Tsotha
donnyQ
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2013
- Posts
- 1,462
That's right, poets. I'm asking that question. You all knew it was coming, sooner or later. What is poetry? What makes it different from prose? How can you tell what is poetry, and what isn't?
To move us along a bit, some possible answers I've heard/read:
Poetry is that stuff written in verse, with rhymes. Like ye olde poems, then, which are singsong stories? Or, by extension, everything written with aesthetics and phonaesthetics in mind? So, what if I wrote a prose that sounds good? Would that be a poem?
Poetry creates emotions / feelings in the reader. The idea here is that you can make the reader feel through your words. But... When prose creates an emotion / feeling in the reader, is it a poem?
The reader has to work and assemble the poem / work and find meaning. By working, I understand that the meaning is initially obscure and must be deciphered, or else there are layers that must be peeled. Can't prose have layers, too, each new reading of a story revealing new elements and relations not previously noticed?
So... What's your take on it?
To move us along a bit, some possible answers I've heard/read:
Poetry is that stuff written in verse, with rhymes. Like ye olde poems, then, which are singsong stories? Or, by extension, everything written with aesthetics and phonaesthetics in mind? So, what if I wrote a prose that sounds good? Would that be a poem?
Poetry creates emotions / feelings in the reader. The idea here is that you can make the reader feel through your words. But... When prose creates an emotion / feeling in the reader, is it a poem?
The reader has to work and assemble the poem / work and find meaning. By working, I understand that the meaning is initially obscure and must be deciphered, or else there are layers that must be peeled. Can't prose have layers, too, each new reading of a story revealing new elements and relations not previously noticed?
So... What's your take on it?