Prose Poetry.

Can someone explain prose poetry to me?

( Yes I know some people don't see it as actual poetry and there is a debate revolving around it.)

That's actually an interesting question!!!

I can't think of any English-language prose poems, but I know quite a few French ones, enjoy them very much and consider them to be just as poetic as poems in verse. I'm not sure why though. Possibly because - very scientific explanation following :p - they give the same impression as poetry? When I read a prose poetry by Baudelaire or Rimbaud, or Ponge, or Lautréamont (to cite only a few), I get the same sense of intensity - of few words expressing something powerful - that I get when I read poetry. I'd say, therefore, that's there's something that I could call concentration which makes prose be able to be poetic or not.

I'm afraid, though, that to define prose poetry you'd have to be ultra rigorous and first define poetry, at least. And I don't feel up to the challenge yet!

There's also prose that can be qualified as poetic (like Lawrence's, for instance - often rhapsodic): maybe the same question could be asked for that kind of writing?

Basically, poetry that doesn't follow the conventions of line breaks, and instead looks like paragraphs.

well. let me try..

i think its a poetry that breaks all the rules of normal poems..
and have some of the prose writing form in it.
this is what i believe it is..
& in my point of view i think its a actual poetry ...

It's an history of rythm, of orality, presence of voice, in poetic language.
When at the middle of the XIXe century french poets begin to write poems in prose, it's because discover that rythm isn't exclusively in the versification, but also in the syntax.
Before, classical poets consider that prose hasn't accentuation, and therefore hasn't rythm.
A. Betrand, then Baudelaire, discover that french poetry isn't synonym of verse, unlike the though of the french classicism ; verse is one way but not the only way for write poetry.
"Normal" poetry isn't in verse...
And verse isn't necesseraly poetry...

Rythm of a french poem in metric verse (Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal, "Spleen") :

Quand le ciel bas et lourd pèse comme un couvercle
Sur l'esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis,
Et que de l'horizon embrassant tout le cercle
Il nous verse un jour noir plus triste que les nuits ;

Rythm of a french prose poem (Baudelaire, Le Spleen de Paris, "Chacun sa chimère") :

Sous un grand ciel gris, dans une grande plaine poudreuse, sans chemins, sans gazon, sans un chardon, sans une ortie, je rencontrai plusieurs hommes qui marchaient courbés

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Originally Posted by hoope

i think its a poetry that breaks all the rules of normal poems..

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To say normal poem = verse, it's say poetry = verse... but it's false. There isn't one definition of poetry, or perhaps : "a work on the language".

I have written what I consider poetry and someone else thinks it prose...thats a hard one sometimes.
Cat

Rita Dove: "Quaker Oats" -- a great example of a prose poem.

Definition from A Glossary of Literary Terms: compact, rhythmic, and usually sonorous compositions which exploit the poetic resources of language for poetic ends, but are written as a continuous sequence of sentences without line breaks.

If you look at "Quaker Oats," for example, you'll see a lot going on that distinguishes it from just a plain essay. There's allusion, multi-layered connotive references to popular culture and historical events, alliteration, and other elements worthy of analysis.

Of course you would find similar elements in, say, a James Joyce story - so I guess I would have to say that the lines are fairly blurry, sometimes, between literary forms.

Not to interrupt the discussion here, but I'm wondering what y'all think about long epic poems (usually written in verse) that are translated and, for whatever reason, the translator decides to write in prose? For instance, I've run across quite a few translations of the Aeneid or Divine Comedy where the translator chose to translate into prose, rather than any sort of verse. Do you think it detracts from the beauty of the original?

In the case of the Aeneid, and I think member Virgil might agree, it detracts. Also the Divine Comedy is poetry and writing it as prose is an effort to make the work more "reader-friendly."

Or to ease translation.

As far as I know, the only Terza Rima translation so far that has worked, and I mean really worked, is the classic Longfellow translation, which is over 100 years old. Generally, the best translations, in terms of accuracy are prose ones, followed by Iambic Pentametre, or some other variant. Seriously though, you need thousands upon thousands of rhymes.