An Oasis on the Web.

FORMALISTA exists as a haven for women poets working in form. This is a private list; admission is solely at the listowner's discretion. Formalista exists for the benefit of women poets working in form, whether sometimes or always. We also welcome comparative linguists, metrists/prosodists, and poets working in form in languages other than English—especially women in those fields.

Not everyone here is a “formalist,” per se, but everyone here either writes most or all of her work in form and meter; is a scholar who has published serious work in prosody, formal poetry by women, or metrical criticism; or  or is an accomplished poet who wants to learn more about form and meter in a collegial and well-informed atmosphere.

Our biases are toward the practice and analysis of metrical craft and literary linguistics/stylistics. We do not engage in endless theoretical or political flamewars, nor in argument for argument's sake. (Most of us are here precisely because we find such online rhetorical vamping tedious and counterproductive.) That said, we represent a wide range of political, social, and economic backgrounds.  Because we all lead exceedingly busy lives and because we are well-informed people of various political persuasions, we pride ourselves on high-quality, low-volume, spam- and petition-free list traffic. Formalistas may go for days on end without making a peep, then post a flurry of brief exchanges in between grading student papers, raising children, or traveling.

If you are a student or are new to writing in meter and traditional forms, we encourage you to explore our Useful Links page. This is not a beginner’s forum. We highly recommend that you attend the West Chester Poetry Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Workshop, Cave Canem, or any good creative writing program that offers coursework relevant to form, meter, and versification. Happily, more universities and low-residency programs recognize the importance of connecting poets to the long tradition in English (and other languages) of the dialectical relationships between meter and rhythm, rhyme and rhetoric, musicality and wit. We also recognize the importance of nonce forms, but reject the notion that a poem is necessarily “formal” (or its inverse, that a form necessarily equals a poem)  just because it contains a discernable pattern.

This WOULD be the place to:

    * examine recurring themes as affected by form or metrical variations

    * examine how women use the blues stanza

    * discuss women formalists’ metrical theories (surely there are some historically overlooked or forgotten)

    * consider differences in meter between women with and without classical (Greek/Latin) training

    * gripe about unfair analyses of women’s metrical poetry

    * nitpick any particular poet’s scansion in any particular poem

This would (most emphatically) NOT be the place to:

    * discuss why form is irrelevant

    * discuss why free verse (as opposed to nonce forms or “ghosts of meter”) is formal

    * the so-called “School of Quietude” as such

    * why the iambic pentameter line is “inherently sexist”

    * why the content of women’s poetry is “inferior” to that of men’s poetry or vice-versa

    * compare how one or more women handle hypermetrical (the so-called “feminine!”) endings

    * why women’s metrical practice is “less rigorous” than men’s

    * whether English meter is “imperialist”

    * whether non-English meter or metrical poetry in English form written by members of racial or ethnic minorities is “substandard,” “inferior,” or evidence of “primitivism”

    * troll for girlfriends, boyfriends, religious converts, political converts, literary-school-of-thought converts, proteges, publication outlets, private tutors, petition signatures, e-mail addresses, or endless back-and-forth meta-arguments designed to annoy as many people as possible as frequently as possible.

It's not that we hate free verse or are opposed to more experimental poetics. Many of us also write free verse, teach free verse poems as such (without aesthetically- or theoretically-hostile ulterior motives) and have published entire books of free verse. We just don’t do it here.

For members, there is a separate workshop for those who feel the need to run a formal poem past a small, friendly-well-informed group. The main discussion list is not the place to post workshop poems. No Formalista is required to post or to comment on poems on the separate workshop list. Lurking is emphatically OK--after the traditional and polite “hello” to the group.

To join Formalista, e-mail formalista * sailpoet-*-com (using the usual punctuation). Use this e-mail request to write at least a draft version of your introduction to the group. Be patient; response is not always immediate. No secret blackballing goes on. The listowner gets to decide who joins because she owns the server and the list. Further, membership rejection is not a reflection of what the listowner thinks of you as a person, poet, scholar, etc.

In your introduction, tell us a little bit about your work, a brief history of your interest in poetry in form and meter, and any publications that reflect this. This means that, if you are intrigued but feel that you don’t have the time or energy for one more e-mail listserv, you should give us a try. You can always sign off if you find you don’t have time or if you find that Formalista is not for you. Many of your friends and colleagues are here already. Ask around.

Rules: In person, backchannel, or on other lists, we may indeed revel in the following  guilty pleasures, grassroots advocacy, consciousness-raising, or bad behavior. However, to preserve Formalista as a sanctuary, on this list we don’t:

*rant about current headlines, political parties, or one dietary habit versus another

*make personal attacks

*assume we must enlighten intelligent and well-informed listmembers, many of whom already agree and some of whom are quite sure they disagree

*tolerate machismo or self-promotion in the guise of blog-blasts, lit-crit, weekly updates, or workshop critiques

*forward online petitions

*go off-topic (our topic is formal poetry by women; this does not preclude posting part or all of a work by a male poet for technical discussion)

In all things, let reason and humor prevail over tedious theorizing and sanctimonious flamewars!

Formalista logo design: Jilly Dybka

Photo credit: Robin Kemp