Definitions of Poetry

[quasimodo1]

As soon as you say the word poetry, most readers are off on some buzz because it's such a personal take that each individual has...especially regarding anything approaching a definition. Archibald MacLeish wrote a poem called "Ars Poetica" where he tries to pin the definition down. "A poem should not mean/ But be", he writes. To quote X.J.Kennedy, who comes closer than anybody else to a definition by description....."A poem differs from most prose in several ways. For one, both writer and reader tend to regard it differently. The poet's attitude is something like this: I offer this piece of writing to be read not as prose but as a poem--that is, more perceptively, thoughtfully, and considerately, with more attention to sounds and connotations." And, "...When we finish reading a good poem, we cannot explain precisely to ourselves what we have experienced--without repeating, word for word, the language of the poem itself. 'Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.'"

[AuntShecky]

I liked the last analogy dancing/walking.
Also, we might think that when compared with prose, a poem is more "condensed" or "distilled."
Also, the form and content are inseparable.

Very nice posting, Quasi. We appreciate your technical knowledge!

[Mattch1331]

According to Wikipedia:

"Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning."


I tend to agree...

[JCamilo]

Yeah, pretty much. Also, Poetry is not exactly the samething as a Poem. A poem is a form of text where poetry is applied. Poetry can be use in prose, as Baudelaire and Joyce showed.

[Petrarch's Love]

La poesie se fait avec des mots. ~ Mallarme
(Poetry is made with words)

[AuntShecky]

It took me a while, but I found it: this quotation from
Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope:

But true expression, like th' unchanging sun,
Clears, and improves whate'er it shines upon,