Hi
I'm in grade 11 and I'm struggling to answer the question "What is Poetry?" on an assignment.
Any suggestions would be super appreciated!!!
Poetry can be many things read what some famous people have written aboiut poetry here:
[www.gardendigest.com] />
Les
P. s. poetry is a warm puppy in front of a fireplace during a rain storm
I have heard it said that poetry is words in their proper order.
I have also heard it said that any form of artistic expression is both therapy and art. When the therapy is no longer needed, the art remains. Hope this helps.
The Secret
Denise Levertov
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.
I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. They
told me
(through a third person)
they had found it
but not what it was
not even
what line it was. No doubt
by now, more than a week
later, they have forgotten
the secret,
the line, the name of
the poem. I love them
for finding what
I can't find,
and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that
a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines
in other
happenings. And for
wanting to know it,
for
assuming there is
such a secret, yes,
for that
most of all.
Ezza,
The real question is 'what is poetry TO YOU?' (besides an assignment that you're stuck with....)
pam
Thank you Les for that great link. I want to emphasize one of the quotes that I think relate to the "crazy poets" thread:
"Perhaps no one can be a poet or even can enjoy poetry without a certain unsoundness of mind." Thomas Babington Macaulas
Maybe a trip to the DICTIONARY is in order.
Merriam-Webster on-line offers this definition:
"writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm"
poetry is when you have feeling or when you have ryming words.
"writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm"
So ... what then is prose, praytell. All of the above, except for rhythm?
The modern free verse poets might argue that the last line of that definition read..."meaning, sound and/or rhythm".
Les
Mia, this is lovely.
This was what poetry meant to Pablo Neruda -
Poetry.
And it was at that age...Poetry arrived in search of me.
I don't know,
I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices,
they were not words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.
I did not know what to say,
my mouth had no way with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened
and open planets, palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated, riddled with arrows,
fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.
And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry void,
likeness, image of mystery,
I felt myself a pure part of the abyss.
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the open sky.
DICTIONARY defines poetry as: "writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm"
Hugh wrote: "So ... what then is prose, praytell. All of the above, except for rhythm?"
===
I am NOT an apologist for Merriam Webster, but I'll give this a try for the sake of debate.
I could argue that prose is "writing that formulates information and/or experience in language chosen and arranged to create awareness through meaning." I.e., prose is not expected to be CONCENTRATED or IMAGINATIVE, to create a specific EMOTIONAL RESPONSE, or to employ SOUND and RHYTHM.
In support of which argument I would point out that when prose IS imaginative, which it DOES create a specific emotional response, when it IS full of enjoyable sounds and rhythms, it's often praised by being called ... (you guessed it): POETRY.
My sister just sent me this quotation:
"If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live."--John F. Kennedy
Suddenly, I want to write a poem about 'I am a jelly doughnut.'
pam
Surely dubya's got potential too
As a doughnut, or poet?
Les
Maybe he'll get to other German cities, and we can hear such gems as:
'I am a Frankfurter'
or
'I am a Hamburger'
And there's gotta be a way to work in Cologne and Bologna! (or is it all Baloney?)
Jack
I think there is a torturous pun in there somewhere (the jam doughnut that is) - didn't he talk about preserving rather than perservering at some graduation speech?
Alexandra-
Jam and preserves are completely different.
Jack
Apparently the jelly donut reference is a canard as well. Rheinhold Aman, editor of Maledicta, rants and raves about it all the time, for example:
[www.google.com];
Jam, preserve, jelly, jello, it's all pretty sticky to me, but heaven knows where the duck came into it.
Rheinhold Aman is entitled to his opinion, but I have seen film of that particular speech that JFK gave in Berlin, and I listened carefully for those words in German.
He meant to say, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berlin-guy).
But he pronounced the word BEER-linner, which (auf Deutsch, bitte) does NOT mean a Berlin-guy. I've heard that it means a pastry filled with some kind of fruit-stuff, but I can't confirm that myself. So:
I have a call in to an actual Berlin-guy to ask him what BEER-linner means to an actual Berlin-guy and will post as soon as I hear back from same.
P.S.: Today is JFK's birthday. (And mine.)
The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.
--Oscar Wilde
Marian, you are obviously very young. Happy birthday!
But he pronounced the word BEER-linner
Fascinating - the thrill of the chase!
Did i say happy birthday
many happy returns!
Thanks, all. I'm 45, which -- I'm happy to discover, now that I'm here -- means being as young AND as old as I wanna be.
Haven't heard back from "my" Berliner. Will report on Monday.
Yeah, forties are ok. At least you don't have a '5' in the first digit!
The technique must be adequate. It must be consistant. It must
have unity-one part to the other. If technique doesn't interfere-
there is message.
Technique is rythm, rhyme, meter, cadence, form....
Message is the heart or the eye, rememberance or aspiration, but
always from your self. Technique can be learned-the rest lies within
you inner beauty. Tastes differ-being appreciated is beside the point. best dlc
He meant to say, "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berlin-guy).
But he pronounced the word BEER-linner
Click on the hearthis.wav at the bottom of the page (Need speakers, of course.):
[www.historyplace.com]
I too am in grade 11! I think that poetry is an outlet of feelings.
"Loving people is like farting in the wind; You don't actually accomplish anything, but you feel better."
~The Great and Powerful Angelia~
[www.serve.com] />
[urbanlegends.about.com] />
the german E sound is very hard to say for english speakers, because that exact phoneme does not exist in english. So kennedy replaced it by an english phoneme. This is natural, and personally I can't imagine that a crowd would misunderstand the meaning. But of course it is a very funny story, so I am inclined to believe it, just for fun's sake!
As my nephew would say: "I am a Yew-Norker!"
to me poetry is the expression of ones heart and ones soul, into a form that may be shared with others, or used to keep as a tangible memory.
~When you feel the silken fever consume your heart , there i shall be.~
~Amber~