Fixed Forms of poetry

[Wilfred]

Is it easier to write a poem in fixed form? What is your favorite fixed form to read and to write? In my opinion it is easier to write in fixed form that in free verse and my favorite fixed form to read is the Vilinell, but I prefer to write in the sonnet form.

[Stanislaw]

I like sonnets, shakesperian, and free verse, Haiku is also fun.

[piquant]

I like pantoums. I'm not a fan of form poetry though. I find that it limits what I can say. Bad example, but if one line ends with cat, and I really don't want to say anything about bats or hats, then I'm stuck.

[Wilfred]

Good point there piquant.

[poeboy]

My favorite is the sonnet and my favorite sonnets are Shakespeare's love sonnets. Could that boy write!

[MacBeth]

The point of form is to have a design before you; sonneteers know exactly where they're going with their sonnet, and don't have to worry much about creating rhythm. The Iambic Pentameter does that for them. So unless you're extremely talented, it would be best to leave free verse alone, so that you don't amble on pitifully in prose divided by lines about nothing.

[AbdoRinbo]

It's arguable that all poems are divided by (or, into) lines about 'nothing'. Don't let that stop you from experimenting and learning.

[piquant]

Is rambling and rhyming better than ramblinging and not rhyming? If you're going to ramble, then you're going to ramble. Structure doesn't produce meaning.

[MacBeth]

If one is going to ramble, shouldn't the ramble sound nice? Rhyme or no, some form of Pentameter (Iambic, Trochaic, triambic, etc.) always makes the piece sound more fluid and lyrical. You should however, only use this as a stepping stone; once rythm comes naturally, the sky is the limit. In a nutshell: just make sure it sounds like a poem. Form will usually do this for you.

[AbdoRinbo]

If you say so.

[piquant]

See my definition of a good poem in response to Cloid.

I hold to my opinion that rhyme and meter are most useful when based on the subject and intent of the poem. I'm not debating whether Iambic Pentameter is the accepted ideal for making english sound pretty.

If you like, I'll debate you on your own shakepearean grounds. All of shakespeare's characters don't use iambic pentameter; it is usually reserved for the noble characters (i.e. as used in Henry IV). The king's son usually speaks in prose, but breaks into Iambic Pentameter when shakespeare wants to accentuate his nobility. Falstaff, a low character and the iambic-pentameter-spewing-king's foil, doesn't use iambic pentameter. To quote Frank Lloyd Wright--form follows function. A bad poem in iambic pentameter is still a bad poem, and if the iambic pentameter does not support the subject and intent then it is even a worse poem.

[MacBeth]

I have been humbled. And by all things, my favourite Shakespearean play! There's no arguing with you, piquant.

[piquant]

I battle in good fun! I just got killed by DavidJ on Joyce vs. Woolf. I'm gathering my defences though, and hopefully will execute a successful counter-attack;)