Guide to Modern World Literature,' writes of John Ashbery, "...a critic shrewdly wrote of him (1978) that he 'eliminates meaning without achieving any special intensity.' Perhaps what we all truly long for is a poetry of coherence, rather than meaning." The poem below only appears to abandon meaning.

C S Lewis

Surprised by
and upon
and surrendered
and gone -
joy, imposed, reason, Callus.

Restoring the syntax makes the meaning clear, or almost clear - in the case of this poem, some background information is needed. (I defend very robustly the idea that some poems should absolutely require background information. I oppose resolutely the notion that a poem has always to be 'self-sufficient,' needing no external explanation.) C S Lewis had three distinct careers - as scholar, as children's writer and as Christian apologist. It's only in his third role that I find him repulsive. My objection is not to do with his defence of Christianity as such but to its manner - shallow and, in part, callous. (He writes in 'Mere Christianity, "If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged." C S Lewis is an apologist for the gallows as well as for Christianity, then.) After restoring the syntax, we have:

'Surprised by joy,' the title of the autobiographical book by Lewis in which he recounts his adoption of Christianity.

'Imposed upon.' The unfavourable associations of this phrase are many.

'Reason surrendered.' Lewis would have claimed that he didn't exchange reason for faith but the reasoning in his theological books is so tawdry and inadequate that the phrase can easily be justified.

'Gone, the callus.' Lewis is compared with a callus, something that is thick, hard, insensitive, but now no longer with us.

Another poem of mine illustrates the same principles, although in a much quieter way. In this case, there are two successors to red (below) and blue (above): the red colour in the poem is contracting, the blue is expanding.

It is not even, evening.
Below, a glow -
red, redder, reddest,
above, sky-blue,
contracts, expands,
like the lives in the houses in the forest -
receptive, shuttered and almost invisible now,
awaiting blue-fingered night.

('Blue-fingered' - the night being very cold - is an allusion to Homer's 'rosy-fingered dawn.') 'Contract, expand' gain in force and contrast by being placed next to each other. Restoration gives a version which has less impact:

Below, a glow -
red, redder, reddest,
contracts,
above, sky-blue,
expands ...

Word-chains (or 'concatenations') often emerge as a result of rearrangement. An example above is 'joy, imposed, reason, Callus.' Just as a chain is strong, a word-chain should be strong, or, more exactly, have semantic force. (This term is explained further in the entry for 'Evaluative Linguistics' in the General Glossary.) This word-chain is not part of a poem, and not part of of a potential poem: 'Remarkable, neglected, unjustly, long.' The reference is to Martin Seymour-Smith's Guide, cited above. The concise word-chain surely has greater impact than the restored, slightly amplified equivalent, Martin-Seymour's Guide is a 'remarkable, lengthy work which is unjustly neglected, and has been neglected for a long time.'

Several lines may have one, common successor, not several successors, as in this example, where the successor is in the final line.

In -
or out of -
or severe -
or very near -
danger.

So, 'In -' doesn't have its own unique successor, it has the same successor as the next lines: 'danger.' Restoration gives 'In danger,' 'or out of danger...'

Poetic language is often more sensuous than non-poetic language, as, almost always, in Keats, but it may also be more schematic than non-poetic language. This schematic language will sometimes seem abstract and sometimes bare and elemental, powerful and direct rather than abstract. Cezanne's practice gives strong support for schematism. Cezanne took the human body, a still life or landscape (above all, Mont Sainte-Victoire in Provence) and distorted appearances and modified tonality in order to achieve a pictorial balance, but, more than that, a 'realm of pure being.' (Richard Verdi: 'Cezanne.') George Heard Hamilton refers to Cezanne's 'organizing intelligence.' ('Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940')

The meaning of sound patterns

Pattern by meaning and pattern by sound may both be used in the same poem, and lines which are linked by sound may be linked at the same time by meaning. These linkages would be shown by using both square and round brackets. Studies of the meanings of rhymed words in a poem would form a useful study. ‘Love’ rhymes with ‘dove,’ and also with ‘shove,’ but obviously the meaning linkages are completely dissimilar.