Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Dana Gioia’s “Pity the Beautiful: Poems”

By Glynn Young 6 Comments

It’s rather startling to read contemporary poetry that rhymes. And Pity the Beautiful: Poems by Dana Gioia is startling in exactly that way, and more.

There’s a name for this, of course; we have to give everything a name: The “New Formalism.” It reaches back to a time when most poetry did indeed rhyme, and was metrical as well. It was also a time (roughly pre-World War II, perhaps a little earlier) when poetry has a much broader appeal than it does today. Newspapers, for example often published poetry on a daily basis. The poets associated with the New Formalism include Mark Jarman, Howard Nemerov, Donald Justice, Mary Oliver – and Dana Gioia.

Even after World War II, rhyming poetry was still taught to schoolchildren. I can remember learning (and doing a class-in-unison recital) of Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” in the fifth grade. It was nationalism and poetry and performance art in one nice package.

And that is partially the point Gioia makes in Can Poetry Matter?, his collection of essays about poetry and American culture, that the post-war shift of poetry largely to academia essentially shut the door on poetry for the public. Poetic forms and techniques like rhyme (and meter) were largely abandoned.

Gioia has been working to resurrect both more traditional poetry and “Poetry for the public, ” and Pity the Beautiful is more than a nod in that direction.

The important point about rhyme is that it’s memorable and accessible, and it makes recall easier. Consider the opening lines of Gioia’s poem “The Reunion:”

This is my past where no one knows me,
These are my friends whom I can’t name—
Here in a field where no one chose me,
The faces older, the voices the same.

It’s not only rhyme that’s at work here; meter and cadence are strong elements as well. Say the lines aloud – they’re written to be read aloud.

Not all of the poems in the collection are “new formalist, ” but they share elements of similarity, particularly in how they flow in an orderly, formal way.

The poems are also distinguished by their subjects, like freeways, shopping, a children’s hospital (a poem that is particularly moving), an apple orchard, a coat. These are subjects and themes that are familiar, recognizable, without abstraction. And each has a kind of narrative flow. One poem, “Haunted, ” is a story of what might be love found and lost.

What differentiates these poems from older poems like Longfellow’s is the language – it’s contemporary. Gioia avoids ornate or complex words; instead, he aims for the simple, often paired them in rhyme, and their simplicity is the power of each poem.

Photograph by Bellevue Fine Art Repro (Scott). Sourced via Flickr. Post by Glynn Young, author of the novels Dancing Priest and the recently released A Light Shining.

________________

Buy a year of happy work mornings today, just $5.99. In February we’re exploring the theme Purple, Plum, and Indigo.

Every Day Poems Driftwood

 

Poetry at Work-Hot

Now you can easily follow our new Poetry at Work posts. Add one of our Poetry at Work badges to your blog or website today!

Click for more badge options

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
Latest posts by Glynn Young (see all)
  • Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass” - May 22, 2025
  • A History of Children’s Stories: “The Haunted Wood” by Sam Leith - May 20, 2025
  • World War II Had Its Poets, Too - May 15, 2025

Filed Under: article, book reviews, Poems, poetry

Try Every Day Poems...

Comments

  1. karen ritch says

    February 19, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    Rhymes seem relegated to songs now.

    Reply
  2. Maureen Doallas says

    February 19, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    Reading this, I couldn’t help but think of the alleged outcry about Richard Blanco’s poem for Obama’s inauguration – that it didn’t rhyme; so, it was implied, how could it be poetry?!

    Too often, it’s assumed rhyme occurs only with end words. The best poets use know how to use slant rhyme, internal rhyme, etc., as well as the rhymes required in formal poetic forms. In addition, how a line ends and is read (e.g., enjambment) can be used effectively with rhyme to offset any sing-songy quality.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Poets and Poems: Seamus Heaney says:
    August 29, 2013 at 9:18 am

    […] say Heaney falls in the “new formalism” wing of contemporary poetry, a wing that includes Dana Gioia, Mark Jarman, and Derek Walcott, among others. Regardless of the critics’ classification, I find […]

    Reply
  2. Saturday Review of Books: February 23, 2013 | Semicolon says:
    September 7, 2013 at 8:48 pm

    […] Looking Forward To)31. Barbara H (The Scarlet Letter)32. Janet (A Little House Traveler)33. Glynn (Pity the Beautiful: Poems)34. Glynn (The Apostle: A Life of Paul)35. Sarah Reads (The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb)36. […]

    Reply
  3. Poets and Poems: Rhina Espaillat and “And After All” | says:
    October 1, 2019 at 5:01 am

    […] mode, rhyming poetry that grew popular in the 1960s and became firmly established in the 1990s. Dana Gioia is a leading proponent; prominent practitioners include Mark Jarman, Clive James, and, more […]

    Reply
  4. Poets and Poems: Dana Gioia and "Meet Me at the Lighthouse" - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    February 21, 2023 at 5:00 am

    […] Dana Gioia’s “Pity the Beautiful: Poems.” […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • 10 Ways to Help Your Favorite Introverted Author: 1,000 Words - Tweetspeak Poetry on The Joy of Poetry: As Much as She Could Carry
  • Donna Hilbert on Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass”
  • L.L. Barkat on Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass”
  • Poets and Poems: L.L. Barkat and “Beyond the Glass” - Tweetspeak Poetry on Love, Etc.: Poems of Love, Laughter, Longing & Loss

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy