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Is 'Free Verse'

Ishmael

Ishmael

Literotica Guru
Joined
Nov 24, 2001
Posts
84,005
a way of avoiding a careful and creative use of the language?

Ishmael
 
Ishmael, i did a double take when i read your post. sorry, but are you joking or serious?

i have reams of paper sitting beside me of free verse that i've been editing. a phrase, a stanza, a whole poem, a single word. every single word needs to prove it is doing the job i want it to.

mind you, i'd probably have double that paper waste for form poetry. - i should be thanked for saving trees or something.

:D

actually, some people believe that free verse is far more work than form.
 
wildsweetone said:
Ishmael, i did a double take when i read your post. sorry, but are you joking or serious?

i have reams of paper sitting beside me of free verse that i've been editing. a phrase, a stanza, a whole poem, a single word. every single word needs to prove it is doing the job i want it to.

mind you, i'd probably have double that paper waste for form poetry. - i should be thanked for saving trees or something.

:D

actually, some people believe that free verse is far more work than form.
Click to expand...

Deadly serious.

I find Free Verse, on the whole, to be pedantic and pretensious. I have read some good free verse. But seldom.

It's like the 'Rap' of poetry.

I don't dispute that the verse doesn't reflect the thoughts of the writer. But why now prose then? Why hide behind non-rhyme and nebulous thoughts?

Ishmael
 
Ishmael said:
Deadly serious.

I find Free Verse, on the whole, to be pedantic and pretensious. I have read some good free verse. But seldom.

It's like the 'Rap' of poetry.

I don't dispute that the verse doesn't reflect the thoughts of the writer. But why now prose then? Why hide behind non-rhyme and nebulous thoughts?

Ishmael
Click to expand...


i respectfully suggest you simply haven't found the right poet to read in whose poetry you can find empathy.

it also might simply mean that you prefer form poetry to free verse and as far as i can assume there's nobody cuffing you to a railing and making you force read free verse.

some free verse poets find rhyme to be too restricting, some simply aren't interested in form poetry.

i would also respectfully suggest that if the thoughts in a free verse poem are nebulous, then the poet might do better to learn how to include concrete imagery.

i'm not sure about 'pedantic' and 'free verse' being possible or an oxymoron.

i take it you don't much like 'rap' either. neither did i, until i spoke to a young man who wrote and entered rap contests. very very interesting discussion about what his raps meant. enlightening. but it still doesn't mean i can hear the words when i accidentally listen to rap on the radio.

i don't know about prose. it's not really something i've looked into deeply. the only bits of it i've seen have been more stream of consciousness writing in a poetic kind of way. too wordsy for me. i like clarity.
 
wildsweetone said:
i respectfully suggest you simply haven't found the right poet to read in whose poetry you can find empathy.

it also might simply mean that you prefer form poetry to free verse and as far as i can assume there's nobody cuffing you to a railing and making you force read free verse.

some free verse poets find rhyme to be too restricting, some simply aren't interested in form poetry.

i would also respectfully suggest that if the thoughts in a free verse poem are nebulous, then the poet might do better to learn how to include concrete imagery.

i'm not sure about 'pedantic' and 'free verse' being possible or an oxymoron.

i take it you don't much like 'rap' either. neither did i, until i spoke to a young man who wrote and entered rap contests. very very interesting discussion about what his raps meant. enlightening. but it still doesn't mean i can hear the words when i accidentally listen to rap on the radio.

i don't know about prose. it's not really something i've looked into deeply. the only bits of it i've seen have been more stream of consciousness writing in a poetic kind of way. too wordsy for me. i like clarity.
Click to expand...


Perhaps you're right. But at my age there's little I haven't read.

Sandburg was the last 'Free Verser" I found with facility of the language.

I have a Free Verse poem published here. It was written as prose an works better as prose. But it was too short for stories, so I chopped it up. Some people actually like it. KillerMuffin had some comments about it. But she can't write poetry either. :)

Ishmael
 
Ishmael said:
Perhaps you're right. But at my age there's little I haven't read.

Sandburg was the last 'Free Verser" I found with facility of the language.

I have a Free Verse poem published here. It was written as prose an works better as prose. But it was too short for stories, so I chopped it up. Some people actually like it. KillerMuffin had some comments about it. But she can't write poetry either. :)

Ishmael
Click to expand...


still being particularly respectful, if you've read most things then you will have found plenty of excellent free verse poetry.

i have no idea who Sandburg was or is. i'll look into him/her/them when/if i get a chance in the next week or two.

Killer Muffin tends to write mostly prose for Literotica. however, that doesn't mean she can't write poetry. also, she is one of the best critiques around this place so i would listen to her comments seriously if i were you. of course, as the poet/author, it is always ultimately your choice what you take notice of and what you don't. *smile*

as for your Free Verse, there's plenty of other sites on the 'net that accept prose of less than 750 words. hunt around, or shout and i'll send you a site to look through.
 
Ishmael said:
Well, we can agree to disagree then.

Ishmael
Click to expand...

If you've already made up your mind, why ask the question?


Though to use an analogy. Traditional structured verse is like academic painting and one of the reasons artists rebeled against it was because they found it curtailed their creativity with arbitary rules that had no solid foundation. You now find that painters with good technical skill and no creativity still paint in an academic way while the really interesting painters have to tackle the white elephant of creative freedom and anything goes. Psychologically it's far more difficult.

And so is free verse!

But then you've already made your mind up so I don't know why I'm bothering to answer you.

Stick to tradition and be boring. I'm not saying there isn't a place for it now and again but it is only one option now. Thankfully.
 
Ishmael said:
I don't dispute that the verse doesn't reflect the thoughts of the writer. But why now prose then? Why hide behind non-rhyme and nebulous thoughts?
Click to expand...
Pah, I can write nebulous thoughts in prose and rhyme too. :cool:
 
I think it all has to do with personal preference. Personaly I feel like all the suessy rhyming is childish at times and that you have more impact with free verse.
I really don't think you were looking for an answer so much as conflict though. Not that conflict is bad, you tend to spark things up a bit...I get tired of everyone trying their utmost to get along and not offend others, I am a bit more raw around my edges. :devil:
 
Actually form or not is less important than good poetry. I've seen form poems that are boring and suck and free verse that is marvelous and vice versa.

Anyway, it's pretty much a matter of personal taste, isn't it? Some people love Carl Sandberg's poems, for example, some hate them. I doubt he lost much sleep over it either way.
 
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