here is a Fibonacci poem -- not sure who is the author...
I
wrote
a poem
on a page
but then each line grew
to the word sum of the previous two
until I started to worry about all these words coming with such frequency
because, as you can see, it can be easy to run out of space when a poem gets all Fibonacci sequency.
=====
edit 1: just found out the author of this poem is Brian Bilston. It has been included in his book, You Took the Last Bus Home: The Poems of Brian Bilston
Nice. I waste a lot of time converting prose/poetry that I like into code. Here's the first four lines of [the widely anthologized I guess] Wasteland:
// cruellest_month.js
import lilacs from 'deadland';
import spring from 'seasons';
let April = function() {
let season = spring;
return {
breeding: function() {
return lilacs();
},
mixing: function() {
return shakeUp(memory, desire);
},
stirring: function() {
let dullRoots = this.breeding().roots;
// move dullRoots in circles, using the avg
// rainfall speed to calculate the period
let circum = this.breeding().plotRadius * Math.PI * 2;
let period = circum * this.season.rain.averageSpeed();
dullRoots.setIntoCircularMotion(circum, period);
}
}
While the author "looked at anthologies that collected international, American, and English-language poems", there is a leaning towards American poetry as 11 of the 20 anthologies surveyed were anthologies of American poetry (based on their titles, bottom of the page).
I recognized quite a few poems...there are a lot of US based authors, but looking back 100 years I guess you would have: UK, Australia, USA, parts of Canada. Both the US & UK are well represented, and population wise I don't know how much poetry the other ones crank out. I recognized a lot of poems from the Norton Anthology of English Literature.
I was surprised to see a sample size of only 20 was considered representative. I wonder how genuinely representative it is (including the unstated exclusions that define the total population)
I imagine a fair many such anthologies get published. Poetry no longer sells in general, that is true, and it would be odd for any poetry lover to buy an unknown anthology rather than a collected edition by one of their famous poets...
But there is a particular niche, which everyone on HN is familiar with, where books regularly book very lucrative profits while being sold at full price, and whose authors churn through edition after edition and regularly turn out new works - college textbooks.
And indeed, when I look at the Amazon page for the very first anthology listed, "The Broadview Anthology of Poetry", 2 of the 4 reviews mention needing it for a class.
I am genuinely curious how you (and the authors of eleven poetry anthologies) can find so much meaning in such a short poem. I see that it has some visual imagery and definitely evokes the imagination (about farming for sustenance, I think) but I'm not sure if there's something else I'm missing.
Honestly, I think the reason it gets included so often is that it is short and can usually fill out a page that one of Williams' longer and more substantive poems (e.g., Spring and All) ends on.
Also, it is one of the better examples of a type of visual/minimalist/free verse mid-20th century american poetry that is super approachable and understandable (read some of the Wallace Stevens stuff for the counter examples).
Plus, it is great for having "Wait, is this really a poem? What is a poem??" discussions in English 101 classes.
And, to be fair, if some random person wrote it, it would get almost no attention at all, but Williams really was a quite good poet. And while this little poem doesn't have much to it, what it has is nicely wrought.
it must be
of
some difficulty
in
formatting the lines,
especially
the blank lines,
but
the original poem
actually is:
=====================
The Red Wheelbarrow
==
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
here is a wiki page trying to interpret this poem...but I guess different people would get the picture differently...
Well, personally, I guess a poem is a compound that tries to convey meanings through multiple modalities, especially the sound and the semantics in language, and sometimes the spaces and the mental images too...perhaps we could think of it as a Broadway musical, in which many different elements are combined in a harmonious presentation: the light, the stage, the costume, the sound, the music, the lyrics, and the acting -- and the timing for organizing all those elements is quite important too!
I remember hearing the sick child story from a professor -- actually, I think the professor had elaborated the story into the death of Williams' daughter, if I remember correctly -- and immediately hating the poet and the poem.
After thirty five years and an explanation from the poet's mouth, I rather like the poem and the poet, and hate that professor. Thankfully, I can't remember his name, though I can still see his smug mustache under his horn-rimmed glasses.
I'm amused at the sick child story. At first reading what came to my mind was how the chickens might for a brief time see a red barrow with food as their whole world.
edit 1: just found out the author of this poem is Brian Bilston. It has been included in his book, You Took the Last Bus Home: The Poems of Brian Bilston