The Baseball Units Of Poetry

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Outfielder ... Shortstop ...You're out

can be re-written as

—with accented syllables—

Outfielder ... Shortstop ... You're out

 

Accented or unaccented syllables

have hard or soft sounds

—so to speak—

then

Outfielder ... Shortstop ... You're out

becomes

hard-soft-soft ... hard-soft ... soft-hard

 

I would not blame any reader

for dismissing all of the above

as pure nonsense

but if understanding 

how to 

write a poem

is your choice

then 

the baseball "units"

serve as mnemonic devices

for remembering how

to write formal poetry

with each syllable

in the correct place

 

the dachtyl ... the trochee ... the iambic

  are the most common

structural units

for the placement of

hard and soft sounds

the dachtyl ... the trochee ... the iambic

represent

hard/soft/soft ... hard/soft ... soft/hard

combinations of three or two

syllables

Outfielder ... Shortstop ... You're out

are three easy examples

of the above

***

Now, however, Mr. Oliverio

must interject 

(1) a universal truth:

HUMOR

makes the learning process

easier to swallow

and 

(2) a factual truth:

As a writer,

I am not fit to shine

the shoes of 

HERMAN WOUK

whose equally

hysterical/sad/profound

novel

City Boy

states all of the above

with pure clarity

and much laughter

 

Wouk wrote the novel

in 1948,

the year my mother

was inseminated

with what would become

her only son

***

 

I have only twenty more pages

to finish reading 

City Boy

and have said

much more than enough 

on this page

***  

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