by Adam Bradley
2009, BasicCivitas Books
Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry
by Kenneth Koch
1998, Touchstone Books
A Poetry Handbook
by Mary Oliver
1994, Harvest Books
Recently in the English class I teach, I devoted two full months to the study of poetic devices both linguistic and musical. In preparing for the class, I decided to delve into two proven manuals of poetry both of which have a stronger emphasis on informing for the purpose of inspiring creativity as opposed to dry academic theory. One of these two, Koch's Making Your Own Days, was a re-read from a creative writing class I took in my stint at Boston University.
In addition to these tried and true volumes, I also read Adam Bradley's recently published study of poetic elements in hip hop, thinking it would aid my quest to connect poetry to my students' interests.These three authors despite the common subject matter have wildly divergent interests and points of emphasis. Bradley spends a great deal of time discussing wordplay, which Oliver and Koch both largely ignore (perhaps this is due to the specific strengths of hip hop lyricism).
Mary Oliver's Handbook is primarily interested in providing a brief history of common elements of the form in order to aid the fledgling writer. Her approach to these elements is delightfully no-nonsense. Her examples of each of the principles she discusses (assonance, for example, or metaphor) are usually confined to the limits of one entire poem and because of this her points are concisely and starkly made.
Her prose, likewise, is straightforward. Her ability to summarize the meaning and purpose of poetic techniques is unparalleled (especially compared with a writer like Laurence Perrine, whose Sound and Sense was also a book I leafed through for insight in crafting my lesson plans).
Koch's Making Your Own Days is similarly no-frills in its approach to poetic elements. Where Oliver is a traditionalist, however, Koch includes such poetic elements as "lying" alongside apostrophe and alliteration. Koch seems to be interested in these more theoretical poetic devices.
Koch's text is also weighed down far more than Oliver's in examples. In the span of any given page, Koch is likely to quote stanzas or lines from four or five poets compared to Oliver's far more muscular (and discerning) selections. Koch also includes an addendum at the back of his book of several dozen complete poems accompanied by some short remarks about each.
Some of these poems are connected to the body of the work and some are there for one's own perusal. The effect, of course, is that Koch assumes we are as driven to devouring poetry as he is (probably a fair assumption). Koch exalts the poets he includes (particularly Frank O'Hara, a personal friend of his from whose poetry comes Koch's title) but ultimately this inability to be more selective weighs down the effectiveness of demonstrating the principles he discusses.
In Book of Rhymes, Adam Bradley takes a far less traditional approach to poetic study even after considering his unusual subject matter (hip hop). Bradley uses a wide variety of hip hop lyrics as well as poetry to illustrate the relationship between the two.
Bradley, through the nature of his topic, emphasizes certain poetic elements (for example, metrics and simile) while entirely ignoring others.
While Bradley's book is quite fascinating, it seems that this fascination stems from the rap itself and Bradley's insights into it. He draws some stunning connections between hip hop and poetry's concern with sound, for example, meticulously dissecting vowel repetition in a Lauryn Hill rhyme. He does make some rather confusing claims as well in his pursuit of establishing hip hop's literary credibility. "While all poetry has its roots in our childhood love of rhyme, this relation is often most visible at the birth of a new poetic movement. This was certainly the case with hip hop," Bradley writes. That sounds all well and good until one thinks about the actual claim he is making. How many "new" poetic movements have there been, truly? And to what extent have they demonstrated the influence of nursery rhymes?
Bradley straddles the awkward line between academic writing and slangy honesty, seemingly to imbue his writing with authority both intellectual and contemporary. The result of these muddled intentions is often laughable.Rap style, however, is not simply about counting bars or building verses. It's not even about ill metaphors and dope rhymes. It is more than the sum of its forms. In addition to the conscious level of craft, it contains an ineffable quality of art.Dope rhymes?
Because rap is an oral form, rhythmic errors are even more glaringly apparent. A wack flow is death to rap. Unfortunately, wack rhymes are everywhere, thanks to hip hop's rampant commercialization.
Wack flow?
Despite these amusing lapses into arch academic syntax and desperate-seeming utilization of slang, Bradley's book is well worth the read. His love of hip hop is on par with Koch's effusive excitement for poetry in Making Your Own Days. (Similar too, is Bradley's inclusion of "signifying" (aka dissing) as a poetic device.) Moreover, Bradley spends ample space discussing some of the issues and trends surrounding hip hop. Sexism and homophobia feature prominently amongst violence and over-commercialism as some of Bradley's criticisms of the form and while he is apologetic for these lapses in taste he celebrates his love for rap nonetheless - an attitude I think most lovers of hip hop espouse.
One of Bradley's most winning insights into the mechanics of hip hop is his observation about the disparity between rap and poetry's attitudes towards self-revelation. "The greatest casualty of hip hop's idea of invulnerability may be its capacity to express the full and complex range of human emotion," he writes. It is in insights such as that that Bradley's dual roles as academic and hip hop lover combine gracefully to shed light on the role of art in the world and the lovable limitations of genre writing.
