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Four Poems That Contain The Bones Of A Novel

Four Poems That Contain The Bones Of A Novel

For me the best poems are those that contain a story, and my favourite poets like my favourite songwriters are those who are natural storytellers. This is a selection of my favourite poetry and the novels that could emerge from them.

1. “When You Are Old” by W.B. Yeats

This is the ultimate love poem, a story of constancy in the face of change, and yet one that is tinged in bitterness. The author asks a woman to read a book that recounts her past or their past or the past that he has written for her. Nothing is precisely clear in this poem, and that’s what adds to the magic. The reader is left to dream or imagine what has passed or might have been. We can only speculate too on the contents of that book the woman is left to read as she bends down by the fire “old and grey and full of sleep.” This could then form the basis of a novel within a novel, telling the story of a book the poet has written for his lover, and the circumstances that caused him to do so.

2.Lady Weeping at the Crossroads by WH Auden

Another enigmatic poem with a deeper story concealed in layers beneath. This one is even more of a mystery and far more tragic than the last. A lady at the heart of the tale seeks out a place of love in high society, but ends up in a deserted castle in an abyss at the end of the world. Perhaps there we could find the perfect setting to put flesh on the bones of a novel. The World’s End estate in London rests on the borders of two worlds, overlooking the River Thames and the fashionable Chelsea district. There, within a high rise tower, we have a woman reflecting on her high society love affairs, and the roads that have led her to this place. In the novel though it’s probably best to construct a happier ending than Auden’s!

3.The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

One of the most popular poems of all time, and one of the most easily misunderstood according to even the author himself. And for the purposes of this article we’ll twist the poem another step further out of its original shape and intention. Frost’s First World War classic story of choices and indecision could form the basis of a very British novel set in modern times. This could well be the perfect metaphor for the Brexit situation in the UK, as two roads diverged, and even when seeming to travel down one, the narrator is unsure of exactly where the journey and the story’s going to end up. We could even have Britain herself as the narrator, though as former Prime Minister Cameron has recently learned, no one person can claim to speak for a whole country.

4.The Shirt by Carol Ann Duffy

Since part of my fiction writing is focused on football I love this poem. Here you have the solid foundation of a story that would resonate with sports fans and non-fans alike. It is the tale of a player in a bar on the night after he has missed a crucial penalty kick for his team. Though she portrays him as self-absorbed in thought and action, the British Poet Laureate manages to make the footballer a sympathetic character. We can feel his pain and broken expectations of heroism. This could be the start of his descent into madness, ignominy, or alcoholism. And yet at the end Carol Ann Duffy does cheekily remind us that he has the consolation of earning 100 thousand pounds a week for all of his present suffering.

Paul Breen
Paul Breen
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