About 

 

 

Here are a few words about our Poetry Group from Jenny Evans...

Poetry is a fantastic art form!

It literally is "the least words working hardest"! A poem is really the writer expressing her/his ideas and emotions in as few ( or as many ) words as she/he chooses.

In poetry, words are used in the same way that a painter would use canvas, brush and oils etc. 

I was introduced to poetry at a very young age by my mother who loved it, so I caught the "bug" very early on! Words are a  wonderfully expressive gift and poetry uses that to the full. Sometimes a poet will deliberately exploit the SOUNDS of words. A really good example of this is this extract from Gerard Manley Hopkins "Binsey Poplars"

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"O if we but knew what we do

When we delve or hew

Hack and rack the growing green!

Since country is so tender

To touch, her being so slender

That, like this sleek and seeing ball

But a prick will make no eye at all,

Where we, even where we mean

To mender we end her,..."

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Written in 1879 in anguish after a whole copse of beautiful aspens were cut down to make way for urban development.( sadly some things never change!)

Hopkins was, of course, a master craftsman but poetry can be quite as profound from the pen of just about anyone!

My way of introducing the joy and freedom of poetry to disaffected boys age 15 plus was to write this poem of mine on the board "Come home!" That was it! But when they had though about the poem's multiple meanings and possibilities and the endless possible back stories behind such a phrase, they were blown away and realised that poetry was really accessible to them - both to read and enjoy but also to write!

Forget the idea of set metres and rhyming schemes- anything goes in poetry! Hopefully I've whetted your appetite- or piqued your curiosity at least- and you'll feel you could come along to one of our sessions and give it a try! We'll just be a group of friends discussing poems old and new that we like- or dislike - don't "get" or whatever! You'd be most welcome.

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Below are two poems you may like to read. The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson &  

The New Ghost as Fredegond Shove ( A poetess)

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Date & Venue

 

 Our first meeting is on the 2nd October at 7.30pm at Jenny's house. Follow the link if interested in coming along.

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