October 2024 Challenge B: Epigrams, Epigraphs, Epitaphs, Epithets

[Tzara]

Epigrams, Epigraphs, Epitaphs, Epithets

This is a multiple-option/mixed-option challenge. My original plan was to base the challenge on using a epigraph as the basis of a poem, but in thinking about how there may be some confusion among the various "epi" words in literature, I decided to talk about all of them (well, at least these four—there are others such as the epicedium, epideictic, and epithalamion that I'm ignoring for now).

I will define each of these in turn, but to start I'll point out that two of these (epigram and epitaph) are poetic forms, though not forms in the sense of a Shakespearean sonnet or a villanelle, which have specific metrical and rhyme requirements. Epigrams and epitaphs are more thematic in form and, in fact, aren't necessarily poetic forms at all—there are prose epigrams and epitaphs as well as poetic ones. An epigraph, on the other hand, is more like a line or phrase that inspires or comments upon the theme of a poem. (Or, again, a work of prose. Epigraphs are quite common in literary fiction, for example, and rather less so in poetry.) Finally, an epithet is a kind of literary device—a descriptive synonym for something else.

The challenge is to use at least one of these concepts in a poem. You can use more than one in a particular poem if you want, as they aren't mutually exclusive, with the probable exception of the epigram and epitaph. Poems can be of any style—free verse, rhymed, metrical, etc.—and of any (reasonable) length. Comments, questions, discussion, and so on should be placed in this thread.

I will define the four terms and give examples in the following four posts.

 

[Tzara]

Epigram

Edward Hirsch in A Poet's Glossary defines the epigram as "a short, witty poem or pointed saying" and goes on to point out that "[t]he epigram is brief and pointed. It has no particular form, though it often employs a rhymed couplet or quatrain, which can stand alone or serve as part of a longer work." Hirsch mentions the Roman poet Martial as an influence in the often satirical tone adopted by the epigram, citing his "caustic" couplet

​

Sabinus, I don't like you. You know why?​

Sabinus, I don't like you. That is why.​

The Enlightenment poet Alexander Pope was particularly adept at the epigram. One of my favorites of his is

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Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness​

​

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;​

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?​

Another of Pope's epigrams, one perhaps even more biting is

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Epigram from the French​

​

Sir, I admit your general rule,​

That every poet is a fool:​

But you yourself may serve to show it,​

That every fool is not a poet.​

I mentioned above that the epigram can be prose as well as poetry. Along with Pope, one of the great epigrammatists in English was Oscar Wilde, who often placed his best witticisms in his plays. One of my favorites is spoken by Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest:

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To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.​

Or this one, from the same play, spoken by Miss Prism:

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The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.​

So if you choose to attempt an epigram, try to write something pithy and witty. If possible, also write it as a rhymed couplet or quatrain.

 

[Tzara]

Epigraph

The Poetry Foundation defines an epigraph as "[a] quotation from another literary work that is placed beneath the title at the beginning of a poem or section of a poem." As with the epigram, epigraphs are not unique to poetry and in fact are probably more common in prose literature. Also, while they usually are "a quotation from another literary work," this is not a hard and fast rule. An epigraph may, for example, be a statement to clarify something about the poem, as the epigraph to Thomas Hardy's "The Convergence of the Twain"; its epigraph "Lines on the loss of the 'Titanic'" indicates the subject of the poem.

Epigraphs often indicate the origin or inspiration for a poem, as in this example:

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Anne Hathaway​

Carol Ann Duffy​

​

Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed…​

—from Shakespeare’s will​

​

The bed we loved in was a spinning world​

of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas​

where he would dive for pearls. My lover’s words​

were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses​

on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme​

to his, now echo, assonance; his touch​

a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.​

Some nights I dreamed he’d written me, the bed​

a page beneath his writer’s hands. Romance​

and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.​

In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,​

dribbling their prose. My living laughing love—​

I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head​

as he held me upon that next best bed.​

Duffy uses the famous statement from Shakespeare's will—that of leaving his wife his "second-best bed"—as the basis for a poem in Anne Shakespeare's voice reminiscing about their life (particularly their erotic life) together.

Another, more complex, example is the epigraph to James Wright's longish poem "At the Executed Murderer's Grave" (linked rather than quoted due to space requirements). The epigraph is a quotation from the work of Sigmund Freud, a series of questions about human motivations ("Why should we do this? What good is it to us? Above all, how can we do such a thing? How can it possibly be done?") that Wright adopts as a theme or subject for his thoughts in the composition of the poem. Whereas Hardy's epigraph is functional in nature and Duffy's is thematic but straightforward, Wright's epigraph sets up the more psychological examination of feeling and intellect that is his poem.

