Structure

Here is the play that i wrote for my English 180L: Lyric Verse class for the final paper/project this semester. I employed the use of the sestina structure, which involves 7 stanzas, the first having 6 lines and the last having 3 or 2, wherein each end word of each line of the first stanzas is repeated in the following stanzas in a particular order as the end words of each of the lines, and the last stanza consists of 2 or 3 endwords in no particular order in each of the 3 or 2 sentences. Complicated, I know. Sestinas lend themselves very well to prose as well as verse, which is why I chose to use it for my play's structure. I attempted to analyze the use of structure in poetry and the merits of its use. The use of the structure imposed on the play itself is a statement regarding the "quality" of poetry with structure forced upon it. I wrote the play in 3 sestinas, so it is around 11 pages and consequently should take about 10 minutes to read. See if you can spot the recurring endwords in each of the stanzas, and where the stanzas begin and end. Enjoy.


At rise: HUMPHRY sits at center stage, legs crossed, hands in his lap, looking up at the sky. The stage is blank except for a tree with one leaf that stands down stage right. Humphry speaks to no one in particular.
HUMPHRY
Form is what keeps things together. That much I understand, I think. But I wonder: is there such thing as a better style? And does a poem even need to have some kind of structure in order to be good? Personally, I don’t like the idea of structure. I think using, or being forced to use some kind of template in order to create a work of art hinders your ability to use your imagination.
REGINALD enters from stage right, barefoot, holding a pair of sandals in his hands.
REGINALD
(clapping the bottoms of his sandals together)
What’s that about imagination?
HUMPHRY
Oh, Reginald, can you and I work this through, together?
REGINALD
Are you again talking to yourself about structure?
HUMPHRY
Wait, why do you think-
REGINALD
And again the issue of poetry being good?
HUMPHRY
I’m just wondering about style.
Humphry stands and faces Reginald.
REGINALD
(clapping his sandals together)
Again with style?
HUMPHRY
Are you saying I lack imagination?
REGINALD
You understand me, good!
HUMPHRY
Can we please do this together?
REGINALD
Why is this the only thing about which you think?
HUMPHRY
You don’t find it interesting to discuss structure?
REGINALD
(clapping his sandals together)
Structure, structure it’s always structure!
HUMPHRY
And also style.
REGINALD
You know what I think?
HUMPHRY
Is this once more about my imagination? Can we just please work together?
REGINALD
Well honestly, Humphry, about poetry and things, I’m no good.
HUMPHRY
What does being good-
Reginald interrupts Humphry with a loud clap of his sandals again.
HUMPHRY
Okay, I get it, you don’t care about structure. You don’t care that it is what keeps it all together. You don’t care that poetry can mean different things from style to style. And you think I lack imagination.
REGINALD
I wouldn’t necessarily say “think.”
HUMPHRY
(claps his hands together, and sits back down)
That’s the problem isn’t it, that you don’t think.
REGINALD
(inspecting his sandals)
Humphry, you don’t make me sound very good.
HUMPHRY
(sulking)
I have plenty of imagination.
Reginald does not respond, but instead drops his sandals to the floor and inserts his feet. Humphry looks over at Reginald and opens his mouth to speak, but Reginald cuts him off.
REGINALD
No more structure.
HUMPHRY
What about style?
Reginald ignores him, and instead trots around the stage, testing out his sandals. He stops and takes them off his feet and holds them in his hand. After doing so, he walks over to the seated Humphry and stands over him.
REGINALD
(relenting)
You really want that bad to do this together?
Humphry stands and walks away from Reginald, towards stage left.
HUMPHRY
So what do you think, does structure in poetry stifle the poet’s imagination? Or do you think that forcing people into a certain way could be a thing that’s good? And, lastly, I know this is a lot already, but does having a style necessarily keep the poem together, and does a poem even need to be “together?”
REGINALD
(after clapping his sandals together, he drops them on the floor, and puts only his right foot in)
Sometimes rules can help when it comes to a poem’s meaning.
HUMPHRY
But how is that possible if the mind is not able to run free?
REGINALD
Well okay, and I remind you I’m no good at this, but how about for instance the haiku form?
HUMPHRY
Ah yes, that has a very strict set of rules. Three lines of five syllables, then seven, and then five again.
REGINALD
Does having such a rigid structure, in this case, help or hurt the cause of the poet?
Reginald sits down, and picks up the left sandal. Humphry approaches the tree and stands underneath.
HUMPHRY
When does a poet
Decide and create meaning
Still, I try again.
