Unwittingly rhyming has often been a fun subject for those who lightheartedly consider themselves a poet who “didn’t even know it,” but as Ed Rivers, professor of English, points out, it is indeed possible to compose accidental but beautiful poetry.
“Random composition can be a wellspring of creativity,” he told students, faculty, and community members at a recent seminar, entitled “The Music and Mystery of Poetry.”
Rivers led a discussion about poetry, music, and aleatory—or random—composition as part of the Department of English’s Literary Brunch Series. The series invites the public to campus on Saturday mornings for a light brunch and an in-depth faculty-led conversation surrounding literary themes.
“The Department of English's Literary Brunch Series provides an informal seminar by major scholars of literature,” said William Kuskin, department chair. “The goal of the series is to bring the intellectual discussion of literature to the public. Towards these ends, each meeting features an open-ended seminar by a world authority on a given topic ranging from medieval to modern literature and everything in between.”
Rivers is one of the department’s senior professors and an expert on Proust and Nabokov. He is a President’s Teaching Scholar and has pioneered the interdisciplinary teaching of literature and digital technology.
Rivers’ seminar incorporated poetry, digital music, and rap.
“This is a poem I frequently use in my teaching to introduce poetic rhythm,” he said. “The fun begins when you begin to feel it and rap it.” So, to illustrate the natural cadence of poetry, Rivers rapped out an Oscar Wilde poem and then invited the audience to join in.
Rivers also explained how aleatory composition of music, art, and poetry are similar. He invited participants to use a digital-drum computer program to create a random rhythm and to use aleatory composition to write a poem by randomly selecting words from a Tom Wolfe essay. Rivers uses similar workshops in his classes with undergraduates.
“Sometimes you’re surprised to find talents in students that had otherwise been masked simply because there was no opportunity to use them,” he said.
In a short hour, the brunch attendees were given an opportunity to unleash their inner talents from rapping Oscar Wilde to composing a digital music. Attendees left the event with their own new poem in their pockets, a full belly of doughnuts, and a new outlook on creative writing.
The Literary Brunch Series debuted in October 2011 and covers a wide range of themes. The events are offered monthly during the academic year and are free and open to the public. Seminars take place from 10:30-11:30 a.m. at the University Memorial Center room 425, unless otherwise noted. The Literary Brunch spring schedule is as follows:
- Jan. 19: Assistant Professor Richelle Munkhoff, “Reading Plague in Romeo and Juliet.”
*Special off-campus location. Space is limited. Call 303-492-7995 to reserve a spot. - Feb. 2: Associate Professor R L Widmann, “Shakespeare in Film”
- March 9: Associate Professor John-Michael Rivera, “An Encyclopedia of the New World: Remixing the Florentine Codex”
- April 13: Professor Sue Zemka, “Victorian Literature”
For more information about the Department of English and the Literary Brunch Series, visit: http://english.colorado.edu/