POETS AND MANGLED WORDS, A Case for Absolution

It is National Poetry Month and my subject today is how they have tortured the English language. They are responsible for such words as “ebon” (really ebony) and “eterne” (eternal), and for turning normally one syllable words like “wreaked” into two syllables by adding an accent mark to cause the reader to pronounce the last and effectively silent last syllable.

The list of abuses is long. Here are some: ‘gainst (against), an’ (and), e’en (evening), e’er (ever), ne’er (never), o’er (over), o’ (of), oft (often), ope (open), heav’n (heaven), ta’en (taken) th’ (the). However you look at it, these shortcuts are cheating. Would they have done any better if they had access to a thesaurus as we do today?

As a poet myself, I understand what led writers in the past to manipulate words in this way. The literary world, like that of dress design, has shifting fashions. When these early writers produced their strangulated word versions, the fashion was for rigid forms requiring rhymes.

So, if you are working with a poem requiring an iambic rhythm for instance (daDUM), the word “eternal” does not fit even if it is perfect for what you want to say. You cheat and shorten it to “eterne”. The reader can figure out what it means from the context of the poem.

Once upon history, the “ed” ending to many past tense verbs was indeed spoken as “ed”, like a person’s name. So, perhaps we can be more lenient in judging the very early poets for assuming the “ed” qualified as a syllable to fit the adopted rhythm of the poem, even though present day speakers swallow the “e” into silence leaving only the “d” to make a noise. Can we not forgive  writers of the long past for placing an accent mark over otherwise unaccented syllables?

The present literary world frowns on these methods as do the readers of today. Also, the use of rigid forms and rhyme rather than being the norm has become the exception.

One last word–songs, which use the lyric poetic form, also freely mangle words to suit the music. While purists may cringe at this, lovers of the music are happy to let the abuse slide by. Can we not be as generous with the poetry of earlier years?

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