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/lit/ - Literature

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10616032 No.10616032 [Reply] [Original]

Who else poemlet here? I just don't "get" poetry. It's embarassing to admit but it just looks like prose to me that's been cut up into lines and stanzas. How do I fix this? I want to understand.

>> No.10616050

>>10616032
What is a poem?
To one, it is but prose.
But to me
it is freedom
in the rhythmic sea.

>> No.10616062

>>10616032
Related, what are some good English language poetry books or anthologies for someone who's just getting into it?

>> No.10616068

>>10616050
if it doesn't rhyme its not real poetry anon

>> No.10616124

>>10616032
try reading some of it out loud
the genius of poetry is in its manipulation of word stresses - basic example, look at dr seuss
>All ready to put up the tents for my circus.
>I think I will call it the Circus McGurkus.
notice how there's more going on here than just the rhyme?
now look at shakespeare:
>Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
>Is lust in action; and till action, lust
there's no rhyme yet, but you can feel the rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PSyUKQclo

>> No.10616194

Don't worry anon, I used to think I hated poetry. Then I realised what I hatred was shitty free verse nonsense and that I actually love long narrative verse. I am actually really angry about the fact that shit that only ever gained attention because it intentionally defied the expectations people had of poetry somehow became the norm over traditional poetic forms. We're at the point now that writing in iambic pentameter is contrarian.

>> No.10616229

>>10616032
There once was a poemlet on /lit/,
Whose dick was the size of a clit,
With nothing to say,
He'd shitpost all day,
And ruin limericks by breaking the rhyme scheme.

>> No.10616242

>>10616229
nice, but i actually have a large cock
>>10616124
thanks, anon. you've reminded me of a time that I tried reading byron's don juan and got really into it. rhythm was a big part of that. i might go and revisit him.

>> No.10616266

>>10616242
I was talking about myself, I'm sure your dick is yuge.

>> No.10616473
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10616473

>tfw you have the opposite problem
I get poetry, quite well in fact. But I hate doing it, and I hate reading it too.
Poetry to me seems to be an odd middle ground between a prosaic story and a song while never being better than either.
Also poetry slams exist. I can feel the collective rectal clenching in the bar when some guy goes up and blunders through his awful poem about "the one, his sweet the one. How her eyes are like the ocean so blue".

>> No.10616619

>>10616068
Beowulf isn't poetry?

>> No.10616630
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10616630

>>10616473
>I get poetry, quite well in fact.
>Poetry to me seems to be an odd middle ground between a prosaic story and a song while never being better than either

>> No.10616714

Poetry is when you play with language to give new meaning to words and phrases. Rhyming is only useful because it directs the reader's attention to the language. The way to tell poetry from prose is by how repeatable a given passage is.
Anon, you can like poetry if you stop reading it like normal writing and instead enjoy it for the sake of itself. Try looking at foreign language poetry and song and you will see the inherent fun.

>> No.10616727

>>10616619
No. I'm sorry you had to find out this way.

>> No.10616795

>>10616062
I've heard that Palgrave's "The Golden Treasury" and "The Oxford Book of English Verse" are good for start. Also you may try ballads, popular or not.

>> No.10616806

>>10616795
what's a ballad?

>> No.10616833

I have a hard time reading poetry because I always end up focusing completely on its rhythm and sounds and paying no attention to what's being communicated.

>> No.10616837

>>10616833
that actually happens to me too sometimes. it's like when you listen to music but you dont hear the content of the lyrics you hear the way they're sung

>> No.10617845

>>10616068
>>10616194
>>10616473
wew

>I actually love long narrative verse.
So you don't actually enjoy (lyric) poetry, you just need the story.
>I am actually really angry about the fact that shit that only ever gained attention because it intentionally defied the expectations people had of poetry somehow became the norm over traditional poetic forms.
Shit, nigger, read a book
>We're at the point now that writing in iambic pentameter is contrarian.
It's not contrarian, just somewhat anachronistic. And most people who use premade forms these days actually just make cliched romantic garbage, they have no originality or talent whatsoever. It is indeed contrarian to think that anyone should care about an another petrarcistic love sonnet.

>I get poetry, quite well in fact. But I hate doing it, and I hate reading it too.
So you literally don't get it.

>> No.10617881

>>10616194
If poetry never changed it would be stale and boring. It needs to progress and change. If you don't like free verse come up with some other innovation within a strict meter.

>> No.10617912

Read Whitman

>> No.10617977

>>10616032
Read a book about poetry such as poetic designs by Stephen Adams

>> No.10618692

>>10616032
I get poetic metres, but lyrical poetry is still not very enojoyable to me, I just get little to no emotional impact from them

>> No.10618703

>>10616032
reminder: this is a place where midwits make half-clever threads to reel in lesser midwits to reel in lower tier smart niggas and this is 90% of the content on this board

>> No.10619344

>>10617845
>let me tell you why you like something
No one enjoys The Rime of the Ancient Mariner for the story, even the Canterbury Tales would be dull in prose. The creation of the narrative poem speaks both to the ancient traditions of the poetry as well as to the contemporary era of its composition and the individual mind of the poet, and skillful blending of linguistic composition and story writing to create good narrative poetry is the greatest display of skill a poet can attempt.
If you genuinely think the world doesn't need another Chaucer or Milton because challenging oneself to write skillfully and engagingly within metrical forms is cliched and outdated then maybe you should get the fuck out of the literature board.

>> No.10619674

>>10619344
Congrats for ignoring everything I wrote.
You have shit taste because you're only capable of digesting poetry if it has a story. IE, you don't appreciate lyric poetry.
>The creation of the narrative poem speaks both to the ancient traditions of the poetry as well as to the contemporary era of its composition and the individual mind of the poet, and skillful blending of linguistic composition and story writing to create good narrative poetry is the greatest display of skill a poet can attempt.
Nice platitudes. The epic poem died back in the nineteenth century, the ideas it was built are completely nonexistent today. Of course, you can write a work with a story and rhyme, but you'd have to do it very creatively and build on ideas profoundly different from the classical works. An another "Paradise Lost" written today would be nothing more than LARPing.

>because challenging oneself to write skillfully and engagingly within metrical forms is cliched and outdated
As I said, you just ignored what I wrote. Reread my previous post.

>> No.10619803

>>10616050
bad poem

>>10616068
kinda true

>>10616473
kinda not true

poetry is just prose that sounds nicer. The niceness lets you do cool things

>> No.10619837

>>10619803
I literally wrote that in less than a minute.

It's not even bad, go fuck your self

>> No.10619855

>>10619837
how you can write something good in less than a minute dummy

>> No.10621382

>>10616194

This person is correct and everyone criticizing him is either a) missing the point or b) a pseud or c) both.

To get into poetry it is INFINITELY better to start off with traditional rhyme and meter. This should start when you are 2 or 3 with nursery rhymes etc and carry on for ten or fifteen years. After that, OK - THEN you can have a look at some "free verse". But STARTING with free verse is insane.
Remember that the people who started writing free verse (Pound) had already read ten million books of traditional verse themselves and they assumed their readers had too. They're doing it partly to do something new and partly because they assume all the basic repetitive rhythms are IN THEIR READERS' HEADS ALREADY.
If the basic rhythms are not in your head already, you need to get them there.

>> No.10621455

>>10616795
Thanks!

>> No.10621463

why did the OP pic suddenly get spoilered

>> No.10621470

>>10616619
yes, but for racial reasons