Poetic Form Gwendolin Brooks First Fight Then Fiddle

Poetic Form • Gwendolin Brooks “First Fight, Then Fiddle” (898) • Shuttleworth, Ciara. “Sestina” (881) • Cummings, E. E. “l(a” (883)

Poetic Forms Traditional Poetry Open Form Meter, rhyme, stanza (13: 30) Free verse Ballad, Sonnet, Villanelle, Sestina Shape Poem Blank verse (no rhyme)

First Fight. Then Fiddle. First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string A With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note B With hurting love; the music that they wrote B Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing A Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing A For the dear instrument to bear. Devote B The bow to silks and honey. Be remote B A while from malice and from murdering. A But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate C In front of you and harmony behind. D Be deaf to music and to beauty blind. D Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late C For having first to civilize a space E Wherein to play your violin with grace. E

Muzzle & Thread/Hemp •

The music that they wrote? • Image source

“First Fight, Then Fiddle” Questions • Overall Meaning & Structure: What do it mean: “first fight, then fiddle”? What does “fight” & “fiddle” mean respectively? Why does the poem do it the other way around (reversing the order)? Is either completely rejected? • Form: Petrarchan sonnet –effects (turn? ) – – Rhyme: masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme Rhythm & meter: iambic pentameter Sound: alliteration Enjambment vs. short lines Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 ~2000; Chicago) Poem published in 1949

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fiddle • sense – plays the music which is sweet, melodious and mesmerizing (feathery sorcery, bewitch, bewilder), – filled with repressed emotions, – detached from cruel reality (malice and murdering) – but not sharp-sounding, coarse but lively tunes. – sound – repetition of melodious & nasal sounds such as [m], [ing], [ind], [sl]; – use of enjambment Why not? Other’s music.

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fight • sense – [But] One must go to war (arms and armor—to fight and protect oneself), carrying hate in front and harmony behind (as support) purpose: -- “to civilize a space” where playing music is possible • sound –short one-syllable words • use of short imperatives: “win war. Rise bloody. ” Why not? Other’s music.

You Used To Love Me well. Me, too, used. . . well. . . you. Love, Well, you— me— Used Love to. . . love me. You, Too Well used, to. . . well. . . love. You Used me. used Love well. Me, too. You! You Used to Love me well.

2 speakers A: You Used To Love Me well. B. Used Love to. A. You Used me. B. Me, too, used you. . . A. Love me. B. Used Love well. Me, too. You! A. You Used to Love me well.

Sestina: a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a threeline envoi. (Wikipedia) Source: Wikipedia

Sestina: Questions • 1. How many speakers are there in this poem? When does one stop speaking and another begin? • 2. What is the role of punctuation in “Sestina”? Can you describe the tones of each stanza?

l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness

l(a: Questions • What does the poem mean and how are the meanings conveyed through the image, the words and the shape of the poem? • “A leaf falls. Loneliness. ” Why is this one not a poem, but “l(a” is? Is there meter or rhythm in the poem?

l(a: loneliness=singleness • the image = a leaf • the words = la, le, fa, af, ll (words falling and reversing), i-ness, I • the shape of the poem = “l” • Regularity (meter) in the falling and multiple meanings of the characters.

References • Owens, Clarke W. “Brooks's First Fight. Then Fiddle. ” The Explicator 52. 4 (Summer 1994): 240.