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I grew up thinking "poetry" was synonymous with "perfect rhyme scheme" and was thus disappointed and disliked all poetry that didn't have a rhythm. It felt lazy

by yboris 6y ago

I grew up thinking "poetry" was synonymous with "perfect rhyme scheme" and was thus disappointed and disliked all poetry that didn't have a rhythm. It felt lazy and pretentious. It felt like people pointing at a pile of sticks randomly thrown on the ground and calling it "carefully arranged artwork" (complete miscategorization, and abuse of the word "poetry"). Now that I'm older, I think I overcame my narrow definition of poetry, and now just accept that just like in art, there are numerous styles, and it's OK not to like many of them. I like Poe's raven a lot. I don't get anything out of most poetry. I like haikus. Just like romantic movies, there is nothing to "get" - for some people those movies don't do anything. It's not a deficiency.

snidane 6y ago
I believe poetry was the default way to write texts in ancient times because texts were spread by mouth, not by transcribing it. There was no printing press and it was costly. I'm no expert on this by any means, but songs which rhyme seem to me to be closer to what was once considered a poetry than what we call a poetry nowadays. Modern poetry looks like that modern art where someone splashes a bucket of color on canvas and if you don't understand it, you're just a dumbass pleb without artistic feeling. Modern art is subjective, only few will understand it (which I still doubt, it's more like a fraud to confuse the tax man about real value). Traditional art was objective as it aimed to be appreciated by many. I still consider poetry to be a rhythmic text, otherwise it is just a bucket of words spilled on a paper.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  > songs which rhyme seem to me to be closer to what was once considered a poetry than what we call a poetry nowadays. Rhyme is certainly not required for something to be called poetry and European languages did without it for centuries, including English. For instance, Beowulf, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, all the Latin poets, etc. don’t have rhyme, they are governed by totally different rules. It is worth quoting here Milton’s introduction to Paradise Lost where he expresses his opposition to rhyme as a newfangled and undesirable fad: "Rhime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them."

by yboris 6y ago

snidane 6y ago

I believe poetry was the default way to write texts in ancient times because texts were spread by mouth, not by transcribing it. There was no printing press and it was costly. I'm no expert on this by any means, but songs which rhyme seem to me to be closer to what was once considered a poetry than what we call a poetry nowadays. Modern poetry looks like that modern art where someone splashes a bucket of color on canvas and if you don't understand it, you're just a dumbass pleb without artistic feeling. Modern art is subjective, only few will understand it (which I still doubt, it's more like a fraud to confuse the tax man about real value). Traditional art was objective as it aimed to be appreciated by many. I still consider poetry to be a rhythmic text, otherwise it is just a bucket of words spilled on a paper.

Mediterraneo10 6y ago
> songs which rhyme seem to me to be closer to what was once considered a poetry than what we call a poetry nowadays. Rhyme is certainly not required for something to be called poetry and European languages did without it for centuries, including English. For instance, Beowulf, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, all the Latin poets, etc. don’t have rhyme, they are governed by totally different rules. It is worth quoting here Milton’s introduction to Paradise Lost where he expresses his opposition to rhyme as a newfangled and undesirable fad: "Rhime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem or good Verse, in longer Works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous Age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meeter; grac't indeed since by the use of some famous modern Poets, carried away by Custom, but much to thir own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse then else they would have exprest them."