Journal article
Does function follow form? Openness and formal association in the early poetry of John Forbes
TEXT, Vol.23(2), pp.1-23
30/10/2019
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Abstract
This article aims to reconstruct features of John Forbes’ compositional process in his first decade of serious practice, through analysing drafts and early versions of his poems. I compare early versions of ‘Here’, ‘The Joyful Mysteries’ and ‘Stalin’sHolidays’ to their final incarnations to show how Forbes was resistant to a fixed, or single, idea when writing a poem. In the context of such openness, Forbes’ poems often moved towards a sense of closure, through the pressure his use of form applied and through its more suggestive qualities. Following a comment Forbes made in an interview, I label this process ‘formal association’. I contend that Forbes sought a balance between closure and openness, while arguing that the dynamic interplay of this openness with formal association, during the composition, was crucial to his achievement.
Details
- Title
- Does function follow form? Openness and formal association in the early poetry of John Forbes
- Creators
- Aidan Coleman (Author)
- Publication Details
- TEXT, Vol.23(2), pp.1-23
- Publisher
- Australian Association of Writing Programs
- Identifiers
- 991013100613602368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article