Index of Themes

This is an index of themes addressed within the various posts. I am only going to track themes that are relatively specific; broader themes occur too often. For the sake of space, I give only the first two words in the poems' names. To note, while this list works with the tags on the individual posts, it is not an exact duplication.)

• abstraction/concreteness: "Dominion Over"; "Necessity Defense"; "Other One"; Review: Poetry iii
• academic thought: The Intellect
• accidental meter: "Beneath There"
• the aesthetic: "Bloodletting"; "Evil Key"; "Joy That"; "Mariana"; "Patterns" & "Garden"; "A Poem Should"; Re-examining; Stephen Fry; "Two Thoughts"; "Yellow Goblins"; "the Cambridge ladies"
• aesthetic discourse: "In Vitebsk"
• aesthetic effect: "Jesus on a Train "
• aesthetic engagement: "In Vitebsk"
• ambition: "Poetry Slam"
• appreciation: "Slight Pause"
• AWP: "Note"
• ballad meter: "Four Plus"
• the "basics": "Rain of Statues"
• bathos: "Horses Are"
• bombs: "Horses Are"; "Risk Management"
• calculation: Three Poems (Carson)
• the canon: "Academe Quits Me"
• center formatting: "Carravaggio Room"
• chorus/verse: Three Poems (Smith)
• close reading: "Bible Study"; "A Fold"; "Epic"; "Geckos In"; "How to Make"; "Little Georgia"; "My God"; "Sam Coleridge"; "Space Junk"; "Moon"; The Willow Grove; "the Cambridge ladies"
• clothesline verse: Review: Poetry iii
• composition: "Moon"
• concreteness: see abstraction and concreteness
• confidence in literature: The Grass; My Life
• context: "Bad Sheep"; "Ecstasy"; "Elegy"
• contractions, poetic: "Tablet"
• content: "Brief Study"; "Lost Civilizations"
• control: "Bethany Man"; "Other One"
• convention in verse (see also "pop poetry"): "All You"; "Bloodletting"; "Demonstrated Melancholy"; "Disillusionment" and "Aunt"; "Mimesis"; "Poetry Slam"; Review: Poetry iii; Review: Poetry iv; "Rocket"; "Sleeping Women"; "Slight Pause"; Stephen Fry; "Two Thoughts"; "Yellow Goblins"
• critique: "A Fold";
• culture of poetry writing: "Going Back"; Review: Poetry i
• cut up technique: My Life
• dead puppy poems: "Butterfly With"; "Patterns" & "Garden"
• deep reading (see also close reading):
• defenses of texts: Review: Poetry v
• depth/resonance: "Bloodletting"; A Burial; "Five White"; "Journey"; "Necessity Defense"; "Northwest Passage"; "Poetry Slam"; "Spook House"
• description: "Lo Mein"
• development within a poem: "Risk Management"
• diaretics: "Canticle of"
• difference and repetition: "[but the rain"; "Solitude"; "To a Young"
• difficult poetry: "How to Make"; The Sea
• discourse, literary: Review: Poetry ix
• dreams: "Three Poems" (Arvio)
• editing/editors: "Ars Poetica"; "Beneath There"; "Butterfly With"; "Epic"; "A Moment"; "Phlogiston Footage"; "When the Men"; "Word All"
• ekphrastic poetry: "In Vitebsk"; "Modignlian's Cellist"
• energy: "Augenblick"; A Burial; "[but the rain"; "Solitude"
• engagement (see aesthetic engagement)
• enjambment: "Journey"
• the erotic: "the mind"; "Orgy"
• experimentation/experimental poetry: "A Fold"; Three Poems (Carson)
• expressing yourself in poetry: "Canticle of"
• factuality: Review: Poetry viii
• first lines: "When the Men"
• focalization: "One Little"
• forcing the reading: "Slight Pause"
• form (see formal verse, poetic form)
• formal verse (see also poetic form): Review: Poetry vi
• fragmentation/fragmenting the text: My Life; Review: Poetry vi; Review: Poetry viii
• free verse: "Ars Poetica"
• gameplay in poetry: "Bad Sheep"
