Stephen Fry is a man of many talents, that much is clear. Four years ago, during NaPoWriMo on April 21, 2017, I included a video clip of him as Jeeves, instructing his employer, Bertie Wooster, in how to accentuate the syllables of Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to add context to that day’s poem, “A Question of Style.

I often reach for Stephen Fry’s  peerless book on prosody, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (Gotham Books, 2005). Like his perfectly realized Jeeves, Fry is a master of rhythm and rhyme. Fry’s book is filled with lucid and succinct summaries of elements of poetic form presented with Fry’s devastating wit, with each poetic form illustrated by custom-made examples by Fry that edify as they amuse. (The occasional screamingly funny but x-rated quips make it unsuitable for the under-sixteen set, in my opinion, except in excerpted form.) If you are of voting age and curious about the ins and outs of iambs, or want to distinguish meter from rhythm, or crave an algorithm describing the sestina–this is the go-to book.

This book is not only a treasure trove of prosodical pearls, it is page-turning prose. No one has mastered the concept of “voice” on the page in quite like Fry. In sum, this gem is never dry, often wry, always totally “Fry.”

Regarding the Poem for April 9, “Unicursal”

Given today’s unlooked for poem, perhaps labyrinths are done with me yet!

Wishing you a lovely day,

LESLIE