REGINALD
There, you see how your mind ran free?
HUMPHRY
But I stayed within the rules.
REGINALD
Well that’s just because it’s the form.
Reginald smacks the bottom of his sandal with his hand.
HUMPHRY
(turning towards Reginald)
But I felt a lack of real depth because I had to abide by that form.
REGINALD
Well, honestly, Humphry, you’re not really a poet.
HUMPHRY
I know, but don’t you think real poets would find it rather difficult to come up with good stuff while keeping within the rules?
REGINALD
I see your meaning.
HUMPHRY
To me, it’s so very stifling and without free-
REGINALD
Again!
Reginald slaps his sandal again.
HUMPHRY
What again?
REGINALD
A real poet, a good poet mind you, would not be a good poet unless he could manipulate, regardless of what kind, expertly the form. In this way, the poet is always free. See this, you being unable to work within the style, is the very reason why you’re not a real poet. A real one, you see, could very easily, or at least in a manner more effectively than you, create from the rigid structures of style profound or provocative meaning. The rules-
Humphry slaps the trunk of the tree.
HUMPHRY
Creating meaning and having creativity in spite of the rules?
REGINALD
No, you misunderstand again. A poem’s meaning-
HUMPHRY
You mean to say that a poem is helped by having a strict form!
REGINALD
Do you see now that freedom can come from being bound as well as being unbound for the poet?
HUMPHRY
I’m still stuck on this notion of what is free.
Humphry sits. Reginald stands.
REGINALD
It’s such a vague concept to be stuck on, the issue of “free.” Are you and I not free because we follow our society’s rules?
HUMPHRY
You know very well I mean this all in the context of poetry and the poet.
REGINALD
I’m going to say it again. Freedom to express what you want to express doesn’t necessitate the presence or lack of form.
HUMPHRY
But do either the lack of it or the presence of it connote more or less meaning? I know it is again the same question, but I am just attempting here to get into the mind of the poet.
REGINALD
I answered your question by telling you that rules for poetry can indeed set the poet free. Form, while being rigid, structured, and inhibiting of free flowing thought at times, if you can manage to create something interesting within the limits of the rigidity, it could be that much better, and sometimes working with an outline for how you’re to manipulate your thoughts can help that process, inevitably providing for the poet inspiration and a way to express thoughts that jump around in the mind, which happen to jump around without form; it brings shape, and a way for the common reader to understand that which is without.
Humphry claps his hands.
HUMPHRY
Okay, I’ll give you that. That’s a fascinating argument you make about making what the poet is trying to say accessible to the you’s and me’s out there. But then are you saying that free verse poems, which don’t appear to match with any kind of rules regarding its structure suffer from that which defines them as such?
REGINALD
That’s also a good question. I still contend, though, that I’m not the one to be asking about this.
HUMPHRY
That’s fine, I don’t mind.
REGINALD
(Reginald stands while Humphry sits)
Free verse poems, I would think, since they should directly represent thoughts without structure imposed upon them, tap into more closely what’s going on in the poet’s mind.
HUMPHRY
Okay, I’ll buy that. So then what you’re saying is about this-
REGINALD
Hold on there. I didn’t finish with your question. Poetry itself cannot be so easily broken down as such.
HUMPHRY
As what such-
REGINALD
Speed up your mind! Back to your question. Poetry is not something you can point to and say “poetry is exactly that.” For free verse poetry, since that was your question, see if you can think of one while you sit there.
HUMPHRY
I hold onto this
For this
Is what I wonder because as such
A glance or a look over there
Causes me to think of the opaque poet’s mind
For that
I ask this question
REGINALD
You have a quick thinking mind. So what do you think of the process that is this?
HUMPHRY
What was the purpose of that?
REGINALD
To prove poetry can exist with meaning without rules as such.
HUMPHRY
Oh my pained mind!
REGINALD
Easy there. Easy there. So to your question.
HUMPHRY
Please answer if you don’t mind.
REGINALD
My answer is this.
Reginald jumps up and does a cartwheel across the stage while saying the word “dog.” He straightens himself and does a few more in succession, this time saying: “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me. “

HUMPHRY
What was that?