• gatekeeping: Review: Poetry ix
• genre in poetry: "All You"; "Confession"/"When Fruit"
• grammar/syntax: "30 More"; "A Way"; "Ars Poetica"; "Bethany Man"; "The Bladder"; "Epic"; "Going Back"; "Lo Mein"; "The Mind After"; "Other One"; "Our Lady"; "Pelicans in December"; "Rain of Statues"; "Rocket"; Stephen Fry; "Ticket That"
• hackneyed phrases (see trite phrases)
• horror: "Mariana"
• ideation: "All You"; A Burial; "Cold Tea"; "Disillusionment" and "Aunt"; "Epic"; "Here Be"; "The Mind After"; "Modignlian's Cellist"; "My Brother's"; "My God"; "Other One"; "Pelicans in December"; "Spook House"; "We Come"; "Yellow Goblins"; The Willow Grove
• impromptu: "Q"; "Women Looking"
• inherent grammar (see also grammar): "Our Lady"
• the info dump: "For the Next"
• intellectualism: The Intellect
• knowledge: "Waste Land"
• L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E: My Life
• language, poetic: "Bad Sheep";
• line(s) (poetic, crafting, purposed): "Confession" / "When Fruit"; "Congential"; "Four Plus"; "Journey"; Review: Poetry ii; "Rocket"; "Ticket That"; "Two Thoughts"
• line breaks: "Bible Study"; "Butterfly With"; "Demonstrated Melancholy"; "Eviction Notice"; "Hollow Men"; "Housebound"; "The Letters"; "A Moment"; "Narrow Flame"; "Nostalgia™"; Review: Poetry ii; Review: Poetry iii; Review: Poetry v; "The Ruin"; Tamburlaine; "Two Poems" (Simic) and "Ealuscerwen"; "Ticket That"; "Two Thoughts"; "Women Looking"
• line endings (see masculine and feminine Lines, rhyme)
• line gaps: "Sister as Moving"
• line length: "Glass of Water"
• line period: "Hollow Men"; Tamburlaine
• lists and list verse: "All You"; "A Moment"; Review: Poetry v
• literary canon (see the canon)
• little pretties: "Bloodletting"
• masculine and feminine lines: "[but the rain"
• the "mayonnaise jar" trope: "Lo Mein"
• meaning: "In Vitebsk"; "Joy That"
• merit: "Song"; "When the Men"
• metaphor/metaphoricity: "Elk Skeleton"; Review: Poetry vi; "Year of"
• meter (see also prosody): "Beneath There"; "Circus Animals'"; Two Poems (Maxwell); "Weight Gain"
• MFA culture "Poetry Slam"
• microcosmos, poem as: "The Bladder"
• mimesis: "Mimesis"
• mise en scéne: "the mind"
• modernism: "A Poem Should"
• narration/narrative poetry: "The Letters"; "Lo Mein"; "Northwest Passage"; "Salt Water"; "Three Poems" (Arvio)
• narrative I: "Elk Skeleton"; "For the Next"; "Sister as Moving"; "We Come"
• New Formalism: "Mariana"
• the nomic: "A Poem Should"; "Two Thoughts"; "Yellow Goblins"
• non-sequiturs "Moon"
• objectivism: "Dominion Over"
• the organic theory of invention (see also unity/organicism): "Notes on I"; Notes on II
• ornament: "Drinking to do"
• parallelism: "Ode/Artichoke"
• parataxis: Review: Poetry vii
• "perfection in miniature": "Ecstasy"; "Women Looking"
• phrasing: "Four Plus"
• poetic ear: "Nostalgia™"; "Poetry that"; "Women Looking"
• poetic form (see also formal verse, structure): "Cold Tea"; Review: Poetry iv; "Sleeping Women"; "Two Poems" (Simic) and "Ealuscerwen"; "Wander"; "We Come"
• poetic games (see gameplay in poetry)
• poetic laziness: "Going Back"; The Willow Grove
• poetic line: "Glass of Water"; "Hollow Men"; "Ode/Artichoke"; Tamburlaine; "Weight Gain"; Life in the Cereal Aisle
• poetic phrasing: The WIllow Grove
• poetic structure (see structure)
• poetic vs. prosaic: "Cold Tea"; "Bible Study"; A Burial; "Disillusionment" and "Aunt"; "Hymn to"; "My Brother's"; "the mind"; "On Poetry"; "Orgy"; "Patterns" & "Garden"; Re-examining; "Eliot's Dark Embryo"
