Estimated reading time: 0 mins : 42 secs
Yet more on the sometimes opaque impetus of the era of the Solid State Vernacular (to me, at any rate).
The original piece from Clive James is about using brand names in poetry. So I’m taking it totally out of context.
It could be said that verve is the only thing that does travel. Perhaps we need a more expensive word for it. The word “rhythm” is overworked for something so hard to pin down, but at least it gives you the idea that vocabulary is not enough. The fresh words must lead to a phrase, and the phrase must have impetus, which must help to propel the line, and so on. Otherwise nothing is being built except a lexicon.
via Product Placement in Modern Poetry by Clive James.
Image: Violent Sex — though the original image is a rather spectacular GIF.
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