REGINALD
Keep those motions in mind. You need to look there for your answer to the question. There is that answer you’re looking for, as such, because poets do not need structure, and they do not need not having structure in order to get a point across as the form conforms itself as does the poet conform himself to the form, or lack thereof to suit his own needs, for a poet chooses what style he uses, not the other way around. So I guess what I’m really trying to say is that style and form and structure are integral parts of the poet’s creative process, but they need not be when the poet chooses to convey his ideas and emotions without form to use. You will notice that you created, out of thin air, two decent poems, both with a good amount of intelligence and meaning I might add, with words you yourself did choose. A great deal of thought many poets into their poems do infuse. By taking a style, or by not, there is nothing that a poet could lose. I wonder if you can follow me with my clues. I want you to now compose and recite a sonnet, iambic pentameter and all to complete this rhyming ruse.
HUMPHRY
I don’t find funny, your confusing ruse.
But iambic pentameter I’ll use,
Hoping to get to the punch-line of clues.
Want to know why this style you did choose.
Your point and point of view, I think, I’ll lose.
But still I’ll try, this here meaning infuse
What a funny word it is this “infuse”
All part of the rhyming scheme, it’s a ruse
This poem’s meaning quickly I did lose
Why must I with continued effort use
This crazy poetic form you did choose
Enough of this insanity! No clues!
Well if you do, make sure they are good clues
Because I again have to use “infuse.”
Humphry collapses on the ground, exhausted and disgusted with what his mind just came up with.
REGINALD
So you did just now compose a sonnet, because it was the style I did choose.
HUMPHRY
Now, now, what is your ruse?
REGINALD
I wished to show you that not everyone can compose a brilliant poem at a whim because of a random style you want to use.
HUMPHRY
I feel like in this battle of words I’m going to lose.
REGINALD
No, no, you misunderstand, as there was nothing to lose. Do you want more clues?
HUMPHRY
Only if they will help me understand what you’re talking about, then sure I’ll them use.
REGINALD
You tried very hard to into your poem meaning infuse. But here is the punch line of my ruse. You will notice I gave you a very strict structure with which to work with, and I think you could choose-
HUMPHRY
I did not however choose.
REGINALD
Quite true, so in that sense you did lose. That was the only humorous aspect of this ruse. I guess the final clues-
HUMPHRY
No more of that please, just get to the meaning that into your blabber you mean to infuse!
REGINALD
I gave you such a difficult poem to compose, with such rigid form to conform to, and you could not make a really good poem full of meaning and beauty, but is it because of the style I told you to use?
HUMPHRY
Okay, I see what this ruse and your clues were all supposed to be for: it was a double lesson in a way, in that you showed me that structure does not necessarily connote anything about the quality of poetry, and that the quality of the poet is what determines the quality of the poem. A poet, with absolutely nothing to lose, can choose what kind of structure he wants for his poem, based on his own limits or infinite expanses of his own mind and creativity, and would, using either haiku, sonnet, sestina, free verse or whatever else available to him, create something truly personal and individual to the poet and not to anyone else. If given a form that the poet is familiar with and enjoys, it shouldn’t be difficult to infuse the meaning that is jumbled around in the poet’s head, by use of really any kind of style.
Reginald puts his feet in the sandals, and moves around a little to test them out, not yet acknowledging Humphry’s epiphany.
REGINALD
They finally fit.
HUMPHRY
I understand now, Reginald!
REGINALD
I know. It’s like I told you. Poetry just is. Structure of poems changes everything and it changes nothing. Take a sestina for instance.
HUMPHRY
Okay.
REGINALD
Sestinas lend themselves very well to long narratives that aren’t necessarily any more poetic than any essay you might write for an English class.
HUMPHRY
I studied math in school.
REGINALD
Then think of it like a mathematical proof. You can write a proof in the dry language that math uses with the content being nothing more than that which you’re trying to prove.
HUMPHRY
Yes. True.
REGINALD
But you can also make it sound prettier so that the proof is more enjoyable to read.
HUMPHRY
That’s less true. Anyway, what are you getting at? I don’t follow.
REGINALD
Well a sestina is the same way. It can take the form of an essay, or it can take the form of a beautiful lyric poem. It all depends on the poet. More to the point, a specific style does not mean it is any more or any less capable of beauty than any other, it just depends on the words that are used to fill up the empty space. Remember the cartwheels?
HUMPHRY
Yes.
REGINALD
Do you understand now?
HUMPHRY
An empty shell filled with garbage is still just garbage, while an empty shell filled with beauty becomes beauty.
REGINALD
Precisely.
HUMPHRY
So my original question about structure and all that-
REGINALD
Right, well, the imposed structure of a poem can help to focus the poet’s thought process, along with keeping it all in an accessible container for regular people to be able to relate to.
HUMPHRY
It took you that long to explain?
REGINALD
Yes, well, I had some structure imposed on me. And I told you, I’m no good at this stuff.
End.