There is some discussion on read write poem about — who would have thought! — words. "Obscure" words in poems are double-edged swords: they can be just the "right" word in the right place, or they could send the reader grumbling to the dictionary. Making the reader do that too often may not be good for business — some say. Allusions, such as cultural artifacts or historical names, can pose the same or even greater problem.
But if your poem sits in a blog and not in a book, there is a simple technical solution. Consider the following couplet and the "code" behind it:
Why turn your poem into an alien?
It looks like a sesquipedalian!
Why turn your poem into an alien?
It looks like a<span title="Given to the use of long words" style="color: #333333;">sesquipedalian</span>!
When the curious reader sends his mouse to sit on top of sesquipedalian in the couplet (try it), the definition will appear in a text box. No need to run to or search a dictionary.
Here is a more functional version of the above couplet:
Why turn your poem into an alien?
It looks like a sesquipedalian!
Why turn your poem into an alien?
It looks like a<a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sesquipedalian" style="text-decoration: none;"><span title="Given to the use of long words" style="color: #333333;">sesquipedalian</span></a>!
What is different in this version is that, in addition to giving the reader the definition in a box, when sesquipedalian is clicked, a dictionary page is revealed. The same idea works even better for "obscure" allusions.
There are more advanced webby ways (Cascading Style Sheets) to accomplish fancier things (e.g. prettier pop-ups), but it is as simple as this using "style"s and "span"s. The color #333333 (which happens to be the color of my blog's standard text) was used to color sesquipedalian to make it seem like nothing is going on, until the curious reader's mouse sniffs around it. But anything goes. Of course when the poem is printed, all help is lost.
That is excellent advice. By editing in links and so forth one creates a hypertext. (edit in link to wiki re: hypertext poetry, haha). Bloggoland is not always the right environment for every poem, obscure can mean different things to different people.
ReplyDeleteI've been dwelling on this myself for a while now... the way that the rules of writing (and ways of knowing, our understanding of understand) may be completely altered in the future, when we move completely from text to hypertext.
ReplyDeleteMy idea is to hide the linkiness of words. You can't see which ones are links; only the mouse's nose (the cursor) can sniff them out. The only exception is if you want to color a word: a mood link.
ReplyDeleteHypertext poetry was big in the 1990's. It seems so retro now, but see, for example, Frame Work (1999) @ wordcircuits.com.
I think there is something there that shouldn't be lost.
(on the other hand, I think Flash® poetry is a bit too much!)
ReplyDeleteWell - I've enjoyed some poetry, some Popeye, and even learnt something here today. I have a question too. Should printed poetry come with a glossary?
ReplyDeleteMy edition of Selected Poems by W.H. Auden (author), Edward Mendelson (editor), has an Explanatory Notes section at the end with "brief clarifications of unfamiliar proper names and words" in each poem (if there are any).
ReplyDeleteI think many collections have something like this if they are "edited" by a second party; perhaps not so much if not. The tactic used in this book is much better than the visually annoying (for poems) footnoting.
One update: This weekend I met the writer George Arnold while in Dallas, and bought a copy of his book Bestseller: Must Read Authors Guide To Successfully Selling Your Book. Very useful, and with lots of humor, too.
ReplyDeleteThere is an apropos word in his glossary:
condomidiom: a word or phrase, commonly employed by authors, that is so hidden and obscure in the everyday lexicon as to be unknown by more than 99 and 44/100 percent of all potential readers.
That's a good one!