Thank you, I learnt a new word there. I have written previously about the lack of teaching of terms in my writing, stories and myths course, bathos definitely never featured. . I may yet continue this poem.
Personally, I am of the mind that a poem needs some sort of rhythm, to distinguish it from prose...that can be rhyme, or meter or alliteration, or 'other'...
I read and noted the other day that 'a poem is just the by-product of a life lived poetically', which has given me much food for thought...
I am of the opinion that poetry can have line breaks etc to make it more rhythmical but I don’t subscribe to the strict tumm tee tas of meter to make a poem, I love experimental form, and I don’t tend to rhyme either. I think if you read a poem out loud it definitely has more of a sense of poem than prose (story). It’s complex isn’t it? I’ve read some fantastically lauded poems and not liked them and read obscure lost in the depths of substack poetry that I’ve loved. Maybe the definition is also in the mind of the reader? 🤷🏼♀️
If you’re looking for more terms, I’d recommend MH Abrahms’s “”A Glossary of Literary Terms”, 5th edition. (There are much more recent editions, but I don’t know them and they may not be better- terms like bathos come from classical rhetoric and more modern approaches to literature are often interested in other things.)
I quite like knowing the terms, but not sure if I actually want to learn about them in a dry reading a book way, though I will look that book up. I knew ‘pathos’ of course, just not ‘bathos’, and now I do know it I like my ‘thrown at the poem because stuck’ ending just a little more. Thank you Thomas
What an interesting question Tamsin. What’s a poem? When might a poem be prose. When might prose be poetic. I’m sure there are technical definitions. Some to do with rhythm and meter. Maybe some to do with rhythm and rhyme. For me, I think a poem is something that gives shape to a discrete, or distinct, idea or expression or concept or story. A place with intention. Where one plucks out a specific pebble of interest and lays it out. Lays it out in away that is apart from a wider context or story. A thing in and of itself. Like a pebble picked up and placed on a shelf. Art. Something precious. Elevated from its place on a beach. For me, poetic prose is maybe like many pebbles. But also laid out with intention. Given pattern and meaning. Poetic prose, for me, has shape also. Surprising pauses. Lietmotifs. A lilt. Something that begs to be spoken aloud, perhaps.
That’s very interesting indeed. I’ve read a bit of poetry that is laid out like paragraphs, with differing length lines and no real discernible, to me, difference from prose. I struggle to write in that form, I think I’ve done it once so far for a prompt and I wasn’t enamoured with it.
I fully embrace your idea of a poem . It’s a singular moment or idea placed on the page. Chosen from all the other moments or ideas very particularly.
I’ve written a couple of spoken poetry pieces. And I find them different again from chunks of prose poetry. It’s all very exciting these different forms.
I think my child meant I wasn’t metaphorical enough, that I didn’t use enough poetic imagery to give the reader reason to pause and wonder what I meant. And I suppose they were implying I had become too comfortable with my style and form and needed to branch out a little more. Maybe.
Maybe. And if it is a singular moment or idea placed on a page, chosen from all other moments or ideas very particularly, then perhaps a poem is a poem because you decide that it is. And maybe it doesn’t need metaphor or imagery. Or to be any particular length or style. Perhaps the fact that you entitle something ‘poem’ gives invitation to others to pause and make meaning. Maybe.
Lovely to read this very precisely observed poem. Lovely bathetic close, too. 🙂
Thank you, I learnt a new word there. I have written previously about the lack of teaching of terms in my writing, stories and myths course, bathos definitely never featured. . I may yet continue this poem.
Personally, I am of the mind that a poem needs some sort of rhythm, to distinguish it from prose...that can be rhyme, or meter or alliteration, or 'other'...
I read and noted the other day that 'a poem is just the by-product of a life lived poetically', which has given me much food for thought...
I am of the opinion that poetry can have line breaks etc to make it more rhythmical but I don’t subscribe to the strict tumm tee tas of meter to make a poem, I love experimental form, and I don’t tend to rhyme either. I think if you read a poem out loud it definitely has more of a sense of poem than prose (story). It’s complex isn’t it? I’ve read some fantastically lauded poems and not liked them and read obscure lost in the depths of substack poetry that I’ve loved. Maybe the definition is also in the mind of the reader? 🤷🏼♀️
If you’re looking for more terms, I’d recommend MH Abrahms’s “”A Glossary of Literary Terms”, 5th edition. (There are much more recent editions, but I don’t know them and they may not be better- terms like bathos come from classical rhetoric and more modern approaches to literature are often interested in other things.)
I quite like knowing the terms, but not sure if I actually want to learn about them in a dry reading a book way, though I will look that book up. I knew ‘pathos’ of course, just not ‘bathos’, and now I do know it I like my ‘thrown at the poem because stuck’ ending just a little more. Thank you Thomas
It took some finding on AbeBooks, but found a 5th edition for £3 so have ordered it.
What an interesting question Tamsin. What’s a poem? When might a poem be prose. When might prose be poetic. I’m sure there are technical definitions. Some to do with rhythm and meter. Maybe some to do with rhythm and rhyme. For me, I think a poem is something that gives shape to a discrete, or distinct, idea or expression or concept or story. A place with intention. Where one plucks out a specific pebble of interest and lays it out. Lays it out in away that is apart from a wider context or story. A thing in and of itself. Like a pebble picked up and placed on a shelf. Art. Something precious. Elevated from its place on a beach. For me, poetic prose is maybe like many pebbles. But also laid out with intention. Given pattern and meaning. Poetic prose, for me, has shape also. Surprising pauses. Lietmotifs. A lilt. Something that begs to be spoken aloud, perhaps.
That’s very interesting indeed. I’ve read a bit of poetry that is laid out like paragraphs, with differing length lines and no real discernible, to me, difference from prose. I struggle to write in that form, I think I’ve done it once so far for a prompt and I wasn’t enamoured with it.
I fully embrace your idea of a poem . It’s a singular moment or idea placed on the page. Chosen from all the other moments or ideas very particularly.
I’ve written a couple of spoken poetry pieces. And I find them different again from chunks of prose poetry. It’s all very exciting these different forms.
I think my child meant I wasn’t metaphorical enough, that I didn’t use enough poetic imagery to give the reader reason to pause and wonder what I meant. And I suppose they were implying I had become too comfortable with my style and form and needed to branch out a little more. Maybe.
Maybe. And if it is a singular moment or idea placed on a page, chosen from all other moments or ideas very particularly, then perhaps a poem is a poem because you decide that it is. And maybe it doesn’t need metaphor or imagery. Or to be any particular length or style. Perhaps the fact that you entitle something ‘poem’ gives invitation to others to pause and make meaning. Maybe.
I very much subscribe to the idea of a poem being a poem because a poet says it is. I even wrote a poem about it once.