Search for a Publisher of Odd and Invented Forms

Dear Contributors,

         A publisher for The Book of Odd and Invented Forms has been identified, and the finished manuscript has been submitted for approval, so no more poems or forms can be considered. Actually, what's happening is that a fourth edition of The Book of Forms, A Handbook of Poetics, has been created that incorporates Odd and Invented Forms. I'll be getting in touch with contributors as things move forward. Thanks to all who helped, offered help, and contributed poems and new forms. 

Comments

[Martha J. Smith]

My apologies for hijacking this thread. But in your The New Book of Forms, your argument for the French origin of the limerick implies that I should be able to find early English versions of French forms in podic verse. Can you point me in the right direction? Thanks

[Lewis Turco]

I haven't "implied" anything. The French didn't write in podics, they have always written in syllabic prosody. I know of no syllabic limericks: they wouldn't work in syllabics anyway. Please read my words more carefully, on page 168 of The New Book, beginning with the paragraph in the middle of the page. Podic prosody was not developed until Norman French blended with Old English and became Middle English. Madsongs are primitive limericks. The earliest example is the Middle English anonymous "Sumer Is A-Coming In," which is in both The New Book of Forms and the Third Edition of The Book of Forms, which expands the earlier listing. Both books have "Tom O'Bedlam's Song" and the latter has Michael East's 1606 "Tobacco," which is a true limerick.

[Roy Mash]

I have a dozen or so "minimal sonnets" -- rhyme-schemed sonnets restricted to one word per line. I'd be happy to submit some of then them for possible inclusion in Odd and Invented Forms, but am unsure of the best way to go about this. Post them as comments to the blog, or send them as email to some address?

best,
Roy Mash

[Lewis Turco]

Sorry, Roy, but there's nothing new about "minimal sonnets," as you call them, and they're not sonnets anyway. Sonnets are written (in English, anyway) in rhymed iambic-pentameter lines. See the description of the sonnet in The Book of Forms.

[Roy Mash]

My bad: I didn't mean to imply the form was new, but hoped it might come under the rubric 'odd'. The one example I am familiar with was published back in the twenties by Frank Sidgwick, and is mentioned in an essay by John Ciardi (though he misattributes it to Witter Bynner):

The Aeronaut To His Lady
- Frank Sidgwick

'I
Through
Blue
Sky
Fly
To
You.
Why?

Sweet
Love,
Feet
Move
So
Slow!'

As for terminology, I'm happy to cede the term 'sonnet' to your definition. But does this form have another name, then?

-I have just ordered The Book of Forms (which may have the answer to my question) and look forward to reading it.

roy

[Lewis Turco]

Fourteen-line verse forms other than the sonnet are called "quatorzains."

[Martha J. Smith]

"I should be able to find early English versions of French forms in podic verse."

My apologies for posting an ambiguous sentence. My intent was for "in podic verse" to apply to the English side of "English versions of French forms"

Despite my error, your response did answer my question. Thanks for your time.