Is poetry ever really porn?

[CharleyH]

I've been thinking about this. I don't think good poetry is porn. Good poetry is erotic, but can it be porn? Can poetry make you spank the monkey or diddle your twat?

 

[Recidiva]

Bad poetry is obscene. Does that count?

It may not be bad porn, but it's bad erotica.

 

[Angeline]

I've been thinking about this. I don't think good poetry is porn. Good poetry is erotic, but can it be porn? Can poetry make you spank the monkey or diddle your twat?

I think of it more as a mood setter than doing anything for the main event.

 

[Recidiva]

I think of it more as a mood setter than doing anything for the main event.

Sorta like heating up the pan before you try to sear something?

 

[CharleyH]

Bad poetry is obscene. Does that count?

It may not be bad porn, but it's bad erotica.

Good poetry can be obscene.

 

[Recidiva]

Good poetry can be obscene.

Intentionally. Bad poetry is obscene unintentionally.

 

[CharleyH]

I think of it more as a mood setter than doing anything for the main event.

But? Can good poetry be porn?

 

[Recidiva]

But? Can good poetry be porn?

I already said.

I think of porn as a visual medium.

This to me is like asking of a book can be considered a good film.

Poetry is erotica.

 

[CharleyH]

Intentionally. Bad poetry is obscene unintentionally.

Is it?

 

[champagne1982]

But? Can good poetry be porn?

By its very nature, poetry can't sustain the verbiage it takes to write a bit of porn. My story, The Ecstacy came close when I first wrote it. In order to submit the thing to Literotica, I had to add 225 more words or so, which really ruined it, in my view. I write pretty good short, short flash pieces but I won't call them poems, unless I concede that the formula is akin to prose poetry.

Like Angeline, I feel poems are more like foreplay that leads into the big event, rather than the actual climax at the end. Hallowe'en Bill is a poem that attempts to be erotica/porn, but the rhyme can really take you out of the horniness...

 

[Safe_Bet]

I respectfully (*snerk* NOT!) disagree. I think a poem CAN be porn, but first we need to agree upon definitions for porn and erotic. To me porn is something that makes you horny and excited. It turns your body on. Erotic turns your mind AND body on.

I've read a lot of poetry that hasn't engaged my mind, but did get me wet = porn poetry.

Far fewer are the poems that make me wet, both mentally and physically = erotic poetry.

(when I read one of those Amy gets her brains screwed out... )

 

[WickedEve]

Can poetry make you spank the monkey or diddle your twat?

I can't imagine having any meaningful clit action while reading a haiku.
I'm just not that fast!

 

[annaswirls]

from wikipedia:

Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer.

It is to a certain extent similar to erotica, which is the use of sexually arousing imagery.

I can't see why poetry could not be pornographic. It lies not only in the subject matter but also in the intention of the poet. So if you did not intend to sexually excite the viewer (reader?) then it is not porn.

I consider Erotica as one potential (but not exclusive) tool of pornography.

I think poetry lends itself as a more effective medium for erotica than pornography, but could qualify as both.



~~~~

 

[annaswirls]

Obscenity: that is an entirely different topic.

Obscenity (in Latin obscenus, meaning "foul, repulsive, detestable"), is a term that is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions (words, images, actions) that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time. It is often replaced by the word salaciousness.

Despite its long formal and informal use with a sexual connotation, the word still retains the meanings of "inspiring disgust" and even "inauspicious; ill-omened", as in such uses as "obscene profits", "the obscenity of war", etc. It can simply be used to mean profanity, or it can mean anything that is taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting.

 

[Safe_Bet]

I can't imagine having any meaningful clit action while reading a haiku.
I'm just not that fast!

Here... let me help!

I can't see why poetry could not be pornographic. It lies not only in the subject matter but also in the intention of the poet. So if you did not intend to sexually excite the viewer (reader?) then it is not porn.

I consider Erotica as one potential (but not exclusive) tool of pornography.

I think poetry lends itself as a more effective medium for erotica than pornography, but could qualify as both.

~~~~

Ooooh! You said that good!!!

 

[UnderYourSpell]

There has been some very obscene poetry (although I hesitate to even give it that title) on here that is nothing to do with sex that has made me sick to my stomach

 

[Jack_Samuel]

I dont think it can be

Good poetry is meant to make you think and it takes you away from the flesh

 

[Senna Jawa]

I can't imagine having any meaningful clit action while reading a haiku.

You have not read my haiku after all.

I'm just not that fast!

The effect of reading would turn you on forever.




***

 

[Senna Jawa]

I've been thinking about this. I don't think good poetry is porn. Good poetry is erotic, but can it be porn? Can poetry make you spank the monkey or diddle your twat?

A poem may have all kind of side effects, one or many. But the only goal of a poem should be poetry (or else it is not really a poem but a poem-like something else, e.g. political propaganda or porno).

 

[Angeline]

A poem may have all kind of side effects, one or many. But the only goal of a poem should be poetry (or else it is not really a poem but a poem-like something else, e.g. political propaganda or porno).

Yes, that's it exactly. One can respond to a poem in any number of ways. One might even have a fetish such that a haiku by Senna would be endlessly and ultimately stimulating. However, if one aspires to make a poem be something other than a poem, well if one succeeds, whatever they have isn't a poem. I know that sounds circular and it is, but I also think it's true.

 

[annaswirls]

However, if one aspires to make a poem be something other than a poem, well if one succeeds, whatever they have isn't a poem. I know that sounds circular and it is, but I also think it's true.

Pornography is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer.

So are you saying that a poem that does this isn't poetry?

 

[OzArrian]

Of course poetry can be pornographic. Writers such as Catullus and Ovid were pioneers of the pornographic poem ("I'll bugger you and stuff your gobs..." is just one line from Catullus), whilst John Willmont (the Earl of Rochester) can be said to be the best porno poet in the English literary tradition. History is definitely on the side of those like annaswirls....

 

[Angeline]

So are you saying that a poem that does this isn't poetry?

No, I'm saying that a poem written with a purpose of being something besides poetry or in addition to being poetry has less chance of being an effective poem. As far as the porn goes, porn is in the eye of the beholder. I don't find patched red sneakers sexually enticing, but I'm sure somebody does. I find listening to jazz sexually enticing, but I don't think everyone else does. But I know people can--and maybe will--argue that poetry is also in the eye of the beholder. But that's my argument and I'm sticking with it: the best thing to do when you write a poem is aspire to write a poem. If someone else reacts to it as if it's porn, well that's to their benefit.

 

[Naturemithya]

Poetry and erotica

By its very nature, poetry can't sustain the verbiage it takes to write a bit of porn. My story, The Ecstacy came close when I first wrote it. In order to submit the thing to Literotica, I had to add 225 more words or so, which really ruined it, in my view. I write pretty good short, short flash pieces but I won't call them poems, unless I concede that the formula is akin to prose poetry.

Like Angeline, I feel poems are more like foreplay that leads into the big event, rather than the actual climax at the end. Hallowe'en Bill is a poem that attempts to be erotica/porn, but the rhyme can really take you out of the horniness...

I am new here so please forgive my errors.
Lol think of the seven minutes boiling down to a few seconds. You can write stories around the few seconds but will always find them lacking beauty.
A few beautifully placed words in poetry will blow each one of the reader into the imaginative world.

 

[annaswirls]

The question was not if poetry could be good porn or if porn makes good poetry, it was simply, Is poetry ever really porn?



Although the discussion is interesting, the answer is technically (not based on opinion, only the logical process of evaluating the definitions) yes, it can.

Pornography is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer.

Maybe she meant is poetry ever a really effective means of delivering porn.


In either case, I say yes yes Yes.


Side Note: (not part of the argument)
Well written poetry, to me, is the strongest aphrodisiac. Especially if it is written with the sole intention of sexually exciting me. If the poet knows what he/she is doing. If not, there is nothing that closes my knees faster than lame sex poetry.


But then again, it is not explicit depiction of sexual matter that does it for me. Not usually. I like to be approached from the side a little. Or upside down.