• poetic voice: "Poetry Slam"
• poetry culture (see culture of poetry writing)
• poetry journals: "Epic"
• Poetry Magazine: "Epic"; Review: Poetry i; Review: Poetry ii; Review: Poetry iii; Review: Poetry iv; Review: Poetry v; Review: Poetry vi; Review: Poetry vii; Review: Poetry viii; Review: Poetry ix
• poetry vs. diary (see diaretics)
• poetry vs. prose: "Ms. and Super"; "Phlogiston Footage"
• pop poetry: "All You"; "Bloodletting"; "Confession"/"When Fruit"; "Demonstrated Melancholy"; "Epic"; "Epic" (part 2); "Mimesis"; "The Mind After"; "Poetry Slam"; "#Poppetry"; Review: Poetry i; Review: Poetry iii; Review: Poetry ix; "Sleeping Women"
• primitive art: "A Poem Should"
• prose in poetry: "Hymn to"; Re-examining
• prose poem: "Ms. and Super"
• prosody (see also meter): "[but the rain"; "Four Plus"; "Glass of Water"; "Housebound"; "Nostalgia™"; "One Little"; Two Poems (Maxwell); "Weight Gain"
• punctuation (see grammar/syntax)
• punch line poems: "Geckos In"; "Joy That"; "My God"
• quippy profundity: "Two Thoughts"
• realism: Review: Poetry vii
• reportage (see also narrative): "Lo Mein"
• re-reading: "Road in"
• resonance (see depth)
• rhetoric: "Northwest Passage"
• rhyme: "Beneath There"; Review: Poetry vi
• rhythm (see prosody)
• scansion: "Rapprochement"
• schools of poetry: "Dominion Over"
• semantics: "A Moment"; "Other One"; "We Come"
• short poems: "Ecstasy"
• show don't tell: "Learning to Live"; "Q"
• simile: Review: Poetry vi; "Year of"
• social criticism: "Academe Quits Me"
• sophistication: "Ars Poetica"; "Brief Study"; "Confession"/"When Fruit"; "Evil Key"; "Little Georgia"; "Nimium Minus"; "Nostalgia&trade"; "Waste Land"
• sound: "Nostalgia™"
• stanzas and stanza breaks: "Demonstrated Melancholy"; Review: Poetry ii; Review: Poetry v; Review: Poetry vi; "Rocket"; "Two Poems" (Simic) and "Ealuscerwen"
• strength/weakness in literature: My Life
• structure: "Congential"; "Going Back"; "Lost Civilizations"; "Mariana"; "Metzengerstein"; "A Moment"; "Orgy"; "Pelicans in December"; "Spook House"; "Rocket"; Sonnet 128; "Two Poems" (Simic) and "Ealuscerwen"; "What Befalls"
• style: Strunk and White
• suddenly: "Five White"
• superfluous words: "Elegy"
• Surrealism: "Risk Management"
• symbolism: "Patterns" & "Garden"
• syntax (see grammar/syntax)
• teaching literature: "Road in"
• technique: "Three Poems" (Arvio)
• titles: "Joy That"; "Necessity Defense"
• typography: "Demonstrated Melancholy"; "Gymnopédia No.3"
• trite phrases: "All You"; "Ecstasy"
• unity/organicism (see also organic theory of invention): "Augenblick"; "Bad Sheep"; "Brief Study"; "Congential"; "Here Be"; "Learning to Live"; "My God"; "Necessity Defense"; "Risk Management"; "Road in"; "Sleeping Women"; Sonnet 128; "Spook House"; Stephen Fry; "Three Poems" (Arvio); "Two Poems" (Simic) and "Ealuscerwen"; "We Come"; "What Befalls"; "Jesus on a Train "
• usage (see word usage)
• validity: "In Vitebsk"
• verse line (see poetic line)
• verisimilitude: "Lo Mein"
• verse/verseform/verse vs. prose: "Bible Study"; "Hymn to"; "Mariana"; Re-examining; Review: Poetry i; Tamburlaine; "A Way"
• voice (see poetic voice)
• wording/word usage: "A Way"; "Elk Skeleton"; "For the Next"; "Here Be"; "Our Lady"; "Space Junk"
• write what you know: "For the Next"
• writing about yourself (see expressing yourself in poetry)
• writing habits: "Canticle of"
• writing lines: "Here Be"
• writing poetry vs. writing verse: "Eliot's Dark Embryo"

• • •