Event Type

Julian Talamantez Brolaski, as part of the Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry, presents his talk which explores some of the functions of rhyme and the types of rhymes that poets use.  One of these functions is epistemological: rhyme manipulates what is knowable in the poem.  Rhyme can be illusory in that it appears to dispense wisdom and truth.  Therein lies rhyme’s great problem, and it's great appeal: the implicit simile it creates between pairs or groups of words.  Rhyme generates epistemological force by illuminating a relationship between words.  This relationship can be unusual or surprising; in any case, the association of one word with another shifts and expands its meaning.  Rhyme increases the semantic importance of a word, yet it potentially causes a rift between sound and sense.  We desire that words which sound alike mean alike; the call of the rhyme invites semantic comparison.  The simultaneous, or near-simultaneous perception of similarity and difference can cause the audience to reevaluate the relationship between language and the world.  What can be known, in other words, becomes subject to question.

Starting Date/Time
Location
Suite 250, New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St Claude Ave