Finally, here's an example of an epigraph in a poem I wrote recently:

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Diva​

​

…glamour clings to her like the smell of Gitanes in wool.​

Edmund White: The Beautiful Room Is Empty​

​

The way she wore scarves, for example,​

as if they were a lover's long fingers​

delicately wringing her throat.​

Or how she would lean toward me,​

the scent of her perfume drawing​

my attention to her breasts, set​

as delicately in the low cut of her blouse​

as an ivory figure in a vitrine—to be viewed​

but not touched, at least until she wished.​

​

In a way I was part of her collection,​

a painting to be displayed over the couch​

or the bed until other, newer work caught​

her promiscuous eye and my visage rehung​

in some dark hallway or deaccessioned​

as a fake, just another forged Rembrandt.​

​

Yet I still play her recordings, late at night​

in a room lit only by firelight, and I remember​

those few months where I lived as more​

than a mere fan, or even supernumerary—​

as an elegant comprimario, dancing​

with her on the stage of her bedroom,​

careful to always keep the focus on her,​

to hand her into the spotlight and thrill​

to the beautiful shimmer of her voice.​

I don't include this as an example of fine poetry, but rather as an example of how the epigraph inspired the poem. The quote is from the first page of White's novel and seemed to me to evoke not only glamour but a certain kind of sophistication (Gitanes is a French brand of cigarettes, so for Americans rather more exotic than, say, Winston or Marlboro), which made me think about opera stars and how their public personas are not only of talented musicians but (especially for female singers) of persons of high class, sophistication, with a kind of distanced personality. So the quote essentially evoked the poem for me.

I happen to love epigraphs and use them all the time. If you choose to attempt a poem with an epigraph, try to find a short line or phrase that inspires you—it can be from another poem, a work of fiction or a newspaper story, a popular song, or whatever. Ideally, list the author and source, but that isn't a requirement.

And have fun. That's the point.

 

[Tzara]

Epitaph

Hirsch says of the epitaph that it "can be either a commemorative short poem inscribed on a gravestone or a poem that imitates one." (He notes that the word is derived from the Greek "on a tomb" though other sources indicate it is taken from an Old French precursor.) Hirsch is speaking of the epitaph as a poetic form, of course; actual epitaphs on gravestones are often brief phrases or prose fragments. Hirsch goes on to say that "[t]he epitaph generally refers to the dead in the third person… and serves as an abbreviated elegy."

Epitaphs, despite being memorial in nature, are sometimes not at all somber and may even be jokey. For example, the gravestone epitaph for Mel Blanc—the voice of various Looney Tunes characters, such as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig—reads "That's all Folks!" Others feature famous lines or snippets of writing such as Yeats's ("Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horseman, pass by!" from his poem "Under Ben Bulben") or Martin Luther King Jr.'s ("Free at last. Free at last. / Thank God Almighty / I'm free at last." from his "I Have a Dream" speech, originally from an old spiritual).

Here are some examples of poems that are written as epitaphs for various persons or entities:

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Epitaph on a Tyrant​

W. H. Auden​

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Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,​

And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;​

He knew human folly like the back of his hand,​

And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;​

When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,​

And when he cried the little children died in the streets.​

​

​

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Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries​

A. E. Housman​

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These, in the days when heaven was falling,​

The hour when earth's foundations fled,​

Followed their mercenary calling​

And took their wages and are dead.​

​

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;​

They stood, and the earth's foundations stay;​

What God abandoned, these defended,​

And saved the sum of things for pay.​

​

​

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Epitaph on My Own Friend​

Robert Burns​

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An honest man here lies at rest,​

As e’er God with His image blest:​

The friend of man, the friend of truth;​

The friend of age, and guide of youth:​

Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d,​

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:​

If there’s another world, he lives in bliss;​

If there is none, he made the best of this.​

If you choose to attempt an epitaph, you can either write a short memorial poem, rhymed or not—an "abbreviated elegy," as Hirsch put it—or write something more like what might actually appear on someone's tomb or gravestone, such as my feeble example:

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Here lies Harold Jones.​

This was his body, now mostly bones.​

Since this is October, those of you with a Hallowe'en bent might find an epitaph appealing. In any case, don't take it too seriously.

