# Poetry.



## RoseHexwit (Mar 23, 2010)

My friend and I were talking about poetry at lunch today. Sure, the rules say that poetry's anything that isn't prose. I think, though, that poetry isn't really poetry unless it rhymes. Let's list a few great poems. Ever heard of "The Raven" or "The Highwayman"? They both rhyme.

I mean, what's the difference between...

_I looked up at the clock.
It was almost time for me to go._

and...

_I looked up at the clock. It was almost time for me to go._

as opposed to...

_I looked up to check the time
And thought of a cute little rhyme._


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## Browder (Mar 23, 2010)

Walt Whitman and Homer would like to have a word with you...


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## TashkentFox (Mar 23, 2010)

Poems rhyme, poems that don't rhyme are short stories.


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## San-Ryuuk (Mar 23, 2010)

Yeah, sometimes poems that rhyme become/are too sing-song and trite.


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## Scarborough (Mar 23, 2010)

Absolutely not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry#Rhyming_schemes



> [T]he use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes.



You think e. e. cummings was not a poet?

Anyway, the point of a poem is to use figurative language to convey some sort of message.


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## Bando (Mar 23, 2010)

No, although many do use rhyme along with other figurative language to convey a theme or meaning.

Example:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.


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## Atrak (Mar 23, 2010)

TashkentFox said:


> Poems rhyme, poems that don't rhyme are short stories.



You call this a short story?



atrakaj said:


> I am Confusion.
> I am Understanding.
> 
> I know enough to know-
> ...


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## TakeWalker (Mar 23, 2010)

Lies.

But if you're gonna rhyme, you'd better do it damn well. If you're gonna have meter, you'd better fucking stick to it and not half-ass it. This is why I hate poetry. :V


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## M. LeRenard (Mar 23, 2010)

TakeWalker said:
			
		

> But if you're gonna rhyme, you'd better do it damn well.


Likewise, if you're gonna' skip the rhyme, you better do that damn well, too.  I see a lot of people just write whatever they feel like with random line-breaks and call it a free-verse poem.  Doesn't work that way.  
In poetry, it seems to me, it's all about emphasis and significance, so you make a poem by putting words together in creative ways to create those patterns of emphasis and significance, which all leads up to one central idea.  No rhyme is necessary for that.  Rhyme is just one tool you can exploit to reach that goal; there are a lot of others, too.


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## panzergulo (Mar 24, 2010)

I've written some poems. I've written them in free verse, in Kalevala meter and in ballad meter... don't know the fancy terms, those are the terms I use. Kalevala meter sounds really good when used in Finnish, and it utilizes mostly beginning rhymes, not ending rhymes so much, even though they do happen. In English this meter is pretty pointless in my opinion, but English is a pretty ugly language anyway, so bah.

Eight syllables per line, preferably the stress is on every second syllable:

DUN-dah-DUN-dah-DUN-dah-DUN-dah

I have used ballad meter only when writing poetry in English, and it has to use ending rhyme. It gives a certain epic feeling, at least in English. 

Syllables per stanza: 8-6-8-6
Rhyme pattern: A-B-C-B

With free verse I've had varying success. Sometimes it feels like poetry. Sometimes it feels like chopped up short story. Usually my free verse poems are so abstract it's hard to really mix them up with prose, though.

So, why did I vote for 'Lies' when asked 'A poem's only a poem if it rhymes'? While meter and rhyme and all that stuff gives a really great effect to poems, they aren't the only thing that makes a poem. I remember one poem from Vixyy Fox where every stanza was like an hourglass in shape, starting with a long line, then every line was shorter than the previous, until one line was only one word and the lines became longer again, forming an hourglass shape together. It wasn't prose by any standards. Although I don't think rhyming creates sing-song or trite effect -- at least when used with proper meter rhyming feels like you're doing magic -- I also think poem can be a poem without any rhymes or meter. Not necessarily a good one, but I've read plenty of good modern poetry in FA too.

Hopefully this makes sense, it's pretty early morning for me.


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## Catilda Lily (Mar 24, 2010)

My poetry teacher would say otherwise.


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## Poetigress (Mar 24, 2010)

Anyone who believes poetry has to rhyme either 1) knows nothing about poetry, its history, or its composition, or 2) is so mired in antiquity that they can't bear to admit that (as in all forms of art) techniques, styles, tastes, and fashions change.

And since I'm already making blunt generalizations, here's one more on the subject which is something of a pet peeve of mine -- anyone who doesn't read poetry (preferably by living poets who are not on FA) has no business writing it. I have to wonder how many people posting their "poems" on FA have ever read a poem outside of English class. Or even inside it, for that matter.


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