Outer Reaches of the Palindrome Page: 19
View a full description of this thesis.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
When I'm writing to imagine, palindromes are the path I take. The palindromist realizes the
image not beforehand, but rather, one letter at a time as the sequence and the author grow toward
grammatical resolution.
All pun aside, the creative process for writing palindromes is the reverse of that for
writing in traditional literary forms - at least for me. For me, a poem erupts out of meditation,
prose comes from narratives I find myself telling over and over again, but the only image I have
to go by when writing a palindrome pertains to the word or words that I begin with, and that
image evolves literatim, or "letter by letter."3 If I were to try and revise my villanelle into a
palindrome, most likely, the majority of the poem's meaning would be lost. The palindrome
boasts one of the most austere literary forms, a sequence of letters appearing in the same order
both forward and back, and because of the rigid structure, most times the author, especially when
dealing with palindromic sentences, paragraphs, et cetera, must surrender credit to the form,
because the form and the author exist to check and balance each other. In most cases, any
intended meaning on the author's part becomes so convoluted in order to satisfy the form that the
restrictions of the form are as important to the literary work as is the author. This is where
fragmentation comes in- a palindrome is a fragment: half human, half mathematical pattern
The madness of palindroming throws the author into forced dyslexia, in my case, to the
point where I read every string of text backward, sometimes before I read it forward. My process
begins when I find a word or string of words reveal a possible reversal pair- any two words,
phrases, or other assemblages that spell each other backward4 - either whole and perfect, such as
"drab" and "bard", or incomplete, such as my previous example of "space". So, personally, I
begin palindromes rather arbitrarily, but that's just me - some palindromists may begin the act of
writing with specific themes in mind, but I'm more intrigued by the possible contexts that the19
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This thesis can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Thesis.
McConnell, Michael Constantine. Outer Reaches of the Palindrome, thesis, December 2003; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4407/m1/22/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .