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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>ELAINE
RAMSHAW WROTE:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>>>>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Dan,
I can't read the first paragraph of Don's message in Hiawathan either; <br>
but the second I can. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>By
the way, it isn't hard to <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Write
in rhythm, and the Song of <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Hiawatha
(Kalevala <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>If
you're European) is a- <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Mong
the simplest. Just in case you <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Haven't
noticed (or are used to <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Other
ways of reading English) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>I've
been using Hiawatha <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Rhythm
this entire message. >>><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>AND
I GRUMBLE:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>Sorry
Elaine, but I have trouble buying the idea that one can claim a poetic metric
is applied by simply breaking sentences (or syllables, for that matter!)
wherever one wants. Such a pattern would mean every sentence in the English
language is written in Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha meter as long as the
paragraph’s syllables are divisible by eight. That would seem to
diminish the hard work Longfellow, Barks, and Rosa put into carefully constructing
their phrases to achieve the sing-song rhythm that is so obvious to anyone who
reads it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>I
don’t wish to belittle Don Markstein’s past creative works, but in
this one instance I still cannot pick up the intended beat even after you have
broken the lines for me. Yes, I can force the inflections if I read it
aloud, but it doesn’t naturally flow (at least not in my lazy brain).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>The
Song of Hiawatha has been one of my favorite written works since
childhood. I would certainly like to think that Longfellow spent his one-and-one-half
years on the poem doing more than writing his story in prose and simply breaking
the sentences at every eighth silly-bobble, ignoring any natural breaks due to
punctuation or change of thought.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:blue'>PICKY
DAN<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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