July Poetry Discussion

Chapter 7 - Turns and Connections

Photo by Francesco Zivoli on Unsplash

We’re looking at chapter seven in A Poet’s Craft, by poet and teacher Annie Finch.

Check out the 2023 Index for all the earlier chapters and monthly discussions. Some of you have purchased the book, and are also working your way through. (Which I recommend—there is so much to learn and revisit in this book.)

Trope

Once again, this is rich material. Month after month, putting together this discussion piece, I’m reminded of how all writing is informed by the study—and practice—of poetry. That includes adopting all for practice within your prose.

In this chapter, Finch uses the word “trope” in the way it was used in the past. Somehow, of late, it seems to have shifted to being a word followed by a derisive sniff, and associated with over-used story-lines/motifs/writing devices. (Maybe they mean trite? Or tripe!) It’s a good reminder—to me—to see the word used in the way Finch has. She defines trope as “ general term for describing one thing in terms of something else,” and notes that the etymology of the word is the Greek for “to turn.” It’s good to visualize that turn from one-thing-to-another.