美国国家公共电台 NPR #NPRpoetry Tips: Think About What You Know And Take Advantage Of Twitter Constraints

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There once was a radio host who liked April Poetry Month the most, she thought it would be neat for others to tweet their rhymes in the form of a post. OK, so you know our director Liz Baker¹ wrote that. Anyway, her creative outpourings are the signal that it's time for more of your Twitter poems in honor of Poetry Month. This week, David Orr, poetry columnist² for The New York Times Book Review, he's with us from Ithaca, N.Y. David Orr, thanks so much for joining us.

DAVID ORR: Oh, thank you. It's great to be on the air with you.

MARTIN: So I confess I am a little bit nervous about this exercise given that in your latest book, "You, Too, Could Write A Poem," you say in the introduction, I don't like poetry. I do like very much certain poems and poets. Poetry is a lot like America in the sense that liking³ all of it means you probably shouldn't be trusted with money or scissors.

(Laughter) So I hope you'll be a little gentle with us given that these are amateurs. OK. So, David, we asked you to take a stroll through our hashtag #NPRpoetry submissions⁴ so far. Did you see any trends, any traps, anything that caught your eye?

ORR: I had a couple of ideas in looking through the feed. The first has to do really with the attitude with which one approaches poem writing, and I'm going to say poem writing rather than poetry because I think as soon as people think, you know, here I am writing poetry, you can almost hear the capital P form. And it almost seems as if they're trying to elevate themselves into something that they're not entirely⁵ comfortable with. So I think it's better to think here I am writing a poem than here I am writing poetry. But I think my general suggestion is that when people think about writing a poem, they should think about their own lives and what they actually know and not what they think other people think they ought to know.

MARTIN: Do you have any other tips for our Twitter poets who might want to up their game?

ORR: I have one other tip, which is that Twitter is a constrained⁶ form already, so it makes sense to take advantage of the forms of poetry that really play to that constraint⁷. And it seems to me, just in general, if you're looking at space requirements, that anything based in a quatrain - that's a four-line poem - tends to work pretty well and come in right around 140 characters. So things like common measure or ballad⁸ meter work really well. Just in case people don't know what I'm talking about, you know, common measure is - it's a four-line poem that's four stresses, three stresses, four stresses, three stresses, and it usually rhymes A-B-A-B. Ballad meter goes A-B-C-B usually.

But an example from Wordsworth would be something like "A Slumber⁹ Did My Spirit Seal." A slumber did my spirit seal, I had no human fears, she seemed a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years. And at least my computer, anyway, tells me that's about 110 spaces. And another potential stanza¹⁰ would be something like the envelope stanza, which is sometimes called the In Memoriam stanza. It comes from Tennyson's poem "In Memoriam" which was an elegy¹¹ for his friend Arthur Henry Hallum. He is not here, but far away, the noise of life begins again and ghastly through the drizzling¹² rain on the bald street breaks the blank day. And it's in the ballpark of 135 characters, so Tennyson would squeeze right in for your contest.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Well, that's intimidating¹³.

(LAUGHTER)

ORR: Hopefully not. I mean, some of my favorite examples from your feed actually...

MARTIN: Yeah, please, yeah.

ORR: A couple were by a guy named Rick Reed (ph). Actually, his poems are both quatrains, and they're funny. You know, there's nothing wrong with being funny in a poem. I mean, if you're writing a poem on Twitter, there's something already sort of funny about that project, so just roll with it. But a good example from him is I've come to terms with pachyderms. I let them have their way. As it concerns the pachyderms, I've nothing more to say.

It's sort of a hat tip to Ogden Nash there, you know? Do awkward giraffes often make gaffes¹⁴ of etiquette¹⁵ and decorum, and do the giraffes often get laughs, or do others simply ignore them? I mean, come on, it's fun.

MARTIN: (Laughter) I agree. That's David Orr. He's New York Times Book Review poetry columnist. He's the author of "You, Too, Could Write A Poem." Thanks so much for joining us.

ORR: Thank you. It's really fun.

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

3 liking   

n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢

参考例句：

• The word palate also means taste or liking.Palate这个词也有“口味”或“嗜好”的意思。
• I must admit I have no liking for exaggeration.我必须承认我不喜欢夸大其词。

4 submissions   

n.提交( submission的名词复数 )；屈从；归顺；向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据

参考例句：

• The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
• Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第（四）款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

7 constraint   

n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物

参考例句：

• The boy felt constraint in her presence.那男孩在她面前感到局促不安。
• The lack of capital is major constraint on activities in the informal sector.资本短缺也是影响非正规部门生产经营的一个重要制约因素。

8 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

9 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。

10 stanza   

n.（诗）节，段

参考例句：

• We omitted to sing the second stanza.我们漏唱了第二节。
• One young reporter wrote a review with a stanza that contained some offensive content.一个年轻的记者就歌词中包含有攻击性内容的一节写了评论。

11 elegy   

n.哀歌，挽歌

参考例句：

• Good heavens,what would be more tragic than that elegy!天哪，还有什么比那首挽歌更悲伤的呢！
• His book is not intended to be a complete history but a personal elegy.他的书与其说是一部完整的历史，更像是一篇个人挽歌。

12 drizzling   

下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The rain has almost stopped, it's just drizzling now. 雨几乎停了，现在只是在下毛毛雨。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。

13 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

14 gaffes   

n.失礼，出丑( gaffe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The presidential candidate made three mistakes, or gaffes, during his speech. 校长候选人在演讲中出了三次错，或失态。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• When the microphones were on, gaffes gushed from his lips. 而当电话响起，他却口无遮拦，屡屡失言。 来自互联网

15 etiquette   

n.礼仪，礼节；规矩

参考例句：

• The rules of etiquette are not so strict nowadays.如今的礼仪规则已不那么严格了。
• According to etiquette,you should stand up to meet a guest.按照礼节你应该站起来接待客人。