On "On Copia"

[Sorry about re-representing what I did in class. I didn't get to fully makes some points on repetition that I would have liked.]

"On Copia..." was written by Erasmus as a demonstration of a writing exercise. You take one sentence and then express it as many different ways as you possibly can. Copia is translated as "abundance."

He wrote, "First of all, exercise in expressing oneself in different ways will be of considerable importance in general for the acquisition of style. In particular however it will help in avoiding, that is, the repetition of a word or phrase, an ugly and offensive fault. It often happens that we say the same thing several times. If in these circumstances we find ourselves destitute of verbal riches and hesitate, or keep singing out the same old phrase like a cukoo, and are unable to clothe our thought in other colors or other forms, we shall look ridiculous when we show ourselves to be so tongue-tied, and we shall also bore our wretched audience to death." (BH 598)

I agree with the exercises importance for "the acquisition of style." In his exercise, Erasmus rewrote the sentence, "Your letter please me mightily." (BH 605) In the importance of acquiring style I immediately find phrases that I like and dislike. I find Erasmus' first variation, "From my dear Faustus' letter I derived much delight." a rather weak variation (BH 606).

After studying the sentence I know I dislike it because of its structure: Object-Subject-Verb. Or in other words, Erasmus employs a passive voice instead of an active voice. An active voice would read like this: "I [the subject] derived [the verb] much delight from Faustus' letter [the object]"

Another example of passive voice: "When your letter was delivered, I was filled with delight." (BH 606)

To make it active: "I was filled with delight when your letter was delivered."

An example of active voice: "Your letter was very sweet to me." (BH 606)

Although I agree with using this exercise for acquisition of style, I don't believe, "... repitition of a word or phrase, [is] an ugly and offensive fault." I don't think you will sound like a "cukoo" that "sings out the same old phrase" and "bores the audience to death."

I believe there are three poetry forms that you can use to make repetition a beautiful thing. These three forms are the Pantoum, Villanelle, and the Sestina.

Erasmus noted on writing "copia" that it should be started out by "rendering" your sentence "twice, then three times, and eventually treating it over and over again, so as to attain such facility in the end that we can vary it in two or three hundred ways...." (BH 598)

I agree with him on this, that the repitition should be done gradually and because of this, I recommend starting with the pantoum, followed by the sestina, and then the villanelle. The reason being, is the pantoum's repetition is often the easiest to master, sestina somewhat harder in difficulty, and the villanelle being very hard to master.

The pantoum is very subtle in its repitition, each line is only repeated once, much like Erasmus would want it. The finished product itself is always stunning as each repeated line may take on a new meaning, or feeling.

The sestina is is somewhat harder because of its strict requirements, 7 stanzas, but easier than a villanelle as you are only repeating words and not entire lines.

The villanelle itself, depending on the person, can be harder or easier than the sestina.

All of them have one thing in common though, it can teach a person to use repitition, and not jsut variation of repititoin, to be effective in speech or writing. They all can show that repitition is not an ugly or offensive thing.

for pantoum guidelines, please visit: http://anitraweb.org/kalliope/pantoum.html

For a pantoum example, please visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/books/features/19980920.htm


For sestina guidelines, please visit: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page9.html

For a sestina example, please visit: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/904.html


For villanelle guidelines, please visit: http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page8.html

For a villanelle example, please visit:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/reports2000/page8.html
Please read sylvia plaths, "mad girls love song." or elizabeths, "one art"