Before I am Famous

literature is something we infer after the story is told

What is a Poem?

Posted on | June 4, 2007 |

I belong to this online writer’s group and I recently shared a poem on there. There was on person who said that it isn’t a poem because it does have rhyme or meter (the long short sounds of syllables on a particular line) Apparently, this caused a lot of unheaval on the group.

Well it got me thinking, what is poem? In school, I studied many poets like Shakespeare, Yeats, ee cummings, and Robert Frost. Some of them had the traditonal ways to write a poem and then others invented their own style. I learned all the rules of traditional poetry but if anyone notices I rarely write in those forms. I find the rules too constrictive, and when I am forced to write a certain way, I write crap.

I always had the impression poetry is something from deep inside, a string words like pearls to make something beautiful. Everyone has their own definition of what poetry is but I think people on a whole just know when they are reading a poem, regardless of the syle or the meter. Because they just know.

Some people are misguided, I think. I have met many people that say to me where’s the rhyme? If there’s no rhyme it’s not a poem. Well I say to them there is a lot more than rhyme that makes a poem a poem. It is putting yourself through the words.

What do others think?

Have a great day!

comment from blogger

Dadu said…
I believe as you do a poem is words written that express the mood, feelings among many other subtle traits of the author. It is not constricted to a certain style or rules. Because really a poem is the out pouring of the authors soul and vunerablilities. The author only has to satisfy herself that she has acheived that. The reader apreciates the poem if it is sincere.

Category: notes on writing

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