which is better poetry or a story?

[cacian]

just a quick poll to see which is more popular
thank you for taking part :thumbsup:
and of course any added comment is a bonus:D

[YesNo]

I picked poetry because I consider song lyrics to be poetry and I listen to them more often than I read prose. With that being said, I do like to read stories as well.

[Pompey Bum]

I chose story, although the two are not mutually exclusive.

[Lykren]

Yeah, what about poems that tell stories, like the Odyssey, or stories that use poems, like The Dream of the Red Chamber?

If we're just making the distinction between novels in the vein of Anna Karenina and lyric poetry in the vein of Yeats, then the choice is still difficult and would probably come down to the mood of any given moment for me.

[Poetaster]

Some poems are stories. So poems that tell stories are better?

[Pompey Bum]

Some poems are stories. So poems that tell stories are better?

No, I just like them more. That was the question, right? If we're asking which is better, then I'm with Lykren--neither.

Lykren also makes a good point that some novels make use of poetry. That's not only true of Chinese classics like Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West, but also of some modern western novels, such as A.S. Byatt's Possession.

[cacian]

Some poems are stories. So poems that tell stories are better?

a poem must have a distinction to that of a story.
if for example a poem goes over a certain amount of lines then that could not be a poem.

[cacian]

Yeah, what about poems that tell stories, like the Odyssey, or stories that use poems, like The Dream of the Red Chamber?

If we're just making the distinction between novels in the vein of Anna Karenina and lyric poetry in the vein of Yeats, then the choice is still difficult and would probably come down to the mood of any given moment for me.

I understand but for example in terms of practicality and readiness which do you think is better or best?

[Pompey Bum]

a poem must have a distinction to that of a story.
if for example a poem goes over a certain amount of lines then that could not be a poem.

The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queen, The Rape of the Lock, Don Juan, Child Harold's Pilgrimage, The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, The Bhagavad Gita... And then there's Shakespeare.

Still looking for that magical cut off line, cacian. :)

[cacian]

The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, The Canterbury Tales, The Faerie Queen, The Rape of the Lock, Don Juan, Child Harold's Pilgrimage, The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, The Bhagavad Gita... And then there's Shakespeare.

Still looking for that magical cut off line, cacian. :)

a magical cut off line??
well it is when one knows a poem sounds like poetry and a story like a book
a book goes around like a clock a bit like an hour and more
a poemm is like a second you dont see it but you know about it.
timing is crucial a poem tales no time to write
a story takes for ever.
reading is also the same
poetry is read quickly
a story over a period of time. :).

[Pompey Bum]

a magical cut off line??
well it is when one knows a poem sounds like poetry and a story like a book
a book goes around like a clock a bit like an hour and more
a poemm is like a second you dont see it but you know about it.
timing is crucial a poem tales no time to write
a story takes for ever.
reading is also the same
poetry is read quickly
a story over a period of time. :).

The Odyssey sounds like a poem to me,
That hexametric cacophony
With pathos, anaphora, apostrophe,
(And litotes, whatever that may be).

Yet it took weeks to hear it out,
The paperback's notoriously stout,
Of the movie, though Kirk Douglas is in it,
Far fewer finish than begin it.

And so sweet Cacian, heed this paen
(Or doggerel or metered rhyme):
Like Hercules, that male sublime,
You have cut off a mythical lion.

[JBI]

Depends on language and tradition. Chinese prose from 200AD to about 1000Ad was more or less written in rhyming couplets. The norm in proper prose writing in English until the 19th century, but even after that, was to add blocks of rhyming text in between prose section. Looking at any letter or poem of the period will tell you as much.

It's only in modern times when people really lost the ability to either quote or write verse, and therefore we have artists with only proficiency in one of the mediums, which is not normal based on the tradition.

[Ecurb]

Perhaps this is off subject, but some authors have been famous novelists and famous poets. Do you prefer their poetry, or their prose? Here's a list of some who have been canonized for both forms:

Edgar Allen Poe
Walter Scott
Thomas Hardy
Emily Bronte

In more modern times:

John Updike
Sylvia Plath (I'll bet more people have read "The Bell Jar" than her poems)
Margaret Atwood
Alice Walker
Ben Lerner (?)

Of course most novelists have at least tried their hands at poetry (don't even try reading Jane Austen's poems). Because novels are longer, many poets have not written one -- although Yeats and TS Eliot wrote plays.

Who are the other great "crossover" artists, and do you prefer the novels or poems of the ones I mentioned?

[tailor STATELY]

I chose poetry.

I prefer the short-form poem over the epic in this age. It takes a commitment on the reader's part, that is often lacking, to peruse more than 20 lines in a poem or short story. Perhaps a sign of the times. The details to language, to form (or none), the multitude of nuances that poets in the short form, at their best, can convey to the reader are pure magic; I cite Emily Dickinson as my best example.

Regarding books: I have always loved to read, and I love the classics; but when they were presented as mandatory reading in school it was a tedium at best (I blame my teachers for not kindling the fire) - the exceptions being The Iliad and The Odyssey. Too often I'll pick up a contemporary book and if I don't find myself immersed in it by 20 or so pages - I'm gone. It is the rare writer that can utilize a "hook" to grab and keep one's attention.

Not biased in the least :smilewinkgrin:

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY