Lesson 10 Cento

​

***

## LESSON 10 – THE CENTO

*(Poetic Collage and Classical Reassembly)*

### 1. Definition & Academic Context

The **Cento**—from the Latin *cento*, meaning “patchwork cloak”—is a poem composed entirely of lines or passages borrowed from other texts, arranged to form a new and unified work. The earliest known examples appear in late classical antiquity, notably in the *Cento Vergilianus*, which reconfigured phrases from Virgil’s *Aeneid* to narrate Christian themes. Centos flourished again among early modern humanists who sought to honor predecessors while testing wit and interpretive skill.

In contemporary practice, the form functions as literary montage—a dialogue between texts, centuries, and voices. More than imitation, it is a meditation on authorship, memory, and textual network. The cento invites poets to confront influence head‑on: to re‑compose tradition into new coherence.

***

### 2. Formal Mechanics & Technique

- **Construction:** Select complete lines (or short phrases) from existing works; rearrange them without altering internal wording.

- **Unity:** Despite multiplicity of sources, aim for coherent tone or narrative arc.

- **Attribution:** When publishing, cite sources clearly; in pedagogy, borrow from public‑domain materials to model intertextual respect.

- **Variation:** Some poets restrict all borrowings to one author (a “Homeric cento”), while others assemble eclectic, cross‑temporal mosaics.

- **Contemporary scope:** The cento anticipates sampling in music and digital remix culture—forms of recombination as commentary.

***

### 3. Illustrative Examples

**Original Sample**

> “Let us go, through broken sentences,

> where thought hums like wires under rain.

> The page remembers every fingerprint:

> all beginnings begin again.”

*(Sources: imagined synthesis, written new to demonstrate tone)*

**Public‑Domain Excerpt**

> “Arms and the man I sing, who, forced by fate,

> set sail from Troy to Italy’s western shore…” – *Virgil, Aeneid I*

>

> “O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being…” – *Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind”*

>

When interlaced line by line, such fragments may yield an unexpected myth or argument, their voices harmonizing or debating across epochs.

***

### 4. Analytic Commentary

The cento’s artistry lies in **transition**—the connective tissue that makes disparate voices continuous. Bridging syntax often relies on parallel rhythm, thematic resonance, or deliberate dissonance. Each quotation becomes an image‑tile; their arrangement creates interpretive geometry. Academic discussion often parallels Eliot’s *The Waste Land*, though not technically a cento, as a model of cultural assemblage. Through this lens, the cento questions originality itself: can recombination generate authenticity?

***

### 5. Exercises & Reinforcement

**A. Found Assembly (Imitative Stage)**

Select five lines from one public‑domain poet—say, Dickinson or Whitman. Arrange them to trace emotional movement: anticipation → conflict → release. Do not alter punctuation.

**B. Transitional Weaving (Transformative Stage)**

Between each borrowed line, insert a single original connective phrase of your own. Observe how minimal authorial intrusion recalibrates tone.

**C. Thematic Synthesis (Innovative Stage)**

Create a “critical cento” that addresses a theoretical or political question—e.g., the ecology of empire—using historical texts as voices in debate.

***

### 6. Reflective Practice & Research Prompts

- What ethical responsibilities accompany poetic reuse?

- How does selection reflect identity, gender, or power?

- Journal: document the rationale behind each chosen line—why that sound, that century?

**Meditation Exercise**

Sit before a page of print (poem, news article, sacred text). Let the eyes drift; copy the first phrase that resonates intuitively. Continue, assembling without editing. Breathe through the fragments until a hidden pattern surfaces. Capture the moment realization forms coherence—that’s the cento’s subconscious labor revealing itself.

***

### 7. Master’s‑Level Writing Challenge

Compose a full-length **ekphrastic cento** responding to a visual artwork. Pull language exclusively from art criticism before 1920 (e.g., Ruskin, Pater, early museum catalogues). Your task: translate critical prose into lyric collage where observation becomes emotion. Accompany the piece with a one‑page commentary analyzing shifts in meaning created by juxtaposition.

***

### 8. Recommended Reading & Excerpts

**1. AUSONIUS – *Cento Nuptialis*** (4th c.)

> “Venus, the blazing torch of earth and sky,

> soft peace beneath whose step the grasses sigh.”

Early example of pagan parody through Virgilian collage—ambivalent blend of devotion and satire.

**2. DENISE DUHAMEL – “Delta Flight 659: to David Bowie” (2001)**

Though contemporary and copyright‑protected, students may read via published anthology. Duhamel recombines celebrity and myth, demonstrating the cento’s adaptability to pop culture.

*(Use for in‑class analysis only; no reproduction of full text.)*

**3. T. S. ELIOT – *The Waste Land* (1922)** 

> “These fragments I have shored against my ruins.”

Intertextual saturation; though not labeled as a cento, it enacts the same principle of cultural sediment layering.

***

### 9. Select Annotated Bibliography

- **Conte, Joseph M.** *Unending Design: The Forms of Postmodern Poetry.* Cornell UP, 1991.

*Explores recombinatory aesthetic and cento’s postmodern resurgence.*

- **Fowler, D. P.** “Patchwork and Quotation in Latin Poetry.” *Classical Philology* 87.1 (1992): 1‑19.

*Traces classical lineage from Ausonius to medieval hymnody.*

- **Perloff, Marjorie.** “The Poetics of Indeterminacy.” *Northwestern UP*, 1981.

*Frames collage and fragmentation within modernist textual politics.*

- **Young, Kevin.** *The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing.* Bloomsbury, 2010.

*Contains curated centos employing elegiac synthesis—useful for comparison in grief poetics.*

***