Do You Believe That Free Verse Should Be Considered Poetry?

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Boris Boddenov, Jan 30, 2021.

  1. Boris Boddenov

    Boris Boddenov Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2021
    Messages:
    413
    Likes Received:
    299
    I'm not talking about blank verse that does not have rhyme but does have meter or rhythm.

    Talking about free verse that has neither. I don't believe that free verse should be considered poetry, regardless of how profound the words are. Just call it what it is: prose, not poetry.
     
    #1
  2. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2020
    Messages:
    2,346
    Likes Received:
    775
    Question then: By Definition, does poetry need to have any rhyme or reason at all ? Or does it need to be profound ?

    Seeings as there is so much garbage inundating the media that is called 'muisic' , or even 'art', for other examples subject to questioning (maybe subject to test for sanity!?) ,
    and so-called 'freedom of speech' or some other freedom, if someone calls something a poem, who's to disagree ? Where is there any standard(s) ?
     
    #2
  3. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2018
    Messages:
    6,161
    Likes Received:
    4,368
    It needs to RHYME....Period!

    My daughter Tania has had 4 books of Poetry published, and there's not a rhyme anywhere!

    While I'm certainly proud of her being a Published Author, I just can't get into Rhymeless Poetry.o_O

    Hal
    177 (2).JPG
     
    #3
    Lulu Moppet and Jeff Elohim like this.
  4. James Hintze

    James Hintze Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2020
    Messages:
    513
    Likes Received:
    502
    I recall a definition of poetry during my undergraduate student era that went something like this: 'The smallest number of words to express an idea.' The line between prose and poetry is foggy. I recently finished re-reading a short story by Dylan Thomas. Prose or poetry?
     
    #4
  5. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 13, 2015
    Messages:
    5,747
    Likes Received:
    7,721
    I don't know. Many things change so why not poetry. I'm an uneducated senior so know little
    about poetry or prose. I have however read some prose poetry I much liked, as in this one:


    The Purpose of Poetry
    by Jared Carter

    This old man grazed thirty head of cattle

    in a valley just north of the covered bridge

    on the Mississinewa, where the reservoir

    stands today. Had a black border collie

    and a half-breed sheep dog with one eye.

    The dogs took the cows to pasture each morning

    and brought them home again at night

    and herded them into the barn. The old man

    would slip a wooden bar across both doors.

    One dog slept on the front porch, one on the back.



    He was waiting there one evening

    listening to the animals coming home

    when a man from the courthouse stopped

    to tell him how the new reservoir

    was going to flood all his property.

    They both knew he was too far up in years

    to farm anywhere else. He had a daughter

    who lived in Florida, in a trailer park.

    He should sell now and go stay with her.

    The man helped bar the doors before he left.



    He had only known dirt under his fingernails

    and trips to town on Saturday mornings

    since he was a boy. Always he had been around

    cattle, and trees, and land near the river.

    Evenings by the barn he could hear the dogs

    talking to each other as they brought in

    the herd; and the cows answering them.

    It was the clearest thing he knew. That night

    He shot both dogs and then himself.

    The purpose of poetry is to tell us about life.
     
    #5
    Lulu Moppet and Beth Gallagher like this.
  6. Jeff Elohim

    Jeff Elohim Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 26, 2020
    Messages:
    2,346
    Likes Received:
    775
    Short poem or prose:

    Death, NO!

    Life, Yes !!!
     
    #6
  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
    Staff Member Senior Staff Greeter Task Force Registered

    Joined:
    May 29, 2020
    Messages:
    22,682
    Likes Received:
    32,170
    Free Verse is not poetry, and rap is not music.

    /discussion
     
    #7
    Boris Boddenov likes this.
  8. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    May 13, 2015
    Messages:
    5,747
    Likes Received:
    7,721
    Opinions vary on many fronts.
     
    #8
  9. Trevalius Guyus

    Trevalius Guyus Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 22, 2020
    Messages:
    792
    Likes Received:
    1,039
    Is free verse poetry?

    This was asked in a forum I'm on.

    I pondered it, not being sure of the answer.

    I tried rhyming things in my head,

    Let me think, here, laying in my bed,

    But wait, that's rhyme,

    And in free verse, might be a crime.

    Oops, I did it again.

    Wasn't that a song?

    Then I knew, from looking at what I wrote:

    It's not what you write,

    It's how you write it:

    Just skip every other line,

    That's the ticket!
     
    #9
  10. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2018
    Messages:
    20,310
    Likes Received:
    42,309
    I've always been more of a limerick person.
     
    #10
  11. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2018
    Messages:
    6,161
    Likes Received:
    4,368
    Me too, Beth!

    "There once was a man from Nantucket
    whose...."


    H.P.
     
    #11
  12. Boris Boddenov

    Boris Boddenov Very Well-Known Member
    Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2021
    Messages:
    413
    Likes Received:
    299
    Don't know how I missed this post, but AMEN.
     
    #12
    John Brunner likes this.

Share This Page