{"id":6063,"date":"2026-04-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/?p=6063"},"modified":"2026-04-01T23:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T04:36:47","slug":"the-treachery-of-rhyme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/the-treachery-of-rhyme\/","title":{"rendered":"The Treachery of Rhyme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">\u201cPoetry is a survival.\u201d  --Paul Val\u00e9ry<br><br>\u201cPoetry is a pipe.\u201d  -- Paul \u00c9luard and Andr\u00e9 Breton<br><br>\u201c<em>Ceci n\u2019est pas une pipe.<\/em>\u201d  -- Ren\u00e9 Magritte<br><br><br>Poetry is a pipe<br>and not a pipe<br>Poetry is music<br>or perhaps a polar bear<br><br>This is not a poem about a polar bear<br>It is a poem about a poem<br>and the bear too is a poem<br>a poem written by a bear<br>                 about a bear<br>a bear by and about a bear<br><br>the bear, a god, self-fertilizing<br>the bear, a bear, self-poetizing<br><br>Poetry is not a pipe<br>until it becomes a pipe<br>filled with stilted words<br>filled with lilting music<br>filled with walrus-tusk tobacco<br><br>the bear, a poem, self-ursinizing<br>the bear, Narcissus, self-mesmerizing<br>the bear, a pipe, self-smoking<br><br>The bear is a pipe<br>and not a pipe<br>The bear is opium <br>The bear is music<br><br>the bear, a rhyme, self-aestheticizing<br>the bear, a drug, self-anesthetizing<br><br>The poem is a bear<br>and not a bear<br><br>The poem is a pipe<br>and the smoke, a forest fire<br>a poem to burn down the world<br>The poem is a bear<br>wearing a ranger hat <br>who threatens to let you do it<br><br>the world, a pipe, self-playing<br>the world, a fire, self-immolating<br>the bear, a poem, self-saying<br>the bear, music, self-syncopating<br>the bear<br>self-conscious<br>\tself-prophesying\t<br>\tself-engendered<br>\tself-contained <br>\tself-referential<br>the bear rhymes itself with perfect rhythm<br>the bear rhymes itself with bear <br>\u2003<br><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cPoetry is a survival.\u201d &#8211;Paul Val\u00e9ry\u201cPoetry is a pipe.\u201d &#8212; Paul \u00c9luard and Andr\u00e9 Breton\u201cCeci n\u2019est pas une pipe.\u201d &#8212; Ren\u00e9 MagrittePoetry is a pipeand not a pipePoetry is musicor perhaps a polar bearThis is not a poem about a polar bearIt is a poem about a poemand the bear too is a poema poem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"art_contributors":[],"literary_contributors":[473],"class_list":["post-6063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","literary_contributors-handy-jennifer"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6064,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6063\/revisions\/6064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6063"},{"taxonomy":"art_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/art_contributors?post=6063"},{"taxonomy":"literary_contributors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novusliterary.com\/2025-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/literary_contributors?post=6063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}