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This reminds me of a poem my favorite Math professor used to share, about a little boy who was always instructed exactly how to draw a picture of a flower: http
by bjhoops1 13y ago
This reminds me of a poem my favorite Math professor used to share, about a little boy who was always instructed exactly how to draw a picture of a flower:
http://home.bresnan.net/~cabreras/theboy.htm http://home.bresnan.net/~cabreras/theboy.htm
- csense 13y agoThis "poem" is depressing. Off topic: It's never made sense to me why people call things that don't rhyme "poems." As far as I'm concerned, this is an essay, not a poem.
- Stratoscope 13y agoIt's a type of poetry called "free verse". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-free-verse-poems.html http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-free-verse-po... Here is the classic story of a Real Programmer, written in free verse: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html This story was originally written in prose, and it apparently got converted to free verse more or less by accident as it was bounced around mailing lists. Here's the prose version: http://www.pbm.com//~lindahl/mel.html http://www.pbm.com//~lindahl/mel.html HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678999
- Stratoscope 13y agoAnother way to put it, I suppose you could say, is that the difference between prose and free verse is the number of lines.
- cema 13y agoNot the number, more like the form, but in general the difference between poetry and, uh, prose is something I do not quite understand.
- Stratoscope 13y ago> Not the number, > more like the form, Now that's a great start! I wonder if the art is knowing when to go on until your breath runs out, and when to keep it short.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- csense 13y agoFree verse seems silly and pointless. So I wrote a trivial program to turn prose into free verse: import random def poem(text, p_break=0.5, seed=1234): rand = random.Random(seed) result = [] for w in text.split(): result.append(w) if rand.uniform(0.0, 1.0) < p_break: result.append('\n') else: result.append(' ') return "".join(result) print poem("This is a poem written by a program. It is not really a poem because it does not rhyme, it is some weird thing called free verse, which is a poem that does not rhyme.", p_break=0.1) Here's the output: This is a poem written by a program. It is not really a poem because it does not rhyme, it is some weird thing called free verse, which is a poem that does not rhyme.
- JonnieCache 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansion#Elements http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansion#Elements
- sp332 13y agoMost poems in the world don't rhyme. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming#History This one uses a repeated structure instead of repeated sounds.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- barry-cotter 13y agoIf how it sounds is as important when read out as the information content it's poetry. Even if you disregard free verse that isn't all poetry. The Norse skaldic tradition is amazing and they were much more into assonance than rhyme. Think rap but without a backing track. http://www.okcupid.com/profile/Hibernian/journal?cf=profile http://www.okcupid.com/profile/Hibernian/journal?cf=profile Is this poetry?
- Stratoscope 13y agoPoetics aside, I have to agree with you about how the poem is a very sad story. My explorations in free verse elsewhere in the thread may be a way to cover up my tears. My daughter is very bright, but when she was in grade school she'd sometimes have trouble with a homework problem because the textbook didn't explain a concept clearly. So I'd tell her how I've always found it helpful to read multiple sources on a topic. If one of them doesn't click with the way I think, another one probably will. And just reading multiple references that explain things differently helps reinforce the concepts. She wanted nothing to do with it! She only wanted to hear about the way "they" explained it - the textbook, the teacher, the school - the right way to do it. Nothing else. I guess I wish she'd gotten a teacher like the one at the end of that story, early on.
- snowman41 13y agoThat is depressing.
- brazzy 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(poetry)
- JacksonGariety 13y agoDoes anyone know why the alternative version on that page has an unhappy ending and the original version has a happy ending? (See the footnote at the bottom of this page: http://home.bresnan.net/~cabreras/theboy.htm http://home.bresnan.net/~cabreras/theboy.htm) Who wrote the alternate? Why would the author approve of one but not the other?
- setrofim_ 13y agoBoth versions highlight the importance of a nurturing environment to the development of a child. However, the original version is about a child finally finding an environment in which his creativity can thrive; the alternative version is about a child's creativity being stifled during his early development to the point where it is unable to thrive even once he is in an environment that allows, and even encourages, it. Thus the alternative version also demonstrates the lasting damage that may result, and so is more effective at conveying the message of the poem.
- evanb 13y agoHarry Chapin has a song called "Flowers Are Red" that is essentially a retelling of this poem.