Journal article
Sticky form and semantic disjunction in poetry
New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing , Vol.First Online, pp.1-15
11/05/2026
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Abstract
This article introduces a way of thinking about form that has implications for the composition and editing of semantically disjunctive poetry. This approach proposes that the cohesive stickiness of formal elements can counterpoise what is semantically fractured so that disjunction, which registers as an interruption or discontinuity of meaning, can be answered – or balanced – by formal continuity. After explaining how the approach works, and defining my terms, I apply these concepts in the analysis of three poems by the late-twentieth-century Australian poet John Forbes. I close by considering form’s adhesive qualities in reader experience. This conclusion draws upon neurocognitive research to explain why form, with its suggestion of authorial presence, can temporarily stand in for meaning, enabling a reader to stay – or ‘stick’ – with a poem, and so hazard disjunction’s potentially alienating effect. It is this adhesive stickiness that enables a reader to experience the pleasure of poetic resistance.
Details
- Title
- Sticky form and semantic disjunction in poetry
- Creators
- Aidan Coleman - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing , Vol.First Online, pp.1-15
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Identifiers
- 991013376851902368
- Copyright
- © 2026 The Author(s).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article