Why and, more importantly, how are novels-in-verse so devastatingly effective in portraying action? Let’s look at techniques used in History: The Home Movie.
How elegant action is when written in verse. Let's examine the following lines, taken from the poem, "1917: Volkhonka, Moscow," in Craig Raine's 1994 novel-in-verse, History: The Home Movie.
When shelling starts,
they move to the central stairwell
with all their neighbors
*
A forest of candle stumps,
primus stoves, bedding, pans....
*
She comes to prefer the bombardment
Silence brings the sound
of rifle bolts snacking like dogs
*
and someone trying keys
in the outside locks,
swearing placidly to himself
*
Would the scene above be as tense had it not been pruned and shaped by the necessities of verse? Write it out now, if you will, without referring to the text above for cues to word order, word choice, and pacing. How different are your results from the original? How many words does each require? Which is more intense of feeling? Which do you prefer?
The short lines and regular metric pace used here reminds me of clock tick, or a heart beat, mimicking the only sounds one hears when holding the breath, listening. This simple devise dramatically intensifies the tension of the last two stanzas, in which bombardment stops and the characters are trapped and forced to wait, praying to remain hidden, straining to intercept the sound of danger approaching.
In the line, "of rifle bolts snacking like dogs" the meter trips up a bit over the stressed "bolts" immediately followed by the stressed "snacking," rather than the expected unstressed syllable. The quickness of "bolt" (both in sound and meaning - "bolt" is both noun and action verb) and the sharp sound of the word "snacking" accentuate the effect. By tripping these subtle triggers even the most canine-loving reader is set to interpret the following the mention of "dogs" in terms of its most snarling, barking extreme.
There are no actual dogs, interestingly, just the mention of them in a simile. The threat is only suggested, not seen, just as the characters here can not see the things they are afraid of, the things that might very quickly end their lives.
- Raine, Craig. History: The Home Movie. Doubleday: New York. 1994. 17-18.
Click here for another article on Craig Raine.
By the way, if you like action in your novels-in-verse, check out what Les Murray, Davis McCombs and Ruth Whitman have accomplished. I think you will be pleased.