 

[Tzara]

Epithet

Hirsch's definition of the epithet is not obviously helpful: "A fixed formula, usually an adjective or adjectival phrase, used to characterize a person or thing." Most descriptions of the epithet turn almost immediately to examples, quite often from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, like "wine-dark sea" or "rosy-fingered dawn." Other examples might include "Lionheart" for Richard I of England ("Richard the Lionhearted") or "Terrible" for Ivan IV of Russia ("Ivan the Terrible"). A more modern example might be using the phrase "the Georgia Peach" to refer to Ty Cobb or "the Big Apple" to refer to New York City. Note that the term epithet as a literary device does not imply "a disparaging or abusive word or phrase" (Merriam-Webster's secondary definition) as in a phrase like "racial epithets."

As such, it might be pretty easy to use an epithet in a poem. If you're into music, for example, poems about The King (Elvis Presley), the Man in Black (Johnny Cash), the Fab Four (The Beatles), or The Prefab Four (The Monkees) would all work. For cities, there are the aforementioned Big Apple, the Windy City (Chicago), La La Land (Los Angeles), and the City of Light (Paris); for countries, Down Under (Australia) is an obvious example.

Since an epithet is a literary device rather than a poetic form like the epigram and epitaph, and not even, like the epigraph, something that might clearly evoke a theme or narrative, your poem can be about most anything, in any form, with the epithet being a minor part of it. One of the few examples I found of a poem primarily built around an epithet is this one

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Suicide's Note​

Langston Hughes​

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The calm,​

Cool face of the river​

Asked me for a kiss.​

where the personification of the river as a face forms the central metaphor of the poem.

Anyway, if trying your hand at an epithet resonates with you, go for it, and as always have fun.

 

[vagrantx]

The birth of Apollo and Artemis
- the Homeric Hymns

Leto's voice echoes 'cross the realm
her pain a debt, owed for sins unsung
the woman cries with legs a parted
a longing note to meet her young

a cradle wrought from finest elm
prepared by sweet Eileithyia
painted blue with leaf of orchid
and legs from black obsidian

nine days she lay there overwhelmed
a trick by ox eyed Hera
jealous consort often worried
her love a tale from bygone era

 

[Angeline]

Bel Canto
Scatter peace across the earth
Thou make reign in the sky.
~ Casta Diva, Norma by Bellini

She sparkles with jewels but shines
even more from within. She's intense
and luminous, a severe arresting beauty.

Her gestures are minute. Is it artifice
how cleverly she conveys emotion
or is she moved by the power of song?

The flicker of expressive dark eyes,
the lift of a brow, slight movements
tell her story, a prayer to the Moon

Goddess in a soprano voice flowing
supplication like honey, the quandary
of her choice evident yet how elegant

her bending head and silken hair,
soignee and the graceful curve
of neck, this rare passionate bird.

 

[Angeline]

Here lies Angelina
Died trying to write a sestina

 

[Tzara]

Epigram on My Distaste for Political Poetry

The verse he pens is not too bad.
Sometimes it's sexy, sometimes sad.
But when on politics he speaks,
I think his poems simply reek.
​

It's harder composing an epigram than I thought. I suppose that's in part due to the requirement of being both pithy and witty. (I seem to be better at being pitchy and witless.)

Anyway, it's a try. The "he" is generic—I didn't have anyone particular in mind.

 

[Tzara]

Return to Sender

There are a few things I will miss,
a girl with no shirt on
lighting a cigarette
—Franz Wright: "Homage"

Her red hair and milky skin,
face turned half away
while she looks out a window.
I lie on the disordered bed
unaware that this won't last,
so I don't quite appreciate
the line of her back, her slim
arms, that long graceful neck.
Her image fades in my memory
like a photograph left in the sun,
although my fingertips still recall
the firm curve of her breast,
and I sometimes hear her voice—
throaty, thick with need,
on those sleepless nights
when regret taunts me
for walking away from love.

 

[Tzara]

Verse in Which I Attempt
to Write My Own Epitaph

He lived and wrote some lousy poems,
Drank lots of wine—three jeroboams
Were quite enough to float his teeth.

Now he lies quiet, here beneath
This grassy sward, this rotting wreath,
With nothing but more earth below him.

 

[Tzara]

Prince of Darkness

It isn't a name, more
an epithet, a metaphor
for all the awfulness
that can befall anyone,
however good or innocent
or simply uninvolved
they might be. Not even
really evil, just unlucky
where they happened to be
on some otherwise ordinary
day when circumstances
caused the lights (another
metaphor) to suddenly
go out so they were left
lost and disoriented,
often never to recover
anything like favor even
if they somehow kept their life.

 

[butters]

an artist paints the past with kinder colours
softer brushes—shows us looking at the mirror
with cataract-clouded eyes