why some poor poems still work for readers

[butters]

you've most likely all come across them as readers... those poems that really aren't great, but are still liked by many.

reasons. let me start y'all off and feel free to add

subject matter: it allows readers to connect by tapping into their own experiences so they invest emotionally in the poem. the best and easiest example of this has to be pet poems, or - most specifically - dog poems.

most people have had a dog as a pet in some time in their lives. so you have numbers going for you. MOST of those people will have had some kind of emotional connection with their pet. and if that pet died, then they have all that experience of grief and loss, sometimes guilt, and a whole lot of good memories - like mental snapshots - of their dog. that is a wealth of relatable material with which to connect.

almost anyone can write a poem about a dog (especially its loss) and have people feel something in response and so, because they have become a part of the poem, like it.

the other top subject matter has to be love, i would guess, though i'd think dog poems has to be right up there at numero uno.

 

[butters]

p.s this is no reflection on poets posting here - just observations in general and up for poetic discussion

 

[ishtat]

Popular story authors frequently have their fans follow them to poetry. Story fans outnumber poetry fans by such a huge margin that they can easily skew scores. If you can write a soppy poem about a dog which died of love for its master/mistress that'd probably work.

Mebbe a contest for poets to write the worst poem ever might be interesting.

 

[butters]

Popular story authors frequently have their fans follow them to poetry. Story fans outnumber poetry fans by such a huge margin that they can easily skew scores. If you can write a soppy poem about a dog which died of love for its master/mistress that'd probably work.

Mebbe a contest for poets to write the worst poem ever might be interesting.

that'd be something, wouldn't it?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I'm pretty sure we had that as a challenge a very long time ago and the results were hilarious

 

[Piscator]

I'm pretty sure we had that as a challenge a very long time ago and the results were hilarious

In Canada we calibrated Paul Hebert's "Sarah Binks"which won the 1948 Steven Leacock Memorial Meal for Humour.

Poems such as

My Garden

A little blade of grass I see,
Its banner waving wild and free,
And I wonder if in time to come
’Twill be a great big onion;
We cannot tell, we do not know,
For oft we reap and didn’t sow;
We plant the hairy coconut,
With hope serene and sturdy – but
We cannot tell, for who can say,
We plant the oats and reap the hay,
We sow the apple, reap the worm,
We tread the worm and reap the turn:
Too much, too much for us this thought,
With much too much exertion fraught;
In faith we get the garden dug –
And what do we reap – we reap the bug,
In goodly faith we plant the seed,
To- morrow morn we reap the weed.​

still bring a smile.

However some of the text such as " A region rich in historical interests and traditions, of tales of Indian fights with their squaws, of squaws with the Mounted Police" which manages to to merge tropes of racism and sexism in a single sentence show how times have changed - hopefully for the better.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

In Canada we calibrated Paul Hebert's "Sarah Binks"which won the 1948 Steven Leacock Memorial Meal for Humour.

Poems such as

My Garden

A little blade of grass I see,
Its banner waving wild and free,
And I wonder if in time to come
’Twill be a great big onion;
We cannot tell, we do not know,
For oft we reap and didn’t sow;
We plant the hairy coconut,
With hope serene and sturdy – but
We cannot tell, for who can say,
We plant the oats and reap the hay,
We sow the apple, reap the worm,
We tread the worm and reap the turn:
Too much, too much for us this thought,
With much too much exertion fraught;
In faith we get the garden dug –
And what do we reap – we reap the bug,
In goodly faith we plant the seed,
To- morrow morn we reap the weed.​

still bring a smile.

However some of the text such as " A region rich in historical interests and traditions, of tales of Indian fights with their squaws, of squaws with the Mounted Police" which manages to to merge tropes of racism and sexism in a single sentence show how times have changed - hopefully for the better.

’Twill be a great big onion; made me burst out laughing. What a killer rhyme

 

[butters]

end-rhyming:

you know the stuff, where a sing-song rhyming scheme can make a piece far more well-received than it otherwise would be given its content.

i think the reason for this is familiarity. when most people's first exposure to poetry is in the form of end-rhymed (and, frequently, an abab schemed) learn-by-rotes via nursery rhymes and dr. zeuss-type verses, there's a certain comfort to be found when encountering the familiar in poetry. it's like their safe-zone, but, more than that, it connects with times gone by that generally have positive memories. so, once again, this kind of poem connects with a whole swathe of readers. that connection can elevate a poem in its readers' eyes and thoughts.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

end-rhyming:

you know the stuff, where a sing-song rhyming scheme can make a piece far more well-received than it otherwise would be given its content.

i think the reason for this is familiarity. when most people's first exposure to poetry is in the form of end-rhymed (and, frequently, an abab schemed) learn-by-rotes via nursery rhymes and dr. zeuss-type verses, there's a certain comfort to be found when encountering the familiar in poetry. it's like their safe-zone, but, more than that, it connects with times gone by that generally have positive memories. so, once again, this kind of poem connects with a whole swathe of readers. that connection can elevate a poem in its readers' eyes and thoughts.

You're so right and the public in the main haven't got past that, it's only people that belong to any poetry forum seem to realise there's anything else! I have a poetry 'Like' page on Facebook trying to convert non believers I did try to have a group to teach different non rhyming forms, but the general public weren't interested in posting anything but abab . I even got told it was the way they were taught and they had no intention of changing ........... sigh

 

[todski28]

In Canada we calibrated Paul Hebert's "Sarah Binks"which won the 1948 Steven Leacock Memorial Meal for Humour.

Poems such as

My Garden

A little blade of grass I see,
Its banner waving wild and free,
And I wonder if in time to come
’Twill be a great big onion;
We cannot tell, we do not know,
For oft we reap and didn’t sow;
We plant the hairy coconut,
With hope serene and sturdy – but
We cannot tell, for who can say,
We plant the oats and reap the hay,
We sow the apple, reap the worm,
We tread the worm and reap the turn:
Too much, too much for us this thought,
With much too much exertion fraught;
In faith we get the garden dug –
And what do we reap – we reap the bug,
In goodly faith we plant the seed,
To- morrow morn we reap the weed.​

still bring a smile.

However some of the text such as " A region rich in historical interests and traditions, of tales of Indian fights with their squaws, of squaws with the Mounted Police" which manages to to merge tropes of racism and sexism in a single sentence show how times have changed - hopefully for the better.

How is the line racist and sexist?

What am I missing?

 

[butters]

fixed form:

i've read some pieces that were simply insipid, uninspiring, bland and blahness all rolled into one but that followed 'the rules' as far as a given fixed form was concerned. you can make the right syllabic count, the rhymes (or lack thereof), the scansion and still have poor poetic content. word-choice will make these poems what they are, but because they get called a haiku (my pet peeve) and adhere to the americanised '5/7/5&chuck in a cherry blossom reference' they get seen as something of worth. this goes for any fixed form, but the haiku examples get me every time. perhaps worse yet, is to play with a form for the sake of inserting the author's presence and elevating them (in the eyes of the uninformed) in such a way as to lose the poem's true voice and make it all about the author, while STILL not creating a fab write!

it's not that the poem can't be good if it worried more about its actual content than adhering to a set structure.

as for those faux-ku's, why not just accept they're not haiku and get over it?
/personalranty

 

[todski28]

fixed form:

i've read some pieces that were simply insipid, uninspiring, bland and blahness all rolled into one but that followed 'the rules' as far as a given fixed form was concerned. you can make the right syllabic count, the rhymes (or lack thereof), the scansion and still have poor poetic content. word-choice will make these poems what they are, but because they get called a haiku (my pet peeve) and adhere to the americanised '5/7/5&chuck in a cherry blossom reference' they get seen as something of worth. this goes for any fixed form, but the haiku examples get me every time. perhaps worse yet, is to play with a form for the sake of inserting the author's presence and elevating them (in the eyes of the uninformed) in such a way as to lose the poem's true voice and make it all about the author, while STILL not creating a fab write!

it's not that the poem can't be good if it worried more about its actual content than adhering to a set structure.

as for those faux-ku's, why not just accept they're not haiku and get over it?
/personalranty

I have an issue as a reader with form, most noticeably I notice the form and rhythm before the content and as such it distracts me as a reader because my brain starts backward to the way I want to read, I.e I start breaking down sonicd and syllables before I digest the content, most times if this happens I can very rarely finish the write

When a writer brings content to the fore and the form disappears behind I find that to be far superior writing,

 

[butters]

I have an issue as a reader with form, most noticeably I notice the form and rhythm before the content and as such it distracts me as a reader because my brain starts backward to the way I want to read, I.e I start breaking down sonics and syllables before I digest the content, most times if this happens I can very rarely finish the write

When a writer brings content to the fore and the form disappears behind I find that to be far superior writing,

this, 100%

imo, the best poems have you experience them as images and other sensory input, so much so the words disappear or are at least faded out enough not to get in the way. ironic, isn't it, that it's the most skilful word-choices that allow this to happen?!

as to the rest of your post, tods, i hate it when it gets in the way of my initial read. i WANT to experience the poem first, see all the cleverness afterwards when i swap out my reader-head for my thinking one. i don't want that distraction